Inaugural PSO Prize Goes Down Under

The inaugural Absorbine sponsored photo-shows.co.uk best turned out class has been won by Australian Karen Hendley's pony stallion Sarahn Satalight.

Photo-shows.co.uk or PSO as its affectionately known by its members is the worlds premier online horse show. There are classes for champion show horses, ex-racehorses, a much loved family pet or anything in between.

Classes run from the 1st to the end of each month with full size rosettes to 10th place, sashes, trophies and more. With classes costing just £3 to enter, its easy to see why so many people are part of the phenomenon.

New for the February show was the Absorbine sponsored Best Turned Out class. It was a very hotly contested competition but the judges unanimously decided that Sarahn Satalight was the winner.

Karen bought Sarahn Satalight as a three year old from the USA, his breeding is Arabian pony cross Welsh section B. He is by Brampton Sinbad out of Richdale Shantilly. Karen frequently and successfully shows Sarahn Satalight in hand and he also stands at stud via AI each season. Showing victories for this lovely pony include champion led Arabian pony at the Royal Melbourne Horse Show.

Showing in Australia is very different from the UK, Karen says "we travel huge distances to shows, and have known some friends to travel a 7,000 mile round trip to compete at the Australian Championship!" Karen lives in the Otway Ranges area of Victoria where the temprature can get up to 40 degrees celsius in the summer. She owns a total of 13 horses all of which she looks after and trains herself. PSO is Karen's new hobby, at which she says "my beautiful horses have been lucky enough to be extremely successful at, and this is a wonderful and exciting passtime".

Many congratulations to Karen and Sarahn Satalight from all at Absorbine UK, hopefully your Absorbine prize will help make your horses already excellent turnout even better!

New ShowSheen - The Users Verdict

Laura Pyke, our tester of the new ShowSheen comes from the Vlacq Stud in North Wales. The stud is a family business, breeding both pure bred and anglo-arabs. Laura has tried out the new ShowSheen on all her animals....

"I've been busy washing tails and dressing manes with the new ShowSheen and its great! I've also done the collie and spaniel with it!

As we have Arabs, their manes are kept full and tails left natural. The outdoor horses inevitably get muddy tails and dreadlocks from the Welsh wind. The indoor ones get sticky tails as we are on rubber mats and half beds. I go along each row of four boex washing tails, rubbing down and spraying in the ShowSheen, then go back to the beginning with my trusty paddle brush and brushing through takes no time at all.

This stuff is great. Used dry on manes (too cold still to bath!) it lets tangles slide out without pulling out hairs, and applied to towel dried tails it gets all the twists and scurfy skin out just as easily. And it ensures grime slides off for a good few days as well, meaning fewer dreadlocks and longer between the washes.

The silent sprayer is great for the babies and any reactive sorts. Product smells great too and I've even dropped the can a couple of times and it seems indestructable!

I will be using it on the broodmares close to foaling to make cleaning up after the happy event (and covering) easier, and on the foals' tails in case of scouring.

Its also great on the feathered horses (we have 2 section C's) to get their legs in showring shape after a long winter out, and also prevent them bringing in half the arena surface after a workout. I would have thought it would be a must for people with M&Ms and coloureds with white legs!!

So yes, while I will be adding one to my show kit box for those finishing touches, I'll also have one in my maintenance kits in each vehicle (hoofpick, hairbrush, fly spray, sun block, eye cream, wound spray and now ShowSheen).

Come June/July/August I know I can brush all the horses lega and chests down woth it and keep the nasty bot eggs away too... And then we will be back into autumn/winter tail damage limitation and washing again, ready for the worst the Welsh weather can throw at us!"