THE Mansergh-Wallace family lost a much-loved member of their team recently in their successful show hunter, Pebbly Huntingfield.

Bought by Philippa for her daughter Esme in 2007, after seeing just a video and photograph shown to her by family friend Shane McNamara, ‘Murphy’ returned from England, where his early results included third place in the intermediate show hunter class at the Horse of the Year Show.

Esme and Murphy’s decade-long partnership got off to a flying start when they won the small hunter class at Clonmel in 2008 and notched up many wins in intermediate, small and ladies hunter classes and amateur classes.

The grey, believed to be by Huntingfield Rebel, earned a number of Irish Pony Society awards, including back-to-back wins (2010, 2011) in the Intermediate of the Year category. He also recorded five wins in this same category at the Tipperary IPS awards. The final home county award was won in 2012, which was Esme’s last year in intermediate classes, designed for IPS members to make the transition from pony to horse ranks.

His most outstanding year was 2010, when Murphy had an unbeaten run in over 20 shows, including a memorable Dublin Horse Show. Murphy booked his place in Sunday’s parade of champions by winning the Amateur Sportsman hunter class and championship. He won the very first Intermediate hunter class held at the RDS on the following day and completed their red ribbon run with the show hunter pony championship.

Murphy’s last Dublin outing was in 2018 when the then-20-year-old placed fifth in the Sportsman lightweight class.

Described by his owners as “a true gentleman and character”, he was the first pony to greet whoever came into the yard in Grenane, usually hoping for some food! The larger-than-life character will be much missed by Esme and Philippa and his two stablemates, Derrymore Paddy Finn and Kilbride Billy Jo.