JILL Brown may not have emulated her 2024 success by landing the supreme ridden horse championship at last weekend’s Association of Irish Riding Clubs’ annual Festival but she left the Mullingar Equestrian Centre with plenty of prizes and rosettes, most notably as winner of the Horse Sport Ireland breed working hunter championship.

As 12 months ago, Brown, who is a member of the Drynam club, claimed the title with her nine-year-old Gortfree Hero grey, A Hero’s Welcome, on whom she finished second in the Irish Draught class to Cill Dara’s Fionnuala Lennon riding her seven-year-old Kiltybane Naldo gelding Tallyho McGuire.

Compete

The two Traditional Irish Horses who were selected as winners to compete for this title by judges Tony Ennis and Michael McGaffin were the Samantha FitzSimons-ridden DS The Chic Magnet, a 12-year-old Cruising For Chics gelding who topped the line-up in the RC80 open, and the similarly-aged Emperor Augustus gelding Coevers Emperor who landed the RC90 open under Highland Lodge’s Rosalind Briggs.

Westport’s Sadhbh Gannon and her riding horse champion, Dingle Bay, had to settle for second in the thoroughbred working hunter class to the well-known performance partnership of Mosstown’s Patricia Newman and her 11-year-old Campaign Swing gelding Cry Of The Dreamer. However, it was Westport’s Lauren Kerins who filled the reserve champion slot with her Connemara class winner Lankill Lad, a 13-year-old Dunally Lad grey.