DESPITE all the reports of flooding in the south east last weekend, Orla Roche and Pat Peare were open for business at their Wexford Equestrian Centre, where, on Saturday, they hosted a leg of the TRI Equestrian interschools show jumping league and, on Sunday, the second of two Plusvital Spring Series qualifiers being run at their Tomhaggard venue.
While her mother Debbie finished among the ‘also rans’ with three young horses, Carlow Pony Club member Emily Flavin-Redmond made it third time lucky in the South Leinster Region, when landing the 18-runner CT80 class on her winning dressage score (28.25 penalties) with the much-admired Connemara mare Galtee Honeysuckle.
Described as white on the Connemara Pony Register, the five-year-old daughter of Kinvara Boy was bred in Co Tipperary by Mick and Chris Hennessy out of the I Love You Melody mare Mona Incha Sunshine Lady who, in turn, is out of a Mac’s Lad mare. Emily and Galtee Honeysuckle top the CT80 leaderboard on 19 points, four clear of Sarah Cowan and another Connemara, Gleann Rua Storm, who competed on the Northern Region circuit.
Another young rider, the locally-based Anna Radford, finished a close second here with her mother Maria’s Irish Sport Horse mare Kilbunny Tahiti (28.5), a Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve seven-year-old who was purchased recently to help Anna move into the Junior ranks.
However, she is still competing her European pony eventing championships ride Essenar Double Dutch (Luidam - Touch Of Dutch, by Ard VDL Douglas) and, on 27.5 penalties, claimed Sunday’s eight-strong CT100 class with her mother’s 15-year-old ISH mare. Four show jumping penalties proved costly for the previous weekend’s winners, Susanna Boxwell and her Irish Draught gelding JMHillhead Double Diamond (29.5), a 10-year-old Rebel Mountain grey.
https://foto.ifj.ie/fotoweb/archives/5006-Irish-Horse-World/Irish%20Horse%20World/2020/EICT100Wexford.jpg.info#c=%2Ffotoweb%2Farchives%2F5006-Irish-Horse-World%2F%3Fq%3Danna%2520radford
Anna Radford rode Essenar Double Dutch to win the CT100 class on a score of 27.5 at the Plus Vital Eventing Ireland Combined Training at Wexford EC \ Justin Black Horse Sport Images
A pole down for a total of 28.5 penalties, also foiled Lucy Ferris’s bid to win the 15-runner CT90 class on her mother Mary’s Connemara gelding How Ya Sammy. However, Ferris maintains her position as the leading pony rider in the series with the 10-year-old Woodfield Sammy bay.
The win, on her first phase score, went to Maya Byrne riding the traditionally-bred ISH gelding Tranquil Master (26.5), with whom she was third at CoilÓg. Bred by Rosalind Telford Kelly, this Kings Master bay is out of the Kings Theatre mare Tremwell, a once-raced half-sister to three track winners including the ill-fated Fionnegas (by Accordion), who won two bumpers and two hurdle races and was Grade 1-placed over hurdles on three occasions.
Bolger is the best
Vicki Clooney and Jill Spring judged the dressage phase on Sunday and the latter was so impressed by Gearoid Bolger’s test on his mother Margaret’s ISH gelding Into Mischief in the two-runner CT115 that she awarded the combination a penalty score of 19.5 on which they completed. Bolger and the 12-year-old OBOS Quality 004 bay represented Ireland at last year’s European Junior eventing championships in Strzegom, Poland.
Despite finishing a distant second here with the 11-year-old ISH gelding Atlantic Rockstar (31.81), Louise Bloomer has extended her lead in the league to 13 points with Martin Coen’s Beach Ball bay.
A short time earlier, Bloomer had also filled the runner-up spot in the CT110 class, on her dressage score (32 penalties), with her twice-raced thoroughbred gelding Ballydrummond, a Valirann 10-year-old who she has been competing at EI100 level since September 2023 with varying results.
The all-the-way winner of this nine-runner class on 28.5 was Jane Fitzgerald with the 10-year-old traditionally-bred ISH gelding Ballymurphy Hughie (Pointilliste - Ballymurphy Clover Nellie, by Clover Hill). This combination won an EI110 at Ballindenisk last July and have plenty of placings at this level to their credit.
In finishing third here on 34 penalties, Michael O’Toole maintains a narrow lead in the CT110 league with the Dutch Warmblood gelding Obsession AKA Ballybeg Obsession, a Grand Slam VDL seven-year-old owned by his parents, Paddy and Mary.
Wexford Equestrian is having a week’s break from the Plusvital Spring Series this weekend. Today, the first of the year’s SJI-affiliated shows is taking place at the popular venue where, tomorrow, there will be more inter-schools’ action.