Change for mini show horse

Star miniature horse Trostan will trot his stuff at next Tuesday's Waverley A and P Show, before having a career change.
Five-year-old Trostan is owned by Waverley retired soldier Ianto Metcalfe. They came together in Taumarunui when Trostan was six months old, with the plan of Trostan pulling his owner around town in a buggy, as his mother did for her owner.
However, the pair were tempted into the show ring. Last season they won 86 ribbons, including champion jumper at Waverley and two fifths at the national miniature horse show in Hawera.
In their first show season they won 70-odd ribbons. Mr Metcalfe has decided the time has come for Trostan to be trained for his buggy-pulling role, and that will start in earnest after the Waverley show.
He hopes at the next national show in March Trostan can enter the harness section.
"He's used to long reining, so I'm hoping we'll train pretty well, then I'll be able to gallop around the town," Mr Metcalfe said.
Preparing for Waverley hasn't been all clover for Trostan. He was putting on weight and needed some discipline, so for the past three weeks he has been in Wanganui undergoing training.
Mr Metcalfe said he was prone to spoiling the horse, but Trostan could also open the fridge and help himself to apples.
"He's very shrewd. They're very intelligent, these little fellows."
At 83 and in need of occasional assistance from a walking stick, Mr Metcalfe can only do the best-presented section of a show, where he doesn't have to run. A teenager looks after Trostan in the other sections.
Mr Metcalfe is experienced at showing animals. His Siamese cat, Princess Baby, is a New Zealand double grand champion, and he's also shown Mr Midshipman Hornblower in the domestic cat section.
His next goal after buggy travel is turning 100.
"I'm after the Queen's telegram, if we're not a republic by then."
This is the third year the Waverley A and P show has had a miniature horse section and 43 horses had entered, president Shane Alexander said.
A highlight of the show, the 83rd, would be Joe Lumsden's stunt horse riders from Palmerston North.
All the show favourites, such as hacks and ponies, dog trials, fencing, calves, lambs and home industries would be there.
Mr Alexander said the trade exhibitions were full and he encouraged locals to support the show, which will be held at Dallison Park.
"It's one of the few community things that Waverley has. We just need the numbers."
People who hadn't been for a few years would be surprised by how the show had grown, he said.
"We've got everything that a big show has except a big show crowd."
Show jumping starts at 9am and the grand parade is at 2pm.