Royal Highland Show 2013 (Entry 3 - Arab and Partbred Arabs)

Photos and commentary under the cut!

I'd never seen this class before in person as I was never there on the right day so I took a great deal of interest in it.

First up were the partbreds. There were a few mares with foals at foot and all of them were turned out immaculately. (Just look at that condition!)





 

 Some were doing little to counter the 'all Arabs are mental' argument though...

There was a purebred stallion waiting for his class in the collecting ring while this all went on and he was getting himself very excited. He didn't rush off or do anything drastic but his constant shrieking and prancing made sure that every mare at the entire show knew he was there.

The mares were substantially better behaved however...





In contrast to the native classes from earlier, the tack in this was all about the decoration. (and that foal halter makes me want to customise a riding pony foal and make tack like this for it. XD)







Two mares got a little too close at one point and had a little kick out. One swerved away and knocked her poor handler to the ground!



It didn't seem to phase her much though. XD

The showjumping warmup area was right beside this ring and this big mare had a bit of a spook as one soared over the jump.






She wasn't put off for long though and gave me a nice big cheesy grin. XD












The winner!










The purebreds were judged next and Mr Stallion from earlier was finally calm...well, most of him was anyway. :P

There were a few people commenting on him next to me:

'Oh! Look at that!'
'His handler must be so embarrassed! What a shame!'

XD









There were some really gorgeous horses there and even though I'm definitely more of a big hairy cobby pony type, I could definitely see the appeal of an Arabian.







Although actually later in the day, I'll stick the Ridden classes in here too. :P

There were some absolutely stunning horses in this class...







This one had quite a pronounced dish to its front legs...





More unusual markings - a nice example of a chestnut with Birdcatcher Spots!


This one was my second favourite - I love liver chestnuts.



This however, was my absolute favourite. Gorgeous typey horse and such a strikingly unusual rose grey to boot!




They were all ridden round and assessed, then taken back into line and untacked, so the judge could have a good look at them. Once tacked up again, the judge got on and rode them all round in all three gaits before moving onto the next horse.

Clearly I know nothing about judging however as my least favourite horse won the class and my lovely rose grey came second to last!

Up next, Mountain & Moorland!