THOSE competing in the afternoon’s working hunter classes at the last of the Balmoral Connemara qualifiers staged at Mullingar on Sunday, had the best of the weather.

Unusually, Nancy Lyons Teehan had just the one ride, but made it count by winning the working hunter class for riders under 16 on the Cremello gelding Buachaill Buí (Templebready Fear Bui - Golden Bee, by Glaskopf Golden Siskin). The seven-year-old, who completed on a total of 88 marks, is owned in partnership by the rider’s mother Louise and grandmother Anne Lyons.

Bred in Co Wexford by Avril Doyle, Buachaill Buí had a day off on Tuesday of this week when, representing the North Kilkenny Branch, 12-year-old Nancy competed two other ponies at the Irish Pony Club/Equieire national dressage championships in CoilÓg. However, he is facing into a busy period, starting next Tuesday at Killossery Lodge Stud.

There, as he fills his quota of starts in the Irish Pony Society’s Sports Pony Challenge, Buachaill Buí will be ridden by Louise in the 90cm Connemara class, the pair having won a qualifier at Raheen Na Gun Stud early last month. He will then be targeted at the Northern Ireland Festival in Cavan (May 1st to 3rd), a very popular show with the Lyons Teehan siblings, the Dublin Connemara qualifiers and Pony Club eventing.

Also qualifying as they finished in the first six were Cayleigh Collins with Richard Hyland’s five-year-old dun gelding Carn Silver Abbey (87), Sadhbh O’Toole with the nine-year-old gelding Tynan Toby (83), Sophie Dolan Harte riding the six-year-old mare Knockma Ruby (77), Lucy Mulligan with the eight-year-old mare Poppy’s Girl (76) and Dolan Harte again with the four-year-old gelding Silver Tom (74).

With 92 points to their credit, Lara Field claimed the honours in the class for riders aged 16 and upwards on her mother Marjorie Hardiman’s vastly-experienced 11-year-old home-bred mare Creganna Kerfuffle (Silver Shadow - Prospect Suzy, by Tulira Robuck).

Last May, this combination finished third in their Connemara working hunter class at Balmoral, where they won the Clifden high performance qualifier. This season, they have already qualified for the 90cm Connemara class at the Irish Pony Society’s Sport Pony Challenge final at Boswell Equestrian later this month.

Qualifying tickets were also awarded to Amelia Durkan with the seven-year-old gelding Trapper Lad (90), Ciara Evans with the nine-year old mare Newgrange Brady (84), Sarah Jane Gallagher riding the similarly-aged mare Culmore Silver Belle (82), Aoife Cronin riding the seven-year-old mare Knockbridge Swell Time (81) and Tuvalisa Roos with the five-year-old gelding Abbeyland (80).