Coloured Showing Advice please

[ChrissieW]

Any coloured showing experts out there? My sister has recently bought a 14hh 4 year old New Forest x Coloured Cob gelding for my niece, he is eligible for CHAPS registration and on his passport is classed a Tobiano? This is our first coloured pone and we know very little about showing this type. We would like to show him a little bit (only local level for now) and are getting conflicting information on how he should be turned out. I read on the CHAPS website that he would be classed as a Pony Native so should be shown "au naturel", but we took him to an in hand show at the weekend and whilst the judge loved him (he has fab movement for his type) and placed him first out of 10, she said that he should have his feathers off and be plaited up. As this was only a small local show, we are not going to jump into taking this advice, but wondered if anyone knew the correct turnout for him?

Personally I think he is better left natural because then he is suprising, as he looks like a bog standard coloured pony, but when he moves he has a bit of wow factor that you don't expect for his type, however, if pulled and trimmed to look more mainstream, his movement won't have enough WOW to compete again the more TB types. However, we want to turn him out correctly whatever that entails and are happy to trim him up if that is what is needed.

Opinions gratefully received please, this is a photo of him last year before we had him.........

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a220/Doublethyme/nemo2.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a220/Doublethyme/nemo1.jpg

[isrthan]

he is a handsome chap
i cant give you advice on if you should plait him up because i would need to see more pictures of him moving! so if you have nay please post them ;)
good luck at the shows !
i think you should try county aswell !

[ChrissieW]

Thank you. As we've only had him a few months, don't have any photos of him yet, but will try to get some done and post. Its his movement that seems to get him noticed, as he does move very well for his type.

As showing isn't really anything we have taken seriously with our other horses, its all a bit new to us, apart from the odd Riding Horse/Hunter class locally, so we are going to do some local stuff and see how it goes, but from comments we have had so far from various sources, it does seem to appear we have stumbled on a pone that may be better than we thought!!

Most importantly though he is proving to be a really lovely natured boy for my nieces and such a lovable chap, we all adore him already :)

[dbt1234]

Please DONT trim him, he is a classic example of a native coloured pony. All you need to do is trim his whiskers and ears, dont touch his feathers, and his mane looks just about the right length, not too long. He is defo not the right type to be trimmed and plaited. He is reaslly nice. I have a native coloured pony which we show at county level and he looks very similar:)

[ChrissieW]

Many thanks dbt1234. That does seem to be the consensus of opinions we have got so far and is what we thought at first, no trimming, which is great - nice and low maintenance!!!

Although we haven't got quite to grips with having white bits to get clean on show days yet!! :eek: (our other two are both bays, so nice and easy to get clean)