THE 2026 renewal of the Young Eventhorse Series concluded last Tuesday week at Rincoola, where the final qualifier was hosted by series organiser Angela McGahern and family.

While much of the emphasis at Tullylish, Scarteen, Forth Mountain and Rincoola was on the fixtures’ pathway to the Dublin Horse Show, this series is very much an entity in its own right with funding by the Breeding Grant Initiative, under National Breeding Services with thanks to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and delivered by Horse Sport Ireland, rewarding breeders, owners and riders.

One individual who ticks all those boxes is Ciara Kinsella, whose home-bred Udancer Hero mare Tykillen Dancer, having contested each of the qualifiers, topped the final leaderboard in the four-year-old league on 23 points. The chesnut recorded wins at both Tullylish and Forth Mountain for 10 points apiece and three for finishing fifth at Rincoola.

Between eventing, showing, show jumping and RDS qualifiers, the team at the Kilkenny International Sporthorses yard in Borris have been kept busy in recent months and they were represented by winners in this series at Scarteen (two) and Rincoola. However, it was Andrew Williams’s non-winning Cornet Son gelding Tailor Made KK, who filled the runner-up spot in the four-year-old league on 20 points, his best finishing position under John Tilley being when second at Scarteen.

The five-year-old league was topped on 20 points by the Carol Gee-owned, Luca Bortolamei-ridden Fernhill Junior. This dun Je T’Aime Flamenco gelding didn’t win on any of his four appearances, but did finish second at both Forth Mountain and Rincoola (eight points apiece) having started the series with a fourth-place finish at Tullylish.

One victory the Suzanne McCaville-bred Fernhill Junior has recorded under Bortolamei was in the EI100 at Flowerhill in June on his only start to date under Eventing Ireland rules.

Now named Kilroe Goldman, having started the series as Kilroe Gold I, Maurice Coleman’s brown Lagans OBOS Quality gelding, who finished second at both Tullylish and Rincoola in the hands of Godfrey Gibbons, narrowly claimed the same spot in this five-year-old league. He competed on 17 points, as did the John Bannon-ridden Little Luck and the Alice Copithorne-partnered Castleview Lady Cruise, winners at Rincoola and Forth Mountain respectively.

Riding for her mother Hannah, Kate Horgan topped the final standings in the Junior/Young Rider event horse league on the seven-year-old Lagans OBOS Quality gelding Highview Shakespeare (24 points) who, having been narrowly beaten into third at Tullylish, won seven days later at Scarteen before closing out the campaign with a second-place finish at Rincoola.

Horgan finished fourth in both the Junior/Young Rider event horse class and the 158cm working hunter pony class at Dublin last August on the Vincent Meaney-bred Highview Shakespeare. The winners of the first class were Ciara O’Connor on her aunt Sharon’s home-bred 2019 Dignified van’t Zorgvliet gelding Ashwood Rio, who finished runner-up in this year’s league on 20 points, having won the two legs they contested at Forth Mountain and Rincoola.

All mares and geldings mentioned above are registered Irish Sport Horses.