THE Killinick Bouncer gelding Kontiki is a very rare animal as he started his visit to Dublin with a fourth-place finish in his performance Irish Draught class on the Wednesday and closed it out by winning the Bucas working hunter pony championship on the Saturday.

Both of these classes took place in Ring 2 where the 11-year-old was ridden by Charlotte Harding. However, if you see him competing at Dressage Ireland-affiliated shows, particularly in the Northern Region, chances are that he will be partnered by his Co Antrim owner, Penny Murphy.

En route to claiming the workers’ title, the grey, who was bred in Co Cork by Seamus Neville out of the Holycross mare Glen Cross, first topped the final line-up in the 158cm/Intermediate class on a score of 105.5 points. Lily Nadir finished second on the family’s Country Strong (100.5), a 14-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare by Mermus R who was reserve riding horse champion here back in 2015.

Co Wexford rider Jessica Murphy partnered Highview Royal Meelin (106 points) to win the 153cm class for Co Down owner Mary McDonnell. Unfortunately, there is no breeding recorded for this seven-year-old bay gelding who was to stand reserve to Kontiki in the championship. Lillymai Walsh finished second here with the in-form ISH gelding Chapel Hill Dark Spark (95.5), an eight-year-old bay son of Krafty Clover.

Going down the heights, Evie Kennedy must have held out high hopes of a repeat victory in the championship when she once again topped the final line-up in the 143cm class on her mother Maeve’s 16-year-old grey Little Dromin Phoenix (108 points). After winning here last August, Kennedy and the Connemara gelding by Lettmuckmoo Lad travelled over to the Horse of the Year Show where they won the National Pony Society/Mole Valley Farmers 143cm working hunter pony title.

Kennedy finished seven points clear of Clara Cully on another Connemara gelding, Colemanstown Fred, a 12-year-old grey by Killyon King who was to also finish second under the same rider in his show hunter pony class on Sunday.

Veterans

Amazingly, two 20-year-old ponies finished first and second in the 133cm class. The top spot was filled by the Welsh gelding Frosthill Jackaroo (95 points), a British-bred skewbald ridden by Louisa Dalton for her mother Deirdre. Having had a costly fence down, Sadie Orton was just half a point adrift in second with her mother Aoife’s grey gelding Gowerhass Boy who has no recorded breeding.

As in the show hunter section, those who finished first and second in the starter stakes didn’t make a second appearance before the section judges, Britain’s Jane Holderness-Roddam and Marie-Claire Nimmo, who had found it nearly impossible to split the pair in their class.

Both Co Antrim’s Katie Surgenor on her mother Jackie’s DS Ebony Boy and Co Meath’s Rosita Dunne on her grandmother Rita’s Fontmell Jack Sparrow scored 94.8, with Surgenor and the seven-year-old well-named black gelding DS Ebony Boy claiming the top spot in the final line-up thanks to their higher jumping score.

This was the second year that qualifiers were held for this section of the show and the standard has improved again.

Highest standard

“The standard in the starter stakes was the best I’ve seen here and it was great that we got five or six clears at least in every class bar the 153s,” commented British course builder Kevin Millman. “Before the qualifiers got underway, I discussed what I would be looking for here at Dublin with Charles Hanley, who built the tracks at the qualifiers and that seemed to work well. Quite a few had problems with the bank, which was surprising as they must have known it would be jumped.”

Millman was not as impressed with the horses.

“I think they were better five years ago.”

While the qualifying system puts a burden on parents and guardians, one mother told me during the series that they worked well in improving standards and that riders and parents get to know one another a bit better as they travel around the country.

A feature of the qualifiers for the starter stakes was the number of show jumping riders taking part as there is no other performance class at Dublin for the under 12 age group. It quite possibly will come up for discussion in a debrief but I don’t know how the RDS’s neighbours would feel about a week long show to fit in all the classes that people would like included in the schedule.