WHILE they were only showing the one pony on the one day at this year’s Dublin Horse Show, it was a long Saturday for Marianne Power and her husband Bill Toomey as their daughters Penny and Millie were in action on Rookery Haribo at opposite ends of the timetable. It was also a very successful day.

Eight-year-old Penny, who is now too tall for lead rein, was first to compete as her Oblique Displays first ridden class started at 8am in front of Andrew Bowie who had the pair topping his final line-up in the 19-runner class. Immediately behind Toomey and Rookery Haribo were Sophia Martin and Lisa Spratt’s 18-year-old gelding Magical Merlin followed by Fionn Redmond and his mother Aine Geoghegan’s Holthall Gladiator, an eight-year-old Welsh gelding by Islyn Bond.

As the earlier classes ran late, it was well after the scheduled start time of 5.05pm when the Oblique Displays show hunter pony lead rein class got under way before the same judge who had 18 combinations to assess.

Again, Bowie choose Rookery Haribo to stand top of the line but under Millie Toomey who, at five years of age, was making her Dublin debut. This time Holthill Gladiator finished second with Emily Nee in the saddle followed by Holly Wylie on her mother Lyndsey’s eight-year-old Welsh mare Kengarth Sally.

We wrote extensively about Rookery Haribo when, under Millie Toomey, the 11-year-old Welsh gelding by Uphill James Fox was crowned supreme champion at the Irish Pony Society summer championships at Mullingar in mid-July while, before then, he was supreme mini champion at Balmoral in May. He had been spotted for sale online by Marianne’s mother Geraldine Power.

“The pony is also ridden by our youngest daughter, Daisy (four), at county shows and at Pony Club rallies,” revealed Marianne. “Daisy and our 18-month-old son Max were at the show and were very kindly looked after by my mother and Bill’s parents Bill and Catherine Toomey.

“We’re going to have a short family break now and then be back in action for our local show, Iverk (Saturday, August 23rd), the (IPS) Wicklow Area show (Sunday, September 7th) and the IPS hunter pony show at Barnadown (Sunday, September 14th). This pony is a real all-rounder who loves doing things so he won’t be left off for the winter but will do some show jumping and children’s hunts. He’s a real little dinger!”