Teenage pony-whisperers come up trumps at horse show

Kirsten Lacey and Milly Chambers with Teddy and Baz

Milly Chambers and Kirsten Lacey, two 17-year-old students on Hopwood Hall College’s Animal Management course, won prizes at their first ever horse show at the Rochdale and District Riding Club Open Points Show on Sunday 10 May.

Milly, from Rochdale, and Kirsten, from Blackley, and presented tamed father and son Shetland ponies Teddy and Baz, who now live at the College.

Both horses were entered for the ‘Best Tail’ category and 10-year-old, chestnut Shetland, Teddy, who was shown by Milly, won first place whilst two-year-old black Shetland, Baz, who was shown by Kirsten, was placed fourth.

The ponies were also entered into the ‘Best Condition not exceeding 138cm’ category where Teddy won fifth place overall.

Milly and Kirsten had spent months preparing the horses for the show. The pair regularly go into college on Saturdays to bathe and groom them, looking after their coat, mane and tail.

However, the main work was in helping them adapt and improve their behaviour. Both ponies were quite aggressive and unpredictable when they started working with them and the girls suffered extensive kicks, bites and bruises.

So successful have Milly and Kirsten been in taming the horses and helping them adapt that even the judges remarked on their good behaviour.

Sarah Whitehurst, Hopwood Hall’s Lecturer in Animal Management, commented: “This was the first time we had entered a show with the young horses and so we had no expectation of winning any rosettes. We just went for the experience. We are unbelievably proud of the students who were a credit to the department and the horses who attracted a lot of attention. They were fantastic ambassadors for the college.”