Welsh Cobs at the
Royal Welsh Show.
|
The Showground, Builth Wells, Powys.
July 24th – 27th, 2017.
Rosemary Cooper.
The George Prince of Wales Cup went this year to Nelson Smith's senior brood mare, Trevallion Rossana. The bay eleven-year-old, by Trevallion Hooch out of Trevallion Rhoda, goes back on both sides of her pedigree to the famous Nebo Black Magic. 1973 winner of the George Prince of Wales Cup, and has a colt foal at foot by Trevallion Jumping Jack Flash, a buckskin from the same Trevallion bloodlines. This isn't the first time the West Midlands-based stud has won the greatest prioze in the Welsh Cob world, as Rossana's granddam,Trevallion Giorgio, and “aunt”, Trevallion Rachael's Miracle, are both former winners.
Reserve was the winner of the senior stallion class, the Jones' family's Fronarth Prince of Wales. By Geler Sparc, he is a son of Fronarth Model Lady, a daughter of Fronarth Welsh Model; both winners of the Prince of Wales Cup who stood reserve twice. The Fronarth stud last won this coveted prize in 2014 with Model Lady's full sister Fronarth Super Model; their eighth time in all! A bay ten-year-old, Fronarth Prince of Wales also carries Nebo Black Magic's bloodlines, this time through the latter's grandson Derwen Desert Express, sire of Model Lady and Super Model. His previous successes include Supreme in Show at the Lampeter Stallion Show and Champion Section D at Aberystwyth Silver Medal Show, both in 2013.
The Jones brothers, Dafydd and Sion, can be very busy indeed at the Royal Welsh because both also show sheep as well as Welsh Section Cs and Ds. Dafydd favours Suffolks and Sion keeps Kerry Hills.
Reserve champions in both male and female divisions were sired by Gwynfaes Culhwch, Prince of Wales Cup winner in 2002 and Derwen Desert Express' grandson. His breeders, Meirion and Dianne Evans, showed the reserve champion male, six-year-old Gwynfaes Seren Wledig, whom they own jointly with their young son, Caleb. Seren Wledig was sold to America as a foal, but before he left, he appeared with Caleb on a childrens’ S4C television programme. Caleb was so insistent that the foal was his own that his parents had to keep him. In English, Seren means Star, and he's lived up to it... Junior champion at Lampeter as a two-year-old, he went on to be supreme champion as a four-year-old, when shown by Dorian Lloyd, owner and handler of this year's reserve champion female. This was none other than Perthog Gwenan Mai, 2015 winner of the Prince of Wales cup.
As I wrote at the time:
>>By the end of Cob Day at the 2015 Royal Welsh Show, Dorian and Michelle Lloyd must have thought they'd arrived in Heaven. Their young stallion Haighmoor Orient Express was judged best stallion, colt or gelding of the show, so when he went forward to contest the supreme championship, only a mare or filly could beat him. So who could this magnificent mare be? None other than Dorian's own three-year-old Perthog Gwenan Mai, winner of the previous day's junior and female championships! To crown this achievement, Dorian and Michelle even had the satisfaction of breeding her themselves. <<
Dorian, a 30-year-old farrier, bred Gwenan Mai out of his mare Perthog Champ. Like their sire, both Seren Wledig and Gwenan Mai are bays with four white feet.
Junior champion was a three-year-old daughter of Penlangrug Diplomat, the dun, Maesyfelin Rosie. Her owner/breeder, Haydn Hudson, also won the class for filly foals with his unnamed Maesyfelin foal. The reserve junior championship went to Mattie Attrell's yearling Danaway Jolene, by Trevallion Black Harry. Winning colt foal was Steve Patch's Ridgehill Lord Luther, by Gwenllan Brynmor out of Ridgehilll Lady Luisa.
Like many people I have a soft spot for palominos. Both horses in the Light Trade class were palomino cobs with extravagant action. James Hyatt's Cream of the Crop beat Mrs Dawn Groom's Thorneyside Gold Dust. In the class for two-year-old colts I enjoyed sketching two palominos who represented the two extremes of this colour; one very pale and silvery while the other was deep rich gold. The pale colt, Miss Megan Rogers' Southway The Avenger, finished fifth, and the dark colt, Mrs Hayley Denmead's Cruglwyd Crem Brule, came eighth.
In the first day's ridden classes, the two horses who caught my eye because of colour finished second and third. Years ago, I decided that if I owned a pair of driving horses, I would love to have a dun and palomino whose body colour matched exactly but who had contrasting points. I've painted two such horses several times, and hoped that one day I'd see them together in the show ring. In this year's ridden gelding class, there they were! The dun, in second place, was Melanie O'Brien's Llanfyllin Casper, and the palomino was Kathryn Paynter's Soden Gwynfor.
However, one thing was different. Casper was described in the catalogue as a dun, but he had no dorsal stripe. That is a major visual distinction between dun, believed to be the original colour of wild horses since it features in cave paintings, and buckskin, a colour unknown to me when I first painted my imaginary pair. A single dilute gene, combined with the gene for chestnut, produces palomino, but combined with the gene for bay, it results in buckskin. I recall a major film with a beautiful horse of this colour; Kevin Coster's mount in “Dances with Wolves”.
When I met Melanie and Casper later, we discussed his colour and she told me something I'd never realised before. It's not just me who was unaware of buckskins. All the horses registered by the Welsh Pony and Cob Society as duns are in fact buckskins! Armed with this knowledge, it becomes easier to breed palominos and if I had a stud of Welsh Cobs, I'd be on my way to breeding the two I've painted...
RESULTS.