COMPARED to others, John Bannon didn’t have too many horses to compete last Sunday, day two of the Tattersalls Ireland July Show, but he was kept busy all the same going between different parts of the grounds.

His day started in the performance horse arena where he finished second, and thus earned a ticket, in the four-year-old section of the Dubarry Burghley young event horse qualifier on his Irish Sport Horse gelding A Good Call. This son of Rock ‘N Roll Ter Putte won the potential event horse class at Dublin last August and will be returning to Ballsbridge next week having qualified for the four-year-old young event horse class.

From competing before Vanda Stewart (dressage) and Ian Fearon (jumping) and showing A Good Call in hand to Alistair Pim, John stayed on his feet, swopping A Good Call for his three-year-old gelding, Clarecastle Spirit, who he led up to the youngstock area. There the chesnut ISH gelding by Alicante, who is also going to Dublin, finished third and, as can be seen in the accompanying photo, John handed over the rosette to his eight-month-old daughter Isabel while wife Sarah, who had been videoing the action, took this photograph.

En famille, the trio, plus Clarecastle Spirit, plus Dumpling the dog, then walked all the way back down the grounds to the parking area where, following a change of jacket and footwear, John hopped on to his hunter Darcy. Now it was straight up to the Main Arena for Sarah and Isabel, while John went on a bit of a detour to join Sean Watson and senior whippers-in with the Ward Union Hunt, Ronan O’Dwyer and Paul Carberry.

The four then met up with new huntsman Niall Dunne and kennel huntsman Michael Lynch who had brought 15 and a half couple, a mix of modern and old English foxhounds, from the kennels in Greenpark to parade in the Main Arena following the judging of the show’s hunter championship. Without having to jump anything, it was like a lap of honour for John, who will be hoping to do the same next Thursday morning in the Main Arena at Dublin. While supportive of her husband, Sarah is looking further ahead - to the return of the hunting season.