FOR the third Saturday in a row, the Tullymurry Equestrian Centre near Downpatrick was a hive of activity as the North Down Branch of The Pony Club hosted the 2019 Area Eventing qualifier.

Only two riders, both representing North Down, contested the Open class where Kathryn McKribbin followed up on her EI110 win at the same venue seven days earlier with her nine-year-old grey gelding Seapatrick Murphy.

Eight squads contested the Intermediate team qualifier where the scores were very close between the top four. Narrowly taking the honours were the Iveagh Pandas quartet of Sarah Moore (Kilgarvin Morning Misty), Felicity Ferris (Deepspring Tookanoo), Meabh McIlduff (Dalsown Done And Dusted) and Connie Crothers (Estella Great Expectations).

Charlotte Keers of North Down topped the leaderboard in Arena 1 with the seven-year-old Connemara gelding Western Ocala, on whom she has won two EI100 (P) classes this year, most recently at Tullymurry (2), while it was East Down’s Caoimhe Crozier who came out best in Arena 2 on the 17-year-old Jobanker Mystic Mink gelding Mon Ami Tonnerre who is usually ridden by Tom Rowlatt-McCormick.

Again, there were only two participants in the Open Novice where a clear show jumping round secured victory for the Iveaghs’ Emma-Jane Orr riding the Glaslough EI90 (P) winner Jazzy Susie, a 12-year-old skewbald mare.

Novice team

The North Down Red team of Emma McClenaghan (Loughries By Chance), Claire Ireland (Technicolour Dream), Lauren McGlennon (OMS Lady Esquire) and Olivia Byrne (Buck Rogers) saw off 16 others to win the Novice team competition.

The individual winners were Killultagh’s Lucy Toombs and the eight-year-old grey mare Mithril Lace (Arena 3), who were also successful at Glaslough this year but in an open EI90 competition, and Hannah Thompson of the Mid Antrim Branch riding the nine-year-old Loughry Lad mare Jemeela Charm (Arena 4) on whom she won an EI90 class at Killossery (1).

The Killultagh Branch struck again when Niamh Fitzpatrick (Blackhill Border Fox), Rebekah McKinstry (Cornhill Rose), Anna McErlean (Raford Jack) and Fitzpatrick a second time with Murphy GCS won the Grassroots qualifier in which nine teams competed. Second in the EI80 class at Tullymurry (2), McErlean partnered the nine-year-old Connemara gelding Raford Jack to win Arena 5 while the Iveaghs’ representative, Melissa McKinstry, won Arena 6 with the 15-year-old dun mare, Simply Dun.

While members of Area 17 who have qualified will be heading over to The Pony Club championships at Cholmondeley Castle (August 16th to 20th), those younger members who have qualified through the regional/grassroots competitions will be travelling late this coming week to the Ian Stark Equestrian Centre in Scotland.

The final Area competition for 2019, the Home eventing championships, will be hosted by the Seskinore Branch on Monday, August 26th, at Lusks Equestrian Centre outside Lisburn.