July
July has been a month of mixed fortunes. Early on we very sadly lost our mare Milford Fairy Queen as the result of a freak accident in the field, fortunately she was not in foal and did not have a foal at foot , she was the last daughter of our foundation mare Tetworth Tinkerbell. RIP Pip you will be missed! Breeze has also injured herself, fortunately nothing irrepairable but it looks as if she will be out for the rest of the season to be on the safe side. It’s amazing you can go 30+ years with no serious accidents and then 2 happen at once.
Now for the good news! Queen Bee proved to be an absolute superstar.
On her return from breaking she had 2 weeks holiday with me before being brought back into work by Lillia Schaible and learning to jump, and what a bold and talented pony she is. Within 1 week she was popping fillers, gates and anything asked of her(see right), she entered her first show and was 6th in the 45cm with 5yr old Maddie and 2nd in the 55cm with 9yr old Lillia, what an honest little pony and thanks girls! Bee has now gone to her lovely new family and we wish them the best of luck(sure they wont need it!). M.Bailey is in the process of being broken now so fingers crossed he is as good as his 1/2 sister.
Milford Grand Marnier and Charris Forrest had a fantastic 3rd in the PP Show Pony at RIHS, huge congratulations to them.
June
The showing season is off to a good start for Milford ponies, Charris Forests Milford Grand Marnier qualified for RIHS PP Sp on his first outing and
RIHSOpen SP on their second when they were SP Champions and Reserve Supreme at Lancashire Championships, fantastic results for the family
who produce him entirely themselves. Another dual RI qualifier is Andrea Layfield‘s Milford Fair Kommander who, piloted by Storm Straker, has
qualified for the M&M and plaited Workers. Kommanders full brother M.Fair Kestrel has quailfied for NPS workers and full sister M.Fair Kizmet the
BSPS workers. These ponies do love their jumping! Our own Milford Fair Breeze has also had a very good run of results being 1st & Ch South
Lakes WPCA, 2nd Hambleton, 1st Northern All Welsh and had a fantastic day at North yorkshire County where she was 1st &CH sec B, M&M in hand
Champion, Overall M&M Champion followed by Supreme in hand Champion.
January 2012
Happy New Year everyone!!!
A quick resume of what’s been happening since July(Note to self, must do better at updating the news page!)Our showing season effectively ended in June but several Milfords flew the flag for us with some impressive results, these ponies really do perform. BSPS Summer Champs and Heritage champs saw some very good results for brother and sister M.Fair Kizmet and M.Fair Kommander and half sister M.Fair Honeybee(all by Fanfare) in worker classes. Up in Scotland Kirsty Cohen has had a very successful first season with her home produced M.Fair Honeysuckle in both M&M and SHP classes, finishing on a high with 2nd SHP at BSPS Scottish Finale show(see top right). M.Fair Ballad who was sold early last year to Jacquie & Bronte Thompson was broken by Bronte and won his first ever outing, a ODE with a double clear and finishing on their impressive dressage score(see bottom right). Maureen Fieldings stallion M.Fair Kestrel has been giving lifetime grading with the Sports Pony Studbook Society for his dressage results and good placings in the WPCS performance competition. The foal M.Fair Beau went to his new home in November and 10 days later, at his first show, won his class and was youngstock champion!
In a different competitive field M.Brocade was a member of Ray Aziz’s pony team who, driven by Karen Bassett, won the National 4 In Hand Championship at Windsor and will be representing Great Britain at Windsor this year and at the World Championships in 2013. Brocade’s sister Butterfly is also reserve for the team.
I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating all the owners and riders of these, and the many other Milfords who are out there doing their job, and thank you all for bringing out the best in them !!
Milford Bailey went to join his half sister as a Christmas present for his new little Jockey Susie and has settled well. M.Fair Minuet and M.Fair Bard both went earlier this month to be broken and will be available for sale when they finished, the 2 coloured partbreds M.Spectacular and M.Sequin will then be broken(if not sold before).
A good day was had at BSPS area 1a where 5 Milford ponies were forward. Jennifer Cowan had a nice win in the novice ridden on Janet Cox’s newly broken M.F.Minstrel out for his first show, M.F.Kommander won both the mixed open whp and the Nursery Stakes, M.Mayfair was 2nd and M.F.Honeybee was 4th in the same class. Honeybee also won the novice workers. M.Queen Bee was also at her first show and accounted for herself very well with placings in all her classes. This season looks to have some very exciting new partnerships coming out and we will be watching and wishing everyone well and looking forward to results and pictures!
Courtesy of Peter Page Photography