Royal Windsor Horse Show | TENGOAL


to being more spacious and latterly a more sure-footed surface. On occasions horses previously placed second earlier in the day would perform better and thus be elevated above other Class winners. Today, the Classes and the Championship are judged together in the same all-weather Frogmore arena with more consistent results. The popularity of the Class has varied


Daniel Otamendi putting a pony through its paces at this year's show


Prolific winning owners over the years, besides Lord Patrick, have included two other Club Life Playing Members. Lord


Palumbo won on eight occasions between 1967 – 1980 with six different horses and Galen Weston (whose Maple Leafs


high-goal team regularly included HRH Prince Charles) won six times between 1980 – 1986 with five different horses


victories in 1971, 1973 and 1978. Meanwhile, Lord Vestey’s niece, Nina, having won on Doug and Sue McGregor’s well-loved grey mare, Jess, in 2018, became the classes’ ride judge in 2019. The versatility and longevity of polo ponies


(besides their owners!) has also been visibly demonstrated


through these classes. In


previous years Guards Polo Club owned a pool of ponies that would have been played by countless young officers, many of dubious riding ability. Manuella, the pride of the Club’s string, having braved being ridden by all manner of budding polo players from complete beginners, with hands like tractor brakes, to accomplished three-goal players, was herself a winner of The Maharaja of Jaipur Challenge Cup in 1996 and 1997 – surely testament to the adaptability of these superlative equines. The longevity record belongs, rather embarrassingly,


to the author’s own New


Zealand mare Chloe who competed this year, aged 23, for the eighth time. She first appeared 16 years earlier in 2003 and featured on the winner’s podium in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Prolific winning owners over the years,


besides Lord Patrick, have included two other Club Life Playing Members. Lord Palumbo won on eight occasions between 1967 – 1980 with six different horses and


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Galen Weston (whose Maple Leafs high- goal team regularly included HRH Prince Charles) won six times between 1980 – 1986 with five different horses. The most prolific winning ponies have been Lord Patrick’s strikingly beautiful Pierra with five successive wins between 1990 – 1994 and HM The King of Malaysia’s Venticinquo on five occasions between 1980 – 1987. One of the most positive changes has been


the showing surface. Previously the classes were held in the grass arenas, while the Championship was mostly competed for in the larger, main arena – all-weather since 2008 – that threw up some interesting results, due


George Meyrick in action at The Royal Windsor Horse Show


significantly since inception 61 years ago but 2019 saw a record 19 entries for both classes, all of a high calibre. Will Brasher, competing for the first time, brought four horses for the RoR class, with his Reutlingen winning both the Sir Rodney Moore Cup and Windsor Polo Club Reserve Challenge. He said that the show was “a great learning experience for my young horses from the racetrack” of which one, Drawn to be a Lady (Artist), he subsequently sold to the Uruguayan 10-goaler David “Pelon” Stirling, having been initially trialled for Pelon by the 10-goal maestro himself Adolfo Cambiaso. In this year’s Polo Pony class Siri


Evjemo-Nysveen had a clean sweep of the first three places, with her mare Luciana not only clinching The Maharaja of Jaipur Challenge Cup but also the Colonel Sir John Aird Challenge Trophy. It is testament to the keen eye of the class judges Anthony Fanshawe (our Polo Manager) and Nina Clarkin that they got it right in such a large and class field, as Siri’s husband, Alessandro Bazzoni, then played Luciana throughout the 2019 English high-goal season with his team Monterosso. Thus with on-going Royal patronage, an


illustrious history full of revealing facts and anecdotes, and an all-weather showing surface allowing polo ponies to perform at their best we look forward to another 61 years of RWHS polo pony classes – that showcases these ultimate equine athletes at their finest.


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