MR TED Cumbor, aged 73, and his wife Marjorie, 69, well-known Clydesdale breeders from Great Ayton, are to retire from showing their horses.

Having won many classes at the weekend's Wensleydale Show, they went on to take the Wensleydale agricultural society rosebowl for the champion animal with a yearling, Ayton Lady Marjorie.

Mr Cumbor said they had enjoyed a lot of success this year, with Ayton Lady Marjorie winning three championships, at Newark, Egton and Wensleydale, and her mother, Ayton Melody, a nine-year-old, winning three championships.

However, it was the couple's last Wensleydale Show after about 20 years, because they have decided to give up showing their horses.

They have spent more than 50 years showing Clydesdales, but it is now too much work getting the animals ready and transporting them all over the country.

"I'm not going to give up horses altogether; I'm going to keep one or two for breeding. I have to have something to look at in life; it's no use just sitting in the pub all day," said Mr Cumbor.

"We've had 40 first prizes this year and about seven championships, so we haven't done too badly, and we've got another two shows to go, Wolsingham and Stokesley.

"It just takes a lot out of you showing horses, it's not easy work at all. We've done 16 shows this year so far, from Newark to Perth in Scotland."

Mr Cumbor dismissed the idea of getting someone else to show his horses for him: "They wouldn't do them as I want them to be, because I'm a bit of a perfectionist. They have to be right."