ONE of the talking points at Tyrella last Saturday was the condition of the four Cooley Farm horses as they came off the truck with their gleaming skins being the envy of many.

The quartet had the EI100 performances to match their looks with wins for Fletcher and AKD Cooley Lockdown, while the other pair, Cooley At The Hilton and Lissyegan Cooley, just added cross-country time penalties to their respectable dressage scores.

Bethany Burton had the ride on Fletcher who claimed Section A on his winning flat work mark of 26.8. Having his first start under Eventing Ireland rules, the seven-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, who had done some show jumping in his homeland, is by Ustinov out of a Rex Z mare. Through Barry O’Connor, Richard Sheane purchased the bay from leading Dutch breeder and dealer Paul Hendrix.

Katie O’Sullivan also led from start to finish in Section B with another EI newcomer, AKD Cooley Lockdown (28.8). The nearly black Balou du Rouet gelding, who has a very distinctive white blaze, was bred in Co Armagh by Anna Dillon out of the Puissance mare AKD Possession, who was out of a Cruising mare.

Sheane purchased AKD Cooley from Edward ‘Rasher’ Widger and last year had the gelding’s year-younger full-brother who has since been sold to Scottish international Wills Oakden.

GREAT RESULTS

“Cooley graduates recorded great results on both sides of the Atlantic last weekend, so it’s great to see these younger horses starting their careers in the same way,” said Sheane. “While our horses are always for sale, the plan would be to build the numbers up to having 10 six or seven-year-olds to compete each year and get some mileage into them before selling them.”

Always keen to promote the use of ex-racehorses in eventing, I don’t think there can be a more perfect example of how useful these animals are than Rhona Healy’s Night Busker.

Now 19 years of age, the Accordion gelding has another young rider this season in Christopher Dehaene who, on his third start with the bay, landed the 13-runner EI100J class in spite of adding four show jumping penalties to his winning dressage score of 25.8.

Myra Greeves’s judging of the flat work phase also proved decisive in the EI100P class where, apart from one combination picking up a small amount of cross-country time penalties, the first seven completed on their dressage scores. The all-the-way winner was Caitie Slater riding Becky Cullen’s Connemara gelding Breeogue Breeze, a six-year-old by Gurteen Paddy who was having his third EI start.

Clare Steele partnered Linda Telford’s Homegrown Ajax to a second successive Lafarge Tarmac EI90 success when leading Section A from start to finish. Bred by Sylvia Henry and a seven-year-old gelded son of her Belgian Warmblood stallion Obelix, Homegrown Ajax is out of a Rachelle Comet mare.

Better known as a trainer and dressage rider, Amanda Goldsbury made her first competitive mount at an Irish event a winning one when landing Section B by a five-point margin on Michael McNally’s eight-year-old mare Hide N Seek.

WIN FOR BYRNE

Having enjoyed her trip to the Dengie Winter Finals in Britain recently, East Antrim Pony Club member Alex Byrne won the EI90P class on her second start with Forest Lodge Rambler. The nine-year-old Drimcong Cove gelding is owned by the rider’s mother Debbie, Horse Sport Ireland’s manager/chef d’equipe of the junior eventing high performance squad.