SOFIE Walshe scored the most impressive victory of the finals of this year’s Silver Spurs, held at the National Horse Arena in Abbottstown for the first time, when she won the open junior section by a margin of 14 marks.

Riding her own horse Kinsau, whom she also partnered at the Junior European Eventing championships in Millstreet this summer, she established an early lead of five marks over Katie Burns and Ramazotti’s Love. The horse swap allowed her to extend her lead, and her ride on Ramazotti’s Love also earned her the highest marks for position awarded across the championships.

Having completed her Leaving Cert this summer, not long after achieving a top-ten finish in Tattersalls CCIJ*, Walshe is looking forward to commencing her studies in UCD. She intends to use her bursary for training towards moving up to two-star level with Kinsau.

Tara Hayes added another title to the ones she has won at U12 and pony level when she won the open pony final. Her opponent in the ride-off was Vicky Campbell, a member of the Irish team at this year’s Pony European Championships, and there was little between the two of them after the first round.

The horse swap once again proved decisive however, and Hayes’s high score of 51.7 on Campbell’s Be My Snowflake allowed her to edge ahead.

“I’m thrilled to win the bursary,” said Hayes afterwards. “Both of my ponies are at novice level now, and my aim is to have one of them established at medium level by next spring, so I will need all the training I can get!”

Sandra Blake Farrell enjoyed great success in her role of trainer in the Open U25 ride-off, when Kevin Acres and Roisin Winters earned bursaries for finishing first and second respectively on their trainer’s horses. This was the third consecutive Silver Spurs victory for Acres, and his trainer called it a “massive achievement”.

“My horses Asterix and Troebadour behaved impeccably,” said the Dollanstown-based trainer. “They are the polar opposite of each other, which added to the excitement and showed how the ride-off is a real test of the rider and how they manage different types of horses. My students had a blast and did amazingly.”

Despite qualifying in third place with Debbie Burns’ Doncel 18, Nathan McCausland scored a convincing win in the regular U25 section. His performance on Siobhan Schous’s Derryvinane Herbie was the only test to break the 50-barrier in this section, and elevated him above both Schous and second-placed eventer Ella Boyle.

Interestingly, the veteran Herbie was the most consistent horse throughout the ride-off, earning the highest score in each of the three rounds.

Young event riders came to the fore in the finals of both the pony and junior sections, when Alex Byrne and Megan Telford Kelly earned the champions’ sashes to accompany their bursaries. Byrne is in her first season of affiliated eventing, and has already scored several wins at EI90P level, while Telford Kelly travelled to the finals from Millstreet, where she had jumped clear round the CCI* track.

Cillian Curran won the U12 topped the leader board in the U12 section, ahead of Shauna Fitzgibbon and another of Debbie Burns’ horses, Wee Cola.