Horse of the Year Show with Rachel & Darren

 Horse of the Year Show 

Three memorable days were spent at the world famous Horse of the Year Show. We took our seats in the arena which gave us the perfect ringside seats for the Mountain and Moorland 143cm Working Hunter Pony of the Year which was won by Mollie Mae Jeffrey riding Woodfield Jovial Joker. It was so interesting listening to all the different names of the ponies. We then wandered through the huge shopping hall, looking at all the shiny riding boots and sparkly jackets as we made our way to the Andrews Bowen International Arena. Once we found our front row seats, we settled down for an afternoon of show jumping, showing and pony club mounted games. We saw a wonderful display of dressage to music, including our Olympic Champion Charlotte Dujardin who won the Dressage Future Elite Championships on her horse Times Kismet. 

Another highlight of the afternoon was a performance by the Knights of Middle England, a stunt display team who showed off their skills including standing on the horses’ backs, hanging off one side of the saddle and even going underneath the horse while it galloped around the arena! All of this was set to the music from Grease which we could all clap and sing along to. It was a truly exciting experience.

We quickly found our way to the TopSpec Arena. This was where all the working hunter classes were being held. Horses and ponies had to jump a course of rustic jumps in front of 3 professional judges. Once they had each jumped, they then rode around the ring as a group and then individually before the judges decided on the winner. We then got to watch as they did a lap of honour around the ring with huge smiles on their faces and their rosettes blowing in the breeze.

Wow! The Pony Club mounted games were exhilarating! The children and ponies went flat out up and down the arena racing against each other in several different races, from the sack race, popping balloons with a stick, to placing cups on poles! It was very noisy and very exciting, and we were on the edge of seats to see who would win. The final winners in this heat were the Atherstone Hunt Pony Club, putting them through into the finals which were held that evening. 

   

The next performance was the Driven Heavy Horse of the Year Championship. The horses were Shires and Clydesdales with only one Percheron amongst the heavy horses and it was a Clydesdale that took the final trophy

We all got up excited for the day ahead at Cadbury World, everyone loves chocolate after all! Once we went in we were shown how the cocoa beans are grown and harvested, then how they are processed to make them into chocolate as we know it. There was a very interesting and interactive section showing us the history of chocolate and the cocoa beans and we could all get involved with little quizzes as we walked through the displays. We all agreed it was great fun! 

We saw lots of the different adverts for Cadbury’s chocolate from over the years, with some of us remembering adverts from many years ago. We all got to taste some chocolate, it was melted and runny and they put little scoops of sweets or extra chocolate buttons in it, we all thoroughly enjoyed the tasting and agreed it was a highlight of the day!! 

It was game on as we headed down to the bowling alley where there were high scores and strikes all round. The games continued as we racked up the balls on the pool table and did our best to pot the all important black! 

It was a glorious day with bright sunshine and a cloudless sky and we were ready for a full day on the water! We drove to the Ashby Boat Company, where we boarded a canal boat called Mole! It was perfect for us all to get nice and comfortable as we gently set sail up the canal. 

As we cruise along, we looked out at the picturesque scenery and pretty boats that we passed. We were all fully refreshed, we took it in turns to steer the boat, working out which way to push the rudder so that the boat stayed straight or gently cruised round the bends, it was a lot of fun and everyone did really well. We stopped at a farm shop for lunch and some of us had a leg stretch with a short stroll up the towpath.