THE Campbell family had a quiet start to their Bank Holiday weekend with the Eventing Ireland Northern Region one-day event on Saturday. However, their peace was shattered on Monday when huge numbers of Area 17 members descended on the Co Antrim venue for the home championships in eventing which were hosted by the North Derry Branch.

Having arrived home from the British Show Pony Society championships in Grantham early on Sunday morning, the Logan family drove out of Knockagh View Equestrian Centre 24 hours later with one of the same ponies on board, Garnagree Golden Bravado. For this trip to Finvoy however, Thistledown Angelo was left behind with the veteran Llafar Barthez travelling in his stead.

‘Bart’, a 23-year-old Friars Concorde gelding, added to his hugely impressive CV by winning the sole assisted 40cm class, on his dressage score, under six-year-old Elliot Logan who, along with his fellow ‘Wasps’ - Charlotte Morton, Aria Kirk and Adalyn Wallace - won the Glebe Farm team championship for the East Antrim Branch.

Elliot, who was ‘assisted’ by Elliott’s very fit mother Ruth, as he was when winning the same titles at the home championships in Ballyvannon last year, claimed the family bragging rights, as his sister Amelia (eight) had to settle for reserve in the unassisted 40cm championship on the Goldengrove Bravado nine-year-old Garnagree Golden Bravado.

With no discard score, the East Antrim Robins trio of Lily Crawford, Jake Ross and Hannah Kernaghan won the Newtownstewart Construction 60cm team title but their Yellow foursome had to settle for the reserve slot at 70cm level where Harvey Copeland, Sophia McKenna, Annabel Storey and Georgia Storey, competing as the Bon Bons, claimed the Surefill Insulations championship for East Down.

The day’s hosts, North Derry, fielded the second-placed quartet in the NFU Mutual 50cm teams championship, sandwiched between two squads from North Down, the Tigers and the Panthers. It was the Tigers who topped the podium thanks to the efforts of Carter Greeves, Caelan Greeves, Georgia Davis and Grace Jackson.

North Down and East Antrim squads finished second and third in the Goliath unassisted 40cm teams championship behind the Route’s Tom McMorrow, Phoebe Ogle, Eimear McGill and Izzy Auld, but it was the North Downs’ Tilly Jones who was presented with the individual championship sash following her win on Ziggy.

The other lower level individual winners were the North Downs’ Grace Jackson on Stracomer Super Mario (50cm) and Annie Crawford of the Iveagh Branch, who topped the final leaderboard at 60cm level on Lockdown. The Fermanaghs’ Claudia Black left Dirraw Farm as the 70cm individual champion following her narrow victory on the Connemara gelding Donn Boy, a 14-year-old dun by Black Shadow.

Isabelle Kehoe (Iveagh PC) on Terry, winner of the 80cm Open Section at the Home Championships held at Dirraw Farm \ JRS Photography

Good test

The organisers also ran three open competitions which attracted Area 17 members keen to test themselves over the Adam Stevenson-built cross-country tracks (there were a lot of eliminations from 70cm up), on ground which had been well aggravated in advance of the weekend by Christopher Campbell.

In the Killen Bros 70cm class, there was a clear-cut win for Molly Reid of the North Down Branch riding the 13-year-old appaloosa mare Little Me.

There was a divide to the Sean O’Hara Car Sales 80cm open, with Section A resulting in another comfortable success, this time for the Iveagh Branch’s Isabelle Kehoe on Terry. The result was a lot closer in Section B where the Seskinore pair of Rebecca Sheridan and Callie Cooke finished first and second on Drumeagle Moonlite Express (33.8 penalties) and Beezies Minty (34.3) respectively, with East Down’s Cerys Owen slotting into third on Dam Boy (34.3).

These home championships, which were very well supported by various sponsors in addition to the ones mentioned above, wrapped up the Area 17 competitions for 2025.

Two members who won’t be putting away their Pony Club ties and badges until the end of the year are Rory McBride (Fermanagh) and Isla McGinty (East Antrim) who will be jumping in the Mini/Major competition at the London International Horse Show just before Christmas.