AT the Dublin Horse Show last year, one pony won two classes with two different riders. That pony was Rookery Haribo, and he began by winning the first ridden class with then eight-year-old Penny Toomey in the saddle, before being pulled in at the top of the line with Penny’s younger sister Millie in the show hunter pony lead rein that evening.

“He’s a real little dinger,” says the girls’ mother, Marianne Power. “We’ll have Haribo three years in August. Millie was three and a half, and she was actually riding off the lead rein on a very old pony, when Mum (Geraldine Power) decided we needed something a little bit more forward for her because she was very keen. Mum had sold a three-year-old to a very nice girl in Scotland, and saw an advert on her Facebook page for a lovely little pony so she messaged her. Ellis [the vendor] is very trustworthy, so Mum literally bought the pony over Facebook, and rang me to say ‘I have a pony arriving from Scotland next week’.

“We didn’t know what he was going to be like,” Marianne continues, “but he arrived on a Friday evening and we were going to Iverk Show the next day, so he came with us and he was a little pro. He hadn’t done anything for the previous year, because Ellis had him for her niece in Scotland, and she was only a tiny tot. Penny had only done one lead rein class that first summer we had him when we entered her for Dublin, and she was second in her class. I really had no clue about showing small ponies then. I remember the night before our first show a good friend, Sandra Barnwell, texted me and said ‘Make sure you clip the lead rein onto the noseband and not the bit’, and if she hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have known.”

Haribo’s double at Dublin was just one of many standout achievements in a stellar season for the small grey pony in 2025. He was also supreme champion at Balmoral and at the IPS summer championships, as well as turning his hoof to working hunters, pony club rallies and camp. Haribo maintained his good form at Balmoral this time round, taking the 2026 mini championship with Millie. “He’s a gem of a pony, really,” says Marianne. “Millie was able to canter him round the fields at home aged four, and Daisy (the third of four members of the Toomey clan) is going to rallies on him at the moment.”

Millie Toomey and Rookery Haribo won the Lead rein show hunter pony class at the 2025 Dublin Horse Show \ 1st Class Images

While Haribo’s win on Saturday evening might have concluded the show on a high for the Power/Toomey family, their week started equally successfully when Geraldine’s Pine View Ice Cool won Wednesday’s Connemara performance hunter class for five to seven-year-old ponies under Debbie Flavin. Geraldine had bought the then five-year-old by Ice and Fire D’Albran as a foal from breeder Sharon Walsh, and she takes up his story: “I bought him with the intention of keeping him for the grandchildren, but the timeframe didn’t work out.”

“Debbie did a fantastic job of producing him. He won the Stepping Stones too, and within 30 minutes of his result at Dublin the offers started coming in and he was sold the following week. Everyone wants a pony who has done well at Dublin,” Geraldine emphasises, “and there are plenty of customers out there for them.” She points back to her homebred Cillbhrid Fudge, who, after finishing third in the now discontinued small event horse performance class with her niece Evelyn Farrell, was sold within a week.

Debbie Flavin and Geraldine Power's Pine View Ice Cool won the Connemara Performance five to seven-year-old class at the 2025 Dublin Horse Show \ 1st Class Images

Everybody’s dream

Geraldine and Marianne share a passion for breeding, and their broodmare herd currently includes six sport horses and two Connemaras. For Marianne, attending Dublin every year as a child helped ignite this interest. “What I loved most about attending the Horse Show every year was the pedigrees,” she says. “Watching the pedigrees and what stallions were prominent in what classes. I’ve always had a love of breeding and I love watching the young horse classes in Dublin to see what stallions are coming up, and the international classes too. We’ve had a few homebreds compete across a variety of classes in Dublin, primarily in the show jumping young horse classes, and in the young event horse series as well.”

The first of their homebreds to bring the Cillbhrid prefix to the Dublin Horse Show was Cillbhrid April, who was well-placed in the Mo Chroi four-year-old championship when ridden by Paddy O’Donnell in 2014. “It’s everybody’s dream to see a horse they’ve bred compete in Dublin,” says Geraldine, “and April was our first. She was a third generation homebred, and the intention was always to keep her as a foundation mare. She came about when Marianne [a vet, like her husband Bill Toomey] was working for Tom Meagher in Kedrah and he suggested using Lux Z on her dam. Then Magette suggested I put points on April before she went to stud, and that’s how we came to qualify for Dubin.”

April’s progeny include Cillbhrid Calvin (by Comilfo Plus Z), who has competed up to 1.45m level internationally under Tom Wachman, as well as Cillbhrid Millie (by Andiamo Semilly), whom the Powers sold through the Supreme Sale of Show Jumpers at Goresbridge. This mare has already contested five-year-old qualifiers with another Waterford native, Orla Queally, and will hopefully make it to Dublin in August. The same can be said for Cillbhrid Queenie (Untouchable x Luidam), also sold through that select sale to Susan Fitzpatrick, who jumped clear in the four-year-old section at the horse show last year, ridden by Emma McEntee.

Cillbhrid Excel, winning with Natasha Foley last year \ Tadhg Ryan bit-media.com

Cillbhrid Excel, meanwhile, has already secured a ticket to the Children on Horses classes with Charlotte Foley, alongside competing on youth teams abroad this year. “Excel was Mum’s experiment with crossing a 14hh Connemara mare by Fricotin with Master Blue in the hope that she’d have a very good 14.2hh pony,” says Marianne, “but I think Excel is actually standing around 16.2hh!”

The pair have two three-year-olds themselves targeting Dublin qualifiers. Cillbhrid Sky (by Livello) will contest the potential event horse classes, while Cillbhrid Duke (by Dorkan Hero Z) will be aimed at the three-year-old loose jumping equivalent. Geraldine also has a five-year-old mare, Cillbhrid Emma (by Lucky Luck), who bred a foal last year and is consequently being prepared for the four-year-old show jumping and young event horse qualifiers by Mikey Moran.

“I was disappointed to see that the Breeders’ Championship isn’t going to take place this year,” says Marianne. “It’s a class I loved watching, and it was lovely to see some of the traditionally bred foals every year. That said, I think the addition of the foal sale can only be a positive thing because of the audience who attends the show. I think the show provides a wonderful shop window for young horses, and both Mum and I get huge satisfaction out of watching our homebreds in Dublin and through the qualifiers every year.

“I look forward to the Horse Show every year,” concludes Geraldine. “Not just to watching the best of Irish horses and ponies perform, but also to meeting and learning from our many friends in the horse world.”

This article is taken from The Irish Field’s Dublin Horse Show Magazine 2026. Order your copy HERE