Southern Contracts’ director, Adam Elphinstone and his family live in the picturesque village of Breamore on the edge of the New Forest.
This year Adam approached his neighbour, Andrea Dymott who runs the annual Breamore Show and Southern Contracts were the successful sponsors of the whole of Ring Two.
Founded in 1989 by Gordon and Andrea Dymott, The Breamore Show started with Sir Edward Hulse’s idea of booking a day for an Agricultural Animal Society to come to Breamore House and show their animals in the walled section of the Museum. Gordon spent a week building pens and at the last moment the Society had to pull out leaving them all devastated. Not to be outdone, they managed to grab a couple of their own ponies and all their rosettes and trophies and – in their own words – spread themselves and their two Shetlands over as many pens as possible!
Sir Edward was thankful to the Dymotts for their help and the three of them put their heads together and produced a business plan for the following year. The original idea was that any profit would go to a charity of Sir Edward’s choice, but any losses would be borne by the organisers. They have never run a Show at a loss!
That first year the show welcomed 120 ponies but by the end of the 1990s it had morphed into a two day show with 705 ponies attending. Due to various factors, the show took a hiatus but after 18 years of the organisers being begged and nagged to bring the show back they finally conceded and 2019 saw 150 ponies enter, with 194 this year.
Andrea said: “When we were at our peak with 705 ponies it was such a huge event, maybe even too big, but 500 would be a good number to aim for next year. We aim to put on the classes the competitors want and we have a standard to which we aspire. The Show’s status is below County level (ie New Forest etc) but well above “grass roots “ level.
She added: “Southern Contracts kindly sponsored the whole of Ring Two which started with the Welsh ponies in hand. These were followed by the hotly contested National Pony Society Picton qualifying rounds for Native Ponies, and the final section of the day was for Miniature Horses. We are most grateful to Adam and Southern Contracts for their support and look forward to building the event further to provide an even bigger and better event next year, post Covid!”
Sir Edward Hulse has now stepped down and his son, Michael, now occupies Breamore House.
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