IRISH riders competing on the international show jumping circuit get little time off during the year and their victories worldwide over the past 12 months have been written about extensively each week in the Irish Horse World. The highlights of their 2018 performances have been covered elsewhere in these annual reviews.

Just a note here to say that contained in the first issue of the Irish Horse World of 2018 was a report on the victory at Mechelen of Kilkenny’s Seamus Hughes Kennedy in the inaugural FEI Pony Jumping Trophy Final. The 15-year-old rode the remarkable Cuffesgrange Cavalidam, a Luidam 13-year-old who wasn’t broken until she was nine.

In discussing the Eamon Sheehan-bred mare who is out of Cuffesgrange Millennium (by Cavalier Royale), the ground-breaking rider’s mother Clare quoted her late father, Seamus Hughes: “Not all well-bred horses are good horses, but all good horses are well-bred horses.”

The sale of Cuffesgrange Cavalidam was confirmed in that same issue of the paper and this year she won an individual silver medal at the European pony championships in Bishop Burton and the Stuttgart pony Grand Prix, a leg of the 2018 FEI Pony Jumping Trophy, under Tipperary’s Max Wachman.

SHOWING IRELAND

Rarely, does anything happen to shake up the ridden show horse circuit but this year a new organisation, Showing Ireland, was established to promote the discipline, its riders and producers.

Also, thanks to sponsorship from Connolly’s Red Mills, a countrywide Champion of Champions series was launched with the final at Tattersalls July Show pitching the cream of the island’s show hunters against one another in front of English judges.

The champion, reserve champion and highest-placed four-year-old from eight specified shows qualified for that Co Meath final where the winner, Daphne Tierney’s Bloomfield Waterfall, was crowned Connolly’s Red Mills Champion of Champions.

Ridden and produced by Jane Bradbury, the five-year-old grey Watermill Swatch gelding took the title ahead of Victoria Tennant’s chesnut Quidam Junior I gelding MHS Charlie Fox who, ridden by Aubrey Chapman, was also the champion four-year-old.

Connolly’s Red Mills are to continue with their sponsorship of the Champion of Champions series next year with an increased prize-fund. While there may changes to some qualifying venues, the final will once again take place during Tattersalls July Show.

Cover photo

ON Saturday, April 21st, a superb photograph appeared on the front cover of the Irish Horse World of Jonty Evans and his crowd-funded purchase Cooley Rorkes Drift following their win in the CIC3* at Belton Park the previous weekend.

Sadly, the pair, who finished ninth in the Rio Olympics, were unavailable for selection for the World Equestrian Games as a fall on the cross-country phase of the CIC3* at Tattersalls at the beginning of June resulted in Evans suffering a serious brain injury. He spent seven weeks in a coma in Ireland and, while much improved, is still undergoing rehabilitation at Oaksey House in Lambourn thanks to support from the David Foster Injured Riders Fund.

Another to miss the Games was Aoife Clark who suffered concussion in a fall at Millstreet

Rural crime

THE increase in rural crime hit the equestrian community as well as others mainly through burglaries of yards, rugs being stolen right off horses and ponies in fields and vehicles being stolen at hunt meets.

Sadly, in one incident, an arson attack on the Lenamore Stables in Co Donegal of Geraldine Graham and her son Kenneth, two of five horses in a barn were killed, a lorry was burned to the ground while extensive damage was caused to buildings in the yard.

Riding profiles

EMER Bermingham, a regular contributor to the Irish Horse World, mainly writing about show jumping at local, underage and amateur levels and providing excellent rider profiles, covered the issue this year of over height ponies.

A trip to Fontainebleau in the spring saw good results for Irish riders but five ponies were measured out and from then Bermingham found herself regularly returning to the topic. In mid-October, she reported that owners were calling for clarity from Showjumping Ireland ahead of the measuring season.