Ploughing
The 14th running of The Suffolk Horse Society’s Ploughing Championships was held on the 7th October 2007 at Red House Farm Bucklesham in conjunction with The Bucklesham & District Vintage Tractor Groups plough day by kind permission of Bob & Ann Ramsey.
This ploughing Championship is unique in that it is specific to Suffolk horses and was the brainchild of Paul Heiney in 1992. It has been a struggle in some years to gather enough horses together for a match but in recent years and certainly since we have been privileged to plough on the lovely ground at Bucklesham (which Bob Ramsey and his team always prepare so well for us) the turn out has been amazing. This year eight teams came forward to plough for the prestigious copper kettle and a tailored Horseman’s jacket, again most generously donated by Neil Lanham and his Bumpstead boys.
A valiant effort was made by Ian Victor Smith again bringing two teams up from Henley on Thames, his George & Duchess were partnered by their usual ploughman John Barker and his other pair Boxer & Punch were this year partnered by Peter Bundock (a previous winner of this event). Boxer & Punch have had a busy summer on their ‘rides’ wagon at home and were not too keen keep to the sedate pace necessary for a good ploughing job. Peter worked very hard and used all his expertise to accomplish the task in hand with a helping hand from Peter Crockford with the horses.
Roger (Clark) has for over a year now only had one working Suffolk at Weylands, which was why he elected to judge last year but was determined to plough again this year, so we could not think of a better horse to borrow back to try alongside our Jester than Nedging Golden Delight (Ned), who is now owned by Andrew Wager and very appropriately bred by The SHS 2007 President Mrs Gill Buckle. Ned came to Weylands as a weaned foal and stayed until he was broken, when Andrew and Sue picked him out of the bunch of Suffolks on offer at Weylands at that time. Although he had started work and was ‘quiet in all gears’ he had never ploughed, being sold before autumn ploughing. He came back to Weylands the Saturday before the match, settled as though he had never been away, ploughed with Jester four times at home before the match and worked brilliantly together throughout the match unaided, winning their class and also Best Working pair, Best turned out team. Ned won the prize for ‘The Horse The Judge Would Most Like to Take Home’ and Jester won Best Gelding on field.
Not to be outdone by Ian Victor Smith bringing two teams, Richard Dalton pulled out all his stops to bring two teams from Gressenhall Museum of Rural Life near Dereham. He ploughed with Golden Queen Gwenivere (Queenie) & his young horse Milden Bowler, whilst his good friend and transporter Neil Syrett made his ploughing debut with Samford George (another old friend from Weylands) and Trojan. Edward Knowles (winner of this event last year) made the trip down from Somerleyton with Marshland Pablo & Waveney Pandora. Bunting & Sons sent a team to provide Bill Smith with his first Championship win.
Last to mention in the alphabetic order of plots but by no means least was Bruce Smith from The Suffolk Punch Trust at Hollesley with Colony Nettles and Colony Charlie. Bruce was ably assisted all day by his new ‘right hand’ Tracey Pettit who was rewarded by picking up Dennis Hayter’s prize for The Best Plaiting on field.
Each ploughman is designated his own plot which and starts ploughing at 11 o’clock and horses must be off the plots by 3.30pm. The ploughing is judged a little like a dressage test, in that it is marked out of a possible 200 good points, these points being allocated for several different stages. The opening is marked separately, then there is a mark allocated for the start of the work – the first ten furrows. The firmness and skimmer effectiveness is then marked (the plough skimmer should push the rubbish, such as straw etc. into the bottom of the furrow where it should be buried.
The evenness & uniformity of the work is then marked before we move along to mark the finish, here the rounds of work on each plot have to be neatly finished together with as straight a furrow (at an even depth) as possible down the middle. The last mark allocated is for the ends of the work where both ends should be tidy with a level start and finish with no drag marks where the plough goes in & out of the ground.
Competition as always was fierce, with all ploughmen taking time out to compare work on adjoining plots. As the ‘shutting up’ stage approaches tape measures come out and heads are scratched to try and achieve the best and straightest finish.
The overall standard of ploughing work encouragingly seems to improve year on year but one thing that is very noticeable is how few horses work comfortably together with out ‘outside’ assistance.
There were two ploughing classes both with a possible 200 marks that the judge could award and an overall Championship. Judging for the day was in the capable hands of Eric Purkiss from Rochford, Essex. Eric has spent a lifetime on the land, using his father’s Percheron horses on the farm when horses were a necessity and ploughing at many matches with a Goldhanger Wooden plough.
Class 1, The Long Turn Furrow class was won by Roger Clark with John Barker 2nd with Ian Victor smith’s horses. The Short Turn Furrow class was won by Bill Smith using The Bunting horses, Edward Knowles was. 2nd and Richard Dalton from Gressenhall was third, also collecting the prize for Best mare on field with Queenie.
The overall Championship was won By Bill Smith with reserve going to Edward Knowles with The Fritton Lake horses. Edward is Agent for The Hon Hugh Crossley on The Somerleyton estate near Lowestoft and a great supporter of ‘The Suffolk Horse’. Roger was very proud that both the winner and reserve were protégés of his ploughing expertise.
President Gill Buckle presents Bill Smith
with his prizes. Photo - Fiona Clark
The Compton Challenge trophy for the Best horse working not ploughing was again won by Lesley Miller from Ramsey with her mare Colony Gina Maxine.
The day culminated with the prize giving at The SHS caravan by The Society’s 2007 President, Mrs Gill Buckle.
This concluded proceedings to a very successful, enjoyable and relaxing day. The icing on the cake has been an extremely generous donation to The Suffolk Horse Society of £1450 from The Bucklesham Vintage Tractor Group which is the agreed 50% share of the gate money. Following the debriefing meeting at the end of October, we are kindly invited back next year on Sunday 5th October 2008.
This passage would not be complete without acknowledgment to those who made the day possible by either giving up their day to help or helping to finance. A big thank you to the following for their generosity:- Barker Gotelee (Solicitors), Charnwood Milling Co Ltd, Dennis Hayter for providing the Best turned out prizes, Stacey & Partners (accountants) & Wright Training Services for the Best Plaiting prize.
Roger & Fiona Clark, along with Philip & Mary Ryder Davies, sponsored the ploughmans lunches which were so efficiently prepared and served out of the Clarke’s lorry by Dora Betts, Brenda Cooke and Ann Hogsbjerg along with Mary - Thank You.
Fiona & Roger Clark sponsored the rosettes and will again engrave the plinth for the copper kettle which she had made for The Society several years ago.
I would publicly like to thank Sue & Andrew Wager for lending Roger their horse, making it possible for him to plough and especially to Sue for all the hard work and trips to Weylands helping to prepare harness and horses for the day. I personally was not present because I had a Riding club Team engagement with some of our other horses, so needed all the help we could muster to have light and heavy horses out on the same day at different ends of the county. Our good friend Graham Lush must be thanked for driving Roger to the match and helping all day not least keeping the generator fuelled in order to provide a continual supply of tea!