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Behind the scenes at YHL 09 with the Caspian Breed Society

26th November 2009

Your Horse Live was held over the 14th & 15th November and once again was a roaring success for the Caspian Breed Society in promoting the breed. Here Holly Dale of the Caspian Breed Society gives her behind the scenes report of Your Horse Live from the Rare Breeds Village.

Fleur Scott, Dale Linney and I were delighted to be invited back to Your Horse Live. Once again we elected to take Henden Troy, a five year old pure-bred stallion as a representative of the Caspian Breed to meet and greet members of the public. Your Horse Live has a Rare Breeds Village with each society being allocated two stables; one for the horse and one for the stand. In addition to this each society was able to put on an individual show, including commentary, daily in the Equimax Arena.
There was a wonderful atmosphere in the Breeds Village with all of the societies being extremely friendly and helpful. Many of the other exhibitors were pleased to see us again and were very complimentary about the Caspian. Our stand and boards were also commented on as being very professional and interesting!

Henden Troy and I rode in the Rare Breeds Parade on both days and I felt that he was a true credit to the breed. The size of the arena means that the horses end up packed quite close together and despite the number of stallions and mares present, Troy behaved impeccably. The atmosphere is always electric and on both days the seating area was so full that people had to stand around the edges to watch the Parade.

After each Parade, the stand was always busy and it was gratifying to see the number of people that wanted to meet us after seeing Troy in the arena. We also had several visitors who had seen the stand last year and deliberately returned to see us again! Troy was an ideal exhibition horse over both days, regularly meeting and greeting the public and strategically whinnying if it seemed like any other breed was getting too much attention! Several members of the public were very surprised to discover that he was a stallion as he was so well-behaved. Many people also commented on the typical iridescent coat, the turned in ear-tips and the slim, fine limbs that characterise the breed.

This year as we were attending YHL individually rather than as a joint venture with the CHS, we were able to sell merchandise and hand out our own leaflets. We also put together some goody bags which sold well to the younger visitors. It was also great to feel that Fleur, Dale and I were becoming an ‘exhibition’ team! Fleur was successful with the merchandise sales and chatting to visitors that entered the stand to learn more about the breed, while Dale and I were in position at the front of the stable introducing Troy and handing out leaflets. We were also lucky to have the Nye family to support us on Sunday as they’d very kindly offered to drive us back to Henden and Lanhill Stud after the show.

The show was extremely busy and we had a lot of interest with constant flow of friendly visitors. These included those that had never heard of the breed but wanted to learn more, and those that had heard of the Caspian but had never met one. The show is hosted by Your Horse magazine and I personally have been fairly active on their website’s forum. It was great to see this paying off as many members of the public came up especially to meet Troy ‘in person’ after hearing all about him on the website! We’ve also shot to further fame as a representative of Warwick Hospital Radio asked us to talk about the breed for a later broadcast on their radio station. I offered to do the interview and it was a wonderful opportunity to promote the Caspian and to bring a personal touch to the breed.

The stand was visited by Tracey Hammond, one of Dengie’s Equine Nutritionists, who was also on hand throughout the show to give feeding advice on the Dengie stand. She was delighted to see us there and we are always grateful for the support we receive. Dengie’s support also means that we were able to exhibit Henden Troy in a smart, dark green Dengie branded rug as well as a Dengie branded saddlecloth for our ridden displays.

Once again, I would declare our weekend at Your Horse Live a roaring success. It is always fantastic to have an opportunity to participate in the Rare Breeds Parade and to meet such a large number of people who are genuinely interested in the breed. It’s also an opportunity to talk to other breed societies and companies and discuss sponsorship, other events and ideas.

We are always grateful for all the support we get at these events, in particular the Scott family and the Nye family, without whom we would not be able to attend these shows. Your Horse Live seems to flourish further every year and it is a great honour to have become part of it. This year has been a huge success for the Caspian Breed Society and as we attend more and more shows, it is great to see interest in the breed growing.

For more information about the Caspian Breed Society please click here.

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