The Royal Welsh 2003

July 21 - 24, 2003

Prepared by Gustav and Glynis Karlsson

Over 200000 visitors can't be wrong. This is most probably the largest agricultural show on earth.  Exhibitors park their horseboxes, floats and caravans on Livestock Hill, tier upon tier overlooking the showgrounds and other visitors stay at a variety of caravan and tent parks adjacent to the grounds.  The Young People's Village which has provision for 5000 people is the hub of the entertainment at night.  Day visitors park outside the town and are ferried in by bus to and from the show through their park-and-ride facilities.

Here you can see virtually everything (and family entertainment to boot); 41 sheep types without a Dorper in sight, 20 cattle types, pigs, goats, rabbits, pigeons, poultry and a host more - to get everything in, we visited the livestock enclosures on the Sunday night.  Also competitions in horticulture, produce, handicrafts, sheep shearing, stick making (for shepherds) axe racing, pole climbing, tree felling, wire fencing, horse shoeing, donkey foot trimming, ironwork, tug-o-war, dry stone walling, and many, many more.  Around every corner is another activity, not to speak about the industrial exhibits.  And the selection of goods is phenomenal; farrier tools that we have tried to get in South Africa for ages; good second hand tack of English leather; riding equipment; and more

The agricultural equipment section is awesome and the mechanised farming inventions highly practical.  We came away with many ideas to implement on the farm.  There are numerous food outlets and restaurants.  Bars abound, officially open until 10.30 pm.

The Mother Society's offices at the showgrounds are a hive of activity and all the Society's books, other publications and emblems are tempting to buy.  The pub and restaurant in the Society's building and which is next door to the offices is a popular meeting place.

Events in the arena apart from the horses were the Royal Household Cavalry Musical Ride, Meirion Owen and the Quack Pack (sheepdog exhibition with ducks), Inter Hunt Team Relays, JCB Stunt Team (with earthmoving equipment), all being on our video which will be available through the Society shortly.

However, the centre of attraction is the Welsh ponies and cobs.  There were 1 693 breeding class entries and records were set in all sections; 632 A's, 232 B's, 329 C's and 500 cobs.  Because of the large numbers and as an experiment to host all section simultaneously, the arena was divided into 3 main sections. A's and D's had their own sections while B's and C's shared the third section; unfortunate for the B's who were in the top corner away from the grandstand, but they did have fewer entries.

Of necessity, one had to concentrate on only a section because at any one time there could have been 150 or more ponies in the full arena.  To give you an idea of the extent of the organisation, there were 97 section A yearling fillies, 82 senior A mares without foals at foot, 71 cob yearling fillies, etc, etc - mind boggling numbers if we merely consider the entries for our Nationals

Our first port of call after passing through the gates (single ticket for 4 days £40 (R500 at R12,50 to the £) or double at £62 (R775)) is to the International Visitor's Pavilion where after registering one gets a red ribbon which allows you access to all the venues (except the best seats on the grandstand which cost £120 (R1500) for the four days for a couple). The Pavilion also has refreshments and toilet facilities which is a godsend although the general facilities are excellent.  On Thursday morning there had been 436 international visitors registered and as far as we know 5 Welsh pony and cob enthusiasts from South Africa, Sarah and Charlie Rose from Henley, Jane Peacock from Robertson and the two of us.

Then buy an official catalogue at £4,80 (R50) and plan what you desperately want to see because it is impossible to be in 6 places at once. So it is necessary to plan carefully not to miss out on the important events, and if you have any free time, look out for the activities on your second list.

The build up to the top awards for the cobs, our selected interest for the show for obvious reasons, the George Prince of Wales cup which dates back to 1908, was electrifying. The cob classes started on the Tuesday while the senior classes were on the Wednesday.  Most classes were well supported with strong competition although we thought that the mare classes outshone those of the stallions.  This is also reflected in the final results.

As we were videoing the cob classes, there was no time to take photographs. We were exceedingly fortunate that Arthur Thomson, who is one of the authorised arena photographers, has allowed us to use his photographs.  Gail Thomson, his wife is an Executive Committee member of the American Welsh Pony and Cob Society and we were exceedingly fortunate in that they generously invited us to stay with them at their home in Builth Wells, a delightful and comfortable dwelling which overlooks the Builth valley.

With four arenas in use, Arthur could also not capture all the winners but he got all the Champions.  A selected list of winners, together with Arthur's pictures follow:-

A further selection of photograph taken by Arthur Thomson can be found as part of the website of Gail and Arthur Thomson on the following link

http://www.gayfieldswelshponies.com/news/royalwelsh2003.html

For a full list of the winners at this year's Royal Welsh, with the Welsh Ponies and Cobs section being classes 1 to 121, visit the interesting site of the Royal Welsh Show Society on

http://www.rwas.co.uk/Live20031-HORSES1.html  for the first 100 classes and

http://www.rwas.co.uk/Live20031-HORSES101.html for classes 101 to 121

SECTION A - Welsh Mountain Ponies

Champion Welsh Mountain Pony - Springbourne Elly (Springbourne Caraway x Springbourne Eirian)

In all shows there is one particular partnership which stands out.  Elly is 11 years old and her handler William Perrins is 12.  Apart from winning her class amongst 82 entries as mare over 4 years without foal at foot, she also took the female championship and the Welsh Mountain Pony championship. If that was not enough they went on to be awarded the Tom & Sprightly trophy as the overall Supreme Champion of all 4 Welsh sections.

It did not end there.  In competition with the 2000 entries in the light horse breeds she was Reserve Champion in the Cuddy Supreme in-hand championship and also the Reserve Champion in the Royal Welsh Supreme in-hand.

To top it all William was the winner of the Young Handler competition.

Our congratulations to this outstanding partnership.

SECTION B - Welsh Ponies

SECTION C - Welsh Ponies (Cob type)

SECTION D - Welsh Cobs

The build up to the George Prince of Wales Cup is exciting. All the senior classes follow one after the other and then the Champion Female and Champion Male with their Reserves enter the arena for the final judging which this year was by Peter Jones of the Menai Stud (He judged at the Nationals in Bloemfontein some years ago).  It is only being there and experiencing the climax of this event that you can appreciate the spectator involvement.  Should you see our video of the Royal Welsh, you will be able to hear the crowd's appreciation in the final selection which this year went to a truly remarkable 16 year old mare Gwenllan Sali with another mare Trevallion Gwyneth being the Reserve

The Royal Welsh Show in 2004 will be held from July 19 to 22.  This will be the centenary year of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show and is planned to be more spectacular than ever; additional facilities are planned and the total attendance since opening the permanent showgrounds at Builth Wells in 1983 is expected to exceed the 6 million mark.

Should you wish to attend next year, let Sue Cook know.  But you are strongly advised to book early because accommodation in Builth Wells is at a premium.