THE final class of the 2018 Clifden show was the perfect curtain closer of the jam-packed week which saw visitors from as far as Australia and North America descend on the west of Ireland town to see the native breed at their flagship show.

The exciting Puissance class attracted nine entries on this occasion to battle it out for the €1,000 prize on offer to the winner. That prize money stayed local as Renvyle rider Talitha Diamond produced the best performance of the class to win outright in the fourth round.

Two of the starting nine faulted in the first round when the wall stood at 1.20m. Seven then went forward to the second round when course designer Charles Hanley raised the height to 1.35m and everyone managed to progress.

As the crowd got behind the riders, the wall was raised another 15cm to 1.50m and in that round former winners Alicia Devlin Byrne (Blackwood Fernando), Pataire Crawford (Clifden Silver and Ardfry Soren) and Justine O’Hara (Lettermuckoo Lad) all went out.

The fourth round stood at 1.55m and Diamond was first to go with Sea Storm (Ballinavilla Prince - Little Nora), the pony she rode on winning Irish team at the Dublin Horse Show a week early and in Clifden on Wednesday. There was a large roar from the Clifden show grounds when she cleared the Puissance wall and set the standard. Diamond was also one of the joint winners of this class in 2017.

Padraig Geoghegan was next to take it on with Gearóid Curran’s Glencarrig Joey (Bunowen Bobby – Glencarrig Starling) but knocked a brick out to finish in second place.

After finishing fourth in the High Performance final, Charlie of Blakehill was back to challenge for a win in the Puissance, this time ridden by Caoimhe Curran, but they too faulted in the fourth round to finish joint second.