BRITAIN’s Jane Tolley will judge the combinations forward for the dressage phase of the Pony Club combined training championships at next week’s Dublin Horse Show just after 4.30pm on Friday, as the second round of jumping for the Aga Khan trophy gets under way.

I have no idea how many Olympic show jumping horses will be appearing in the Main Arena but I do know that Sam Watson’s ride in the eventing competition at the 2021 Tokyo Games, Tullabeg Flamenco, is due to start in the Members’ combined training competition in Ring 1.

Elsbeth Kennedy’s 16-year-old dun Irish Sport Horse gelding by Tullabeg Fusion will be partnered by Ben Buckley, a member of the Co Limerick Hunt Branch of the Irish Pony Club who qualified through Area 9. Tipperary’s Kate Walsh, who won this class last August on Beechtree Watchful, returns with Clare Corballis and Carol Gee’s Dutch Warmblood gelding Copy Cat WM, a seven-year-old Catoccini WM bay whom she competes at EI110 (J) level.

Among those combinations qualified for the Intermediate championship is the Area 6 representative Lilly Berry McLaughlin, a member of the Clew Bay Branch of the IPC, with the Connemara gelding General Sinatra. Berry McLaughlin and the 13-year-old General Humbert grey are due to start in one of the flat Connemara classes on Thursday.

The jumping phase of the combined training classes takes place at 4pm in Ring 2 on Saturday.

Equitation

The Karlswood High Performance Centre continues its sponsorship of the Junior equitation classes which will come under the scrutiny of Britain’s Marie-Claire Nimmo in the Simmonscourt Arena on Sunday when the first combination is due start at 8am. Always highly competitive, these two classes (for ponies not exceeding 138cms and not exceeding 153cms) are judged solely on the performance of the riders who come from the worlds of show jumping, showing and eventing.

While Rachel Westphal will be displaying her skills in the 138cms class on the 22-year-old mare Clonross Giselle (by Grange King’s Surf), Lily Walsh will be assessed for her performance in the saddle in the 153cms class on the four-year-old mare Uilinn Gleorte (by Vivant van de Heffnick).

Ringside vocal encouragement is part and parcel of next week’s Pony Club mounted games competition in Ring 1 where the heats take place at mid-afternoon on Saturday with the final scheduled for early afternoon on Sunday.

The last of four qualifiers for this Senior A competition was held at Carnew Show on Saturday, July 19th, when the Carlow Branch came out on top, adding to their victory the previous day at Durrow. Alphabetically, they head the list of the six qualified teams followed by Duhallow, Kildare, Laois, Shillelagh (who are the current holders of the Leonard trophy) and Tipperary.