The stallion show in Holland was a great experience. It is a show of completely different proportions compared to what we are used to here in Denmark.
There were lots of spectators and a very special vibe. Below are the judges and other officials.

The danish "team" was ready atv the shoe from morning untill night, both friday and saturday.

There were many lovely stallions in the ring, over theweekend. Unfortunately the light in the arena was not the best, so I don'thave many pictures.

Genrally I think the dutch ponis have some very nice and smooth flexible movements. They are not as heavy and short in their movements as many of the english ponies.
A combination of the powerfull english movements and smooth flexible dutch movements would be ideal in my eyes.

When it comes to the hooves, I thought that in many cases there was a long ways to go for the duth ponies. It seemed like it was not something they focused much on.
On the other hand most of the stallions were a lot broader and heavier than I expected, which was a nice surpise.
The best thing about the dutch ponies is their excessive amount of hair!! A shetlandpony is not a real shetlandpony in my eyes if it does not have an abundance of hair. It is definatelty a big part of the shetland pony type in my oppinion.

Once a while we left the ringside and went out back, either to go shopping, or to walk through the stable area, which in itself was a big experience.
It was funny to see how all the stallions were just lined up side by side, with only a minimum of seperation between them. Amazing tere were so few confrontations.
All the stallions were shined up and most of them had blowers on them to fluff up the coat and keep them cool.

When we weren't at the arena we spent the nights at Cisca's place, a lovely little Bed and Breakfast.
Here we had some very nice nights in great company.

Thank you so much for a great trip. I can't wait until next year!!!