The day of the Lusitano classes at the Royal Windsor Horse Show dawned foggy, humid and muggy. The first Luso class was at 8.30am in the Thames Ring - as usual, the poor relations ring miles from the horse boxes and the Lusitano Breed Society stand. The class - Pure and Partbred Lusitanos Ridden English Style - was supported by a lovely cross section of horses, stallions being prevalent. Our Portuguese Judge, Joo Pedro Rodrigues, judged thoroughly efficiently, giving each rider time to give a nice individual display, and taking his time to assess each competitor properly.

The class was won by Diane Thurman-Baker on Lucca, who gave - as expected a lovely individual display. Hilary Linnett riding Juno was second. The second class for Lusitanos - Ridden Portuguese Style - was again judged by Joo Pedro Rodrigues. It was very well supported, and everybody had made a tremendous effort to be correct in both tack and costume.

Interested in expanding your business
at home and abroad?

This publication is being read by horse lovers all over the world.

Contact us now for full details and our advertising rates.

Email: joy@field-galleries.co.uk or Click Here

Sadly, by the scheduled start of our class at 11.00 am the weather had deteriorated to torrential rain, thunder and lightning, and to top it all we had to wait for nearly 40 minutes for our ring to become available, and with no shelter! The awful weather did no favours to horses, tack and costume. Ensembles that had previously looked stunning were looking very wet and wilty, and by the time the class was being judged some of the greys resembled zebras thanks to streaks of dye from their tack: one can always rely on the English weather to do its worst!

Weather aside, everybody gave a tremendous show which was fully appreciated by a full stand of spectators (or were they just sheltering from the rain?!) who gave rousing applause to EVERY individual show. It was a great atmosphere, and perhaps next year we may be able to persuade the powers that be to put is in a more central ring. Im sure that it would be well received by the public, who love anything that is a little bit different.

The winners of the Portuguese Style class were Sherene Rahmatallah on Caju who went like clockwork. Second was Kathryn Babb on Mrs Sue Nashs Embucado.

All in all, despite the unkind weather, there was a great display of Lusitanos at the show, and all you exhibitors should feel very proud of yourselves as shows like Royal Windsor are a great shop window for our beloved breed. Subsequently, of course, on days two, three and four, shorts and sunglasses were the order of the day for people manning the breed stand. Such is life...