ANNABELLE Dunne, who turned 16 last week, has had a very busy and varied season with her mother Helen’s HFS Rock Shandy on whom she won the Hoofprints Innovations EI100 pony championship at Barnadown last Sunday when their total of 29.4 included 0.4 of a cross-country time penalty.

Fellow Kildare Pony Club member Hogan Byrne finished second, on his flat work mark (29.9), with the 17-year-old AC Remus but disappointingly for Molly Egan, who had led after dressage on 27.5, she had a fence down show jumping with the Connemara gelding, Houndswood Moonbay. Eight of the 13 starters erred in the show jumping ring while three did so across the country.

Under Eventing Ireland rules, Dunne and HFS Rock Shandy also won at Clonmahon and they were the individual Tiggy’s Trust winners at Scone Palace in Scotland in mid-August. Dunne and the six-year-old skewbald gelding were also members of the Irish Pony Club squad who, earlier that month, travelled over to Scotland for the Pony Club UK’s senior home international and regional Tetrathlon championships.

The Dunnes purchased ‘Benjy’ last year from James O’Haire with whom they keep the pony on livery at Hawthorn Farm Stud. Annabelle is coached by James for the jumping phases and by Fiona Hayes for dressage.

The first four in the seven-runner Eventing Ireland EI90 pony championship completed on their dressage scores, led throughout by Brooke Kenny on her father Graham’s Connemara gelding Cupid’s Magic Shadow (31.9).

Brooke, a sister of the elsewhere-mentioned Abigail Kenny, and the seven-year-old Silver Shadow grey have never finished worse than seventh in their seven EI outings over the past two seasons. They also qualified for the younger Connemara performance hunter championship at Dublin in August.

At Barnadown, Kenny finished ahead of Emily Turley on the Welsh Section D pony Budore Mystic Legend (32.5) and Lucy Ferris riding the Connemara mare Duncarbery Cascade (33.1). The placed pair finished joint second in the EI90 (P) league behind Charlie Watson and another Connemara mare, Leamore Girl (68).