Royal Three Counties once again proved to be a happy hunting ground for our show teams, with success in both breeds and Sophie coming to the fore in the Young Handlers’ classes too.
The Southdown team enjoyed an unparalleled show, taking first in six of the seven classes in the breed as well as the breed championship.
Leading the way was senior stock tup Chaileybrook Beaujolais who won his class and then went on to stand breed champion.
In the group of three lambs class, ram lamb Chaileybrook 23/01753 an Ibanez son teamed up with ewe lambs Chaileybrook 23/01772 and Chaileybrook 23/01761, daughters of The Stag and The Stig, respectively, to win the class.
Then in the shearling rams The Stig, Chaileybrook 22/01372, took the red ticket, with this one being a son of The Stag out of an imported French dam.
The ram lamb class was won by Sophie’s ram lamb, Littlebrook 23/01802 ‘Eddie The Eagle’, with Chaileybrook 23/01753 standing second to him.
Following that the aged ewes were won by Chaileybrook 20/00673, a Chaileybrook 18/00278 daughter, while in the dimmers Sophie’s shearling ewe, Littlebrook 22/01334 stood second, with this one being by Dartagnan.
And the ewe lamb class saw our ewe lambs take the top two tickets, with Chaileybrook 23/01772 standing first and Chaileybrook 23/01761 following along in second spot.
Across in the Blue Texels junior stock ram Severn View G I Joe stood third in a strong class of shearling tups, with teammate Littlebrook Gogglebox standing seventh in the same class.
The major celebrations came in the young handlers classes though when Sophie scooped the championship in the Blue Texel Society competition before going on to be named as champion young handler of the show on the Saturday and reserve champion young handler of the show on the Sunday, qualifying for the finals of the RBST young shepherd of the year competition at the same time.
