WHEN 10-year-old Adele Rycroft packs for the Spring Show today she will be including a very special picnic.

Packed in the basket will be carefully-cut wholemeal sandwiches with molasses, carrots and apples.

It might sound like a strange combination, but for her dainty little chestnut Rosie Red, it’s the perfect treat — as long as they’re cut into triangles and not squares.

Adele was the youngest competitor in the dressage section of the Spring Show yesterday. It was her first “real” Show, and the excitement was bubbling at the end of a very long day.

She has done a couple of Shows a few years back in lead rein classes, but this was her first one on her own.

With Rosie Red — or Nosey Rosie as Adele likes to call her because she puts her soft little nose into absolutely everything — Adele did two dressage tests and a rider class.

Today she has a few more flat classes and, even if she does not pick up a ribbon, the Ngatapa School Year 6 student will be happy.

“I love riding, especially cantering up and down hills with my mum.”

Mum is Angela, who found and bought Rosie last December and, with Shirley Hyland, trains Adele and her new pony.

Adele’s previous pony was the rather naughty Lucy. A nasty broken arm after a fall was almost the end for Adele, who has been riding since she was four.

“She just bucked me off too much, so I didn’t want to ride her any more,” says Adele.

Then they found Rosie and had her at the Waingake farm for a trial just days before Christmas.

“It was Christmas Day and Mum told me to go outside to see my present . . . it was Rosie. She was asleep under the feijoa tree in the garden. I was so pleased.

“I love doing dressage tests, but I want to do everything . . . like eventing too,” says Adele.

“It can be quite hard to teach my pony the dressage moves but once she has it, she is good at it. She’s actually good at everything.”

She is sure Rosie will look after her.

“There is this place we go to ride at Te Puru near home and it is a bit spooky, but I think Rosie would look after me there, unless she was really scared.”

Nerves don’t come into it when these two enter a dressage arena or the show ring — especially when there’s a yummy picnic to be had at the end of the class.