I am glad to say that I’ve enjoyed a fair amount of favourable feedback about last month’s column when I made special mention of the rule books to which we all have to adhere.

Several people have also shared my view that it is essential that the societies put individual differences aside and work together for the good of the members who, in many cases, belong to more than one if not all the societies involved.

Without doubt, the issue that caused most attention was that of the new rule introduced for native working hunter ponies qualifying for Hickstead, which insists that all qualifying shows include a water splash in the course.

Apparently, it was the subject of considerable discussion at the National Pony Society Scotland agm and little did I know that this has been the subject of much debate and concern south of the Border.

A recent show report reflected the trouble caused by the addition of a water splash made to a qualifier at the South Western Counties Show, held at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire.

I loved the correspondent’s comment that: “… huge numbers of competitors met their Waterloo at the water splash.” According to my sources, all this nonsense is down to a water splash in the arena at Hickstead which caused problems in the final last year. Would the sensible approach not have been to miss out the water splash in this year’s final to avoid a repeat of last year?

I notice that prominent producer and columnist, Stuart Hollings, has recently picked up on one of my other points regarding availability of schedules on-line and, better still, the ability to enter on-line.

The Royal Highland Show administration must have been purring with glee as they read my comments on this, as not only are the 2010 show schedules available for download from the official website right now, but, by the time you read this article, you’ll find that you are able to enter on-line as this facility is available from March 22.

Obviously, I haven’t been able to try it out as my column deadline comes before this date. However, I found access to the schedule and entry forms easy and straight forward.

Congratulations to the RHAS for stepping up to the mark on this one and letting us know about it through its recent livestock and competitions newsletter, Hoofbeat. I also notice that the administrators hope that by receiving entries on-line, they ‘won’t run the risk of making mistakes through having misinterpreted your handwriting.’

This sounds like a good idea and may help to avoid a major error last year when the name of one of last year’s champions didn’t even appear in the catalogue. It had to be someone’s error.

Having said all this, I can understand how some people like to have a hard copy of a schedule in their hand, a bit like a good book, it isn’t the same on CD or on the screen of some sort of gizmo.

This year’s Highland equine schedule (or prize list as it is called) looks great on the outside and there are some visible improvements on the layout inside.

However, hot on the heals of the lengthy rule books, my heart sank when I noticed that of the 84 pages of information, rules and regulations, only 37 pages make direct reference to the actual class numbers and given that there are around 190 classes in total, my calculation arrives at an average of less than six classes per page of the 37 noted.

That does not seem many to me and it explains why eyes may be weary looking for the specific class to enter and may even explain why mistakes are made.

Because I am so enthusiastic about the Highland, I would like everything to be just right, so I can’t help laughing each time I see the inconsistency of how Highland and Shetland ponies are classified.

They are a ‘heavy horse’ for the purposes of tradition (‘aye been’ I think) and a ‘light horse’ for the ridden classes and major championships, where they are defined by everyone else as native breeds of ponies.

The nerd in me also reads the schedule in some detail and I can’t get my head round the notion of what constitutes the age difference between a stallion and a colt or a mare and a filly when everyone accepts that four years of age denotes the senior starting point?

According to the schedule, apparently Clydesdale yeld mares can be three or four years of age and Highland stallions can be three years old, while Shetland ponies don’t have stallions but ‘entire males’; there is some consolation that the Shetland colts are unmistakably two or three years old.

In addition, Shetland pony mares have luck on their side because if they are entered as ‘yeld’ but prove to be in foal not only is the foal a bonus to the mare’s owner but they are also eligible to transfer to the ‘mare with foal at foot class’.

Strangely this rule does not apply to any other section: I wonder why? Are these regulations a ‘heavy horse’ thing – perhaps someone will let me know?

Needless to say this has nothing at all to do with the RHAS administration but, yet again, merely some of the idiosyncrasies that belong to the various societies to which they affiliate.

Sadly, at the point of reading, the irrationality of it all reflects on the Royal Highland and not on the societies. Additionally, it must confuse show organisers as much as it confuses me to understand the rules that regulate the eligibility for qualification for the Horse of the Year Show.

I see from the schedule if you hope to qualify your ridden hunter, you must be in the top two places – mountain and moorland lead rein, first ridden and open ridden ponies have less of a mountain to climb but only just because qualification goes down to third place for them.

I was unable to find a direction in the schedule for working hunter ponies, qualifying this year at the ‘Highland’ for the first time, however, according to the British Show Pony Society Rule Book, qualification goes down to fifth place. Lucky for the riding horses, coloured horses and ponies, too, as they can qualify down to fifth place.

I am certain that the rationale is wrapped up in maintaining standards but it is confusing nevertheless and not something likely to be relished by the Horse of the Year Show organisers, Grandstand Media, which has the franchise for the show at present. I am surprised that it goes along with this ragged approach to qualification.

The qualification confusion may be highlighted in show schedules but not a product of them, although, the same cannot be said for timetables. I have to ask, is 7.45am the best time of day for little people on their leading rein ponies? It is scarcely the best time of day for anyone, never mind the ‘tinies’.

Surely there is a way to get round this one, particularly since their grannies won’t be able to watch them as the show doesn’t open until 8am and they will only get in if they have booked an admittance ticket in advance.

I also see that there is a curious rearrangement of the running order of the open ridden native ponies that qualify for the Horse of the Year Show.

Since the section relocates from the expanse of the busy, main ring to a smaller, quieter, pony ring late in the morning, the devil in me questions why a large breed’s class should be moved there unless, of course, some sort of pressure has been applied?

There is no sponsor to accommodate, so why change the running order when it went smoothly last year?

It is marvellous news that the show jumping section at this year’s Highland has received significant sponsorship and good news, too, that our Scottish show jumpers are fairing well on the Sunshine Tour, in Southern Spain.

It would be wonderful to think that one day our riders might be mounted on Scottish-bred horses – that would really be a reason for flying the saltire.

We are already seeing some success in this area with good Scottish horses competing successfully. However, at the end of the day, it comes down to a numbers game, as well as breeding acumen.

The numbers being bred on continental Europe are massive compared to Scotland. For example, Paul Schockemöhle, the world-famous show jumper, is breeding more performance foals annually at his stud in North-east Germany than we breed in total in Scotland each year. It is little wonder that some of his horses are coming to the top of international competition.

With an increased number of veterinary practices now offering breeding services to mare owners, the opportunities afforded to use top class performance stallions using artificial insemination have increased dramatically.

Recently, I attended a talk by a neighbouring vet practice to my own which has introduced stud services as part of its repertoire. The Loch Leven Equine Practice has been fortunate to secure the services of a young Australian vet, Jen Lugton, who has come to Scotland with a vast experience gained at the Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital, in Victoria, which annually caters for around 2500 brood mares for routine reproductive work.

In addition, frozen semen is held from more than 250 stallions and some 200 embryo transfers are performed each year. The hospital also has a research/recipient herd of around 300 mares.

As far as I am aware there is nothing to match it in Britain. It would be difficult, even. for the university veterinary hospitals to match this level of practical experience within the field of reproduction.

With an improved service such as this and with such a large number of top class stallions available internationally using frozen semen, it is now within the reach of the small breeder, in as little as three generations, to produce a world class performance horse – on paper at least.

It may take a bit longer in reality. There is no certainty in breeding, nor in betting for that matter – as last week’s racing at Cheltenham proved with the massacre of favourite after favourite and the fairytale £1m bonus that began last November did not come true as Go Native was well and truly beaten in the Champion Hurdle by an unusually delighted AP McCoy, riding a brilliant Binocular.

One certainty that does still exist, though, is the power of the Thoroughbred industry which continues to ban from the racecourse any Thoroughbred got by artificial means.

For the foreseeable future, science will only be able to assist natural reproduction and not control it for the race horse breeder.