HURST Show Team’s Tattygare Me Me was Clare Oakes and David Kirkpatrick’s All-Ireland champion from a line-up of 14 in the A Browne/Horse Sport Ireland filly foal final at Moate.

Moving up from fifth to reserve place was Des McDonnell’s Sligo Cavalier Candy filly out of Lady Finess, a Voss full-sister to Bridget Devaney’s Emme, the winning mare in the 2023 show jumping section of The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship.

Darragh and Niamh Glynn’s foals - VG Plettenburg Bay and VG Lalibela - were promoted a place each to stand third and sixth respectively. The pair, by Niamh’s father John Varley’s Grandorado TN stallion Z7 Mevano, are named after landmarks in South Africa, where the couple spent their honeymoon last summer.

Slotting in between the Glynn pair was Valerie Davis’s filly by United Spirit, a son of German gold medal horse at Aachen, United Touch S. Becca Baby, her OBOS Quality 004 dam, is another former winning mare in The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship.

In fifth place and best turned-out was Mary Dooner’s Lady Laura, by the Gold Merit dressage Draught sire Steeped In Luck and out of the Loughehoe Guy dam Rockin Ruby.

The champion is by Lordships Graffalo’s sire, Grafenstolz. “We were very lucky we picked him. We work with vet John Haughey, and Grafenstolz was our first choice,” Shirley Hurst said.

While the team’s 2024 Dublin supreme hunter champion Tattygare Me Me Me (Arkan) is the Moate champion’s dam, Sunday’s champion was shown with a different mare. “‘Mammy’ is away working with Gwen Scott, jumping at 1.20m. We might give her another year jumping and then put her back as a broodmare. We’d like to return to Dublin with her, but she owes us nothing at the same time.

“We were very lucky with another mare on her first outing in Clarecastle [the Donal Cadden-bred Kilbrackan Cornet Queen and her Ermitage Kalone foal, the inaugural Banner Breeders’ Championship winners], so we have a few coming along,” said Shirley, who recalls winning this final, “probably in the early days. We passed by the former Moate Showgrounds today, I don’t know how they fitted everybody into it in the good old days! This show is getting bigger and bigger.”

Focus on bone

Both judges were on duty at Iverk the previous day. “A busy week with Clifden too! It’s a tremendously busy time and I’m grateful to be asked,” Clare Oakes said. “Outstanding quality” was her impression of their Moate finalists. “All expertly presented and what was really encouraging was the excellent movement.”

Her co-judge agreed, before adding a warning note. “She’s [Tattygare Me Me] a lovely filly and absolutely superbly presented.

“The quality was right there down the line in a very hard final to judge. Overall, I think we need to focus on bone. Our youngstock and horses are losing bone at a dramatic rate. It’s something [about which] we really need to sit up and smell the coffee.”

But is there not the perception that a show horse or show hunter is almost a thing of the past, given the emphasis now on performance animals? “I think that’s a very common belief,” David responded, “but at the same time, if something’s coming down off 1.50m, 1.60m heights to fine, as opposed to good, limb, it’s much harder on the limb. So, for me, even for the performance horse, you still need to think about limbs and bone that’s going to do the job. We just need to be very careful where we’re going. If you look right now compared to three, four, five years ago, we’ve definitely lost it in that timescale.”

He and Thomas Peoples judged the 2023 Moate final, opting that year for the Newell family’s Kilcahill Ruby (Financial Reward). “I thought she was lovely at that stage and she actually proved us right. I don’t know how many championships she hasn’t won, and it would be lovely to see this champion following in those footsteps.”

Matthew Newell reports that their filly, who completed a Moate-Tydavnet All-Ireland double, is now out in the field, “muddy and being a horse!” Instead, he showed father Brendan’s Kilcahill My Pleasure, out of Kilcahill Gemini, a full-sister to Ruby, to win both the filly and overall young horse championships. “We won a nomination to Another Pleasure at Clarecastle, we liked the foal, so we went back!”

Haesel Dickson’s Cornskye Hattie’s Favourite (Scrapman) had a similar good run, winning the Irish Draught mare, broodmare and Irish Draught titles. Her Heigh Ho Dubh filly, sold to John Bracken, was the champion foal.

The native breeds winning streak continued as Natasha Hayes’ Ballyeaghan Mocca, by Young Zidane was the champion hunter. PJ Sheerin’s My Highfield Starlet (Heigh Ho Dubh) and Lily Rose Galvin’s Cross Ali (Rathcoona Lightning) were the working hunter horse and pony champions and Sinead McGrath’s Lucky Ransom (Glencarrig Knight) won another Connemara in-hand title.