Latest news: Read about the winner of the 2024 Fred Taylor Memorial competition.
Hill ponies, symbolic of Scotland’s sporting heritage, can also be spotted throughout the weekend.
Attendees will get to meet these kind natured animals and admire their beauty as they take part in a series of demonstrations over the weekend, in addition to the Fred Taylor Memorial competition, in memory of the late Fred Taylor who was Head Stalker on Invermark Estate in Angus, on Sunday 7 July.
All hill ponies entered should be accompanied by a stalker/ghillie in estate or sporting wear and ponies should be turned out in appropriate tack for the hill, either to carry a stag, or panniers, or other hill work.
Every pony entered must be working or have worked on an estate or deer forest during the stalking/shooting season.
The 2024 winner was Kevin Wilson with Dawnie from the Duke of Westminster’s Reay Forest Estate.
The Story of Fred Taylor
“Fred Taylor worked nearly all his life at Invermark and was Head Keeper for about 30 years,” said the Earl of Dalhousie, owner of Invermark.
“He was very widely liked and respected by his team, by the many visitors to Invermark and in the wider gamekeeping fraternity. He was also particularly good at bringing on ponies for stalking and, with his wife Anne, had planned to breed Highland ponies in his retirement.
“Sadly he died in 2012 with just a year to go. It seems very fitting that the GWCT should propose a Fred Taylor Memorial Trophy, to be awarded for the best turned out working stalking pony and ponyman.”
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