Castle Diceman, the stunning seven-year-old grey, connemara stallion recently added another string to his bow by qualifying for HOYS at the Great Yorkshire Show.
Owned by Alison Grainger for the past four years, Castle Diceman was up against 42 entries at the prestigious Yorkshire event and went forward to the Supreme Mountain&Moorland final.
Said Alison: “It was a very special day, certainly one to tick off my bucket list winning at the Great Yorkshire Show and qualifying for HOYS. It is our proudest achievement.
“When you are an amateur working on your own every day as many of us do, it makes it even more special knowing you can achieve your dreams with hard work, determination and of course a special pony.”
Known as “Dicey” in the stables, Alison bought the fabulous stallion as a three-year-old from breeder Henry O’Toole in Clifden, Country Galway. He is by Glencarrig Knight out of Village Linnet, bred in Ireland.
Dicey has been shown in-hand, under saddle in novice ridden and this year started in open classes. As a three-year-old he was Junior Champion at the famous Connemara Pony Festival in Clifden, Country Galway and as a five-year-old Dicey won his in-hand class and was Reserve Champion at The Royal Highland Show.
He gained two silver medals and two golds in-hand including at the NPS Scotland Blair finals in 2016 and also took the novice ridden final at Blair in 2017. Since progressing to open this year, he has won two silver medals, two championships, collected two reserve supreme M&M titles and qualified for HOYS at his second attempt.
Dicey’s TopSpec feed regime includes TopSpec CoolCondition Cubes which he has been fed on ever since he started his in-hand classes as a three-year-old.
Said Alison: “I had tried various other conditioning feeds but found one that balanced condition without adding too much fizziness in TopSpec CoolCondition Cubes.
“At 143cm I was showing him in-hand and I’m only 5ft 3 tall so really appreciated the factor of the feed not making him fizzy.”
Since feeding Dicey the TopSpec CoolCondition Cubes he has been able to keep condition on all year round.