THE Hughes family and Horse Sport Ireland’s Carriage driving section hosted the All Ireland Carriage Driving Championships in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, last week. This is the second year that drivers from all over Ireland have competed for honours in a single championship, following on from the inaugural All Ireland Championships held at Shanes Castle in Co Antrim last year.

Dressage was judged by international judges Martha Nicholl (USA), Barry Capstick (IRL) and Sarah Mullins (IRL) and saw some fantastic performances despite the inclement weather.

The test of the day came from Sara Clinghan driving Flash Harry in the novice horse class, with a score of 41.2 penalties; John Hughes was second in this class driving his Friesian-cross mare in her first season on 58.53.

The only other scores in the forties came from Des Sheridan with 46.67 in the open pony class and Jeffrey Lyons who scored 48 in the open horse division.

There were some very close scores in a number of classes including the novice pony, in which the first three placings after dressage, led by Michael Ryan driving his six-year-old Welsh-cross Tally Lyn Aron, were separated by just over two marks. The cones course was certainly worthy of a championship and caused quite a few problems.

The only double clear of the day came from Padraig Manogue, who went on to win the pre-novice class as well as the award for the best junior driver of the championships.

Vincent Duggan and Sara Clinghan had just one cone down each but the former had a faster time to take first place in the cones in the novice horse class. The best performing class in the cones was the open pony, with no driver finishing on more than 11.5 penalties.

In the open horse class, Alex Bryson’s performance closed the gap between him and Jeffrey Lyons to just 0.37 penalties. An unfortunate course error meant elimination for Michael Ryan, leader after dressage in the novice pony class, and the technical course led to a lot of high driving and time penalty scores across the classes, with the exception of the pre-novice and open pony classes, in which no driver finished on more than 11.5 penalties.

The marathon of just under 16km with six obstacles, including a water and high rise bank, took place on Sunday.

Judith McKeever, driving Ballinagree Siver Star in his first season, drove the fastest obstacle times of the novice pony to climb from third overnight to win the class, with Dawn O’Donnell and Emma Golding who had been in first and second both incurring substantial time penalties on Sections A and B respectively.

Richard Logan, fresh from an excellent result in the UK at Lowther, put in a very strong performance in the pony teams class, as did Ger Hennessy in the horse pairs and Folke Rohrssen in the advanced pairs; all three were winners of their respective classes.

The award for the best marathon went to Des Sheridan who won the open pony class as well as the Bolan Cup awarded to the best open competitor, while Alex Bryson took the open horse title over Jeffrey Lyons by just 1.1 penalties.

The championships saw strong showings from some of the country’s junior drivers.

Ross Ewing driving Sonny and Sprog won the open pony pairs, a fantastic achievement for a young driver. Briana O’Slatarra was third in the novice pony, having been placed second in dressage and third on marathon, while Sarah Hughes and Padraig Manogue won the Crystal combination and pre-novice classes respectively.