LAST Saturday night, The Westgrove Hotel in Clane held a lively SJI Leinster Pony Awards night for 2025, presenting children under the ages of 16 with various awards for their achievements.

Some 180 children were awarded for their efforts throughout the year, starting with the Leinster league top four placings and top six from the Leinster finals held in Barnadown back in September. The Leinster league and finals were kindly sponsored by Tailored Equestrian. Both Stacey McMahon and Rebecca Higgins were there on the night to present beautiful rosettes and sashes to the winners of the league, and fabulous goodie bags.

The Leinster Showjumping Pony Awards Committee extended their thanks to Stacey for her continuous generosity and support for the third year in a row. The Leinster winners of the Glencarrig U9 and U11, Patrick Connolly Junior and Ted Dooley respectively, were also each presented with an award for their wins and Jack Derwin for his reserve champion placing at the U10 Balmoral Championships.

The newest national competition on the block for ponies, the Mullingar Pony Masters held in June, saw three Leinster children presented with awards, all achieving reserve champion titles; they were Saoirse Murphy in the U10s, Julia Sheehan in the 128 1m and Alice Moloney in the 148 1.25m class.

Amazing feat

All Leinster RDS-qualified children were presented with a beautiful glass plaque and, this year, the committee decided to include SJI Leinster members that qualified in Working Hunter and Equitation classes in Dublin. All the National Pony Champions from finals at the National Pony Championships were also awarded on the night for their wins.

The night did not end without highlighting the amazing achievement of Leinster rider Ruben Foley, for the first time in 25 years, when winning the 128 Grade A class, 138 Grade A class and this year the 148 Grade A class - an achievement only matched by Olympian Bertram Allen in the past.

With the support that was present on the night and the number of awards achieved by Leinster riders, it was felt that Leinster Pony Showjumping is in a good position.

One auction item of a lesson with Cian O’Connor and a tour of Karlswood Stables was hotly contested in the room and raised €2,600 for the ChildVision Jack De Bromhead Equine Centre, along with a very generous raffle.