In addition to the status of successful, the attract of a bonus ticket to the London Worldwide Horse Present’s Heritage Championship implies that the open mountain and moorland ridden courses at Royal Windsor are scorching competitors.
This 12 months, opponents will probably be sorted into line by conformation decide Lizzie Briant-Finlayson and efficiency decide Stephanie Turner.
Whereas it’s troublesome to change a pony’s conformation, there’s nonetheless time to ensure that your efficiency is on level. So who’s Royal Windsor M&M decide, Stephanie Turner, and what’s going to she be on the lookout for?
Stephanie’s had a lifetime’s expertise with ponies, having began driving at simply three years previous.
“My mom rode, and my grandfather labored the land with heavy horses, so it was inevitable that I’d,” she explains.
She loved early success within the working hunter pony enviornment and having left college, she labored on a yard for a short while earlier than establishing her personal manufacturing yard.
There, Stephanie produced youngsters’s ponies and confirmed an array of horses and ponies herself. These included HOYS-winning Arabian horse Silver Moonlight, and Olympia-bound Connemara Minsmere Insurgent and Welsh part C Templedruid Welshman.
She additionally took a flip driving Highland pony Mackenzie Dean for fellow producer Julie Barton, which means she has a variety of experiences not solely within the ring, however particularly with native ponies.
Followers of M&M courses lately will probably be acquainted with her New Forest pony, Ravenstone Fudge, who’s the reigning New Forest pony of the 12 months in addition to winner of the 2024 efficiency pony class at London Worldwide.
Stephanie sits on a bunch of panels, together with the British Present Pony Society, the Arab Horse Society, Colored Horse and Pony Society and the British Present Horse Affiliation amongst others.
“I’m very fortunate and really honoured to have judged at a lot of the extra prestigious exhibits within the UK and internationally,” says Stephanie.
Worldwide appointments embody exhibits in Abu Dhabi, South Africa, and Australia. She’s additionally judged HOYS twice, and that is her third appointment at Windsor having beforehand officiated over the hack and part-bred Arab sections.
Royal Windsor M&M decide: what’s Stephanie on the lookout for?
What’s going to M&M opponents must do to impress Stephanie at Royal Windsor?
She explains that, before everything, she’ll be on the lookout for “a pony that goes true to its sort and in the way in which their breed description recommends.”
On the go spherical, Stephanie feels {that a} “lot of riders disregard the stroll,” and reminds opponents that it’s the first and last item a decide sees in the course of the go spherical and within the particular person present.
She’ll even be on the lookout for a pony that “seems to be by the bridle” and is mannerly.
In relation to the extension, she says: “Some aren’t bred to gallop however for these breeds, I’ll nonetheless need to see a change in tempo.“
“Mainly,” she summarises, “I’m on the lookout for one thing that I want to journey myself.”
You heard it right here first! Time to get training…
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H&H displaying editor
Bethan joined Horse & Hound as displaying editor in January 2025, after spending two years as Editor for Displaying World. Having adored ponies since childhood, she began displaying as a young person and has loved wins at main exhibits up and down the nation, together with Royal Highland, New Forest, and the Royal Welsh, in addition to HOYS, RIHS and London. She is especially enthusiastic about Welsh breeds and can also be a Welsh language commentator.
