IT was a wonderful night at the annual Showjumping Ireland National Pony Awards Ball last Saturday night, with over 280 awards presented to the young stars of the future.

Internationally, there was some great successes throughout the year, beginning with the Children On Horses team who took home silver at the European Championships through the hard work of Sarah Fitzgerald, Ciaran Foley, Isobel Hughes Kennedy, Lucy Morton and Rhys Williams.

Williams was also recognised for his individual gold medal achievement in the Children On Horses category.

The Ian Fearon International Rookie of the Year award was presented to Max Wachman who claimed the Under 16/pony individual silver medal at the European Championships during the summer.

The Special Achievement award very deservingly went to Katie Power for her impressive performance at the FEI Pony Jumping Trophy final to take home first place in December of last year.

Both Wachman and Power were also presented with prizes for their team fourth placing at the European Championships alongside Francis Derwin and Tom Wachman.

Irish show jumping also proved dominant at the Youth World Cup, and the team of Katie Power, Charlotte Houston, Ella Quigley and Seamus Hughes Kennedy received prizes on the evening, presented by chef d’equipe Gary Marshall.

The awards also recognised international achievements, national leagues, RDS winners, and the Home Pony International teams on the evening, alongside Show of the Year and Centre of the Year.

The Under 10 regional up and coming winners were happily surprised when each regional committee member chose one athlete that they believe to be stars of the future.

Helen Walsh (Connaught), Alanna Fagan (Leinster), Gemma Buckley (Munster) and Zara Jane Kelly (Ulster) were all present to collect their prizes.

The Standalone Show of the Year was awarded to Newmarket-on-Fergus, with Banner Equestrian taking home the Centre of the Year.

The TRI Equestrian National Champions - Gemma Buckley, Senan Reape, Max Foley and Aisling McGuinness - were all presented with beautiful trophies from Dermot Kelly of TRI Equestrian.

The Pony committee of Showjumping Ireland would like to take this opportunity to thank all their valued sponsors who were so generous with their support once again in 2018, as well as all the parents and athletes for attending the awards evening and supporting the auction to raise funds for the 2019 TRI Equestrian National Pony Championships.