IRELAND’s young rider team narrowly missed out on three gold medals in a row but added to their medal haul when taking team silver at the 2025 FEI Jumping European Championships in Riesenbeck, Germany on Friday afternoon.

On a dramatic afternoon, Michael Blake’s squad of Tim Brennan, Max Foley, Niamh McEvoy, Tom Wachman and Coen Williams just gave way to a talented Belgian team for gold.

“I’m very proud,” said High Performance show jumping manager Blake who has the Young Riders under his wing this year as part of the new youth show jumping programme. “We’ve been thereabouts all week, sitting just behind the leaders after day one and putting ourselves in pole position after a zero score yesterday. That meant we were the ones the rest needed to chase down but that was exactly where these riders wanted to be.

“They are talented, gritty and full of character and they really wanted to hold onto their crown to win three championships in a row. I couldn’t be prouder of them because we knew coming into the class today that there would be no room for error and, if we could deliver a performance as close to perfect as possible, we would not be beaten.

Brilliant championship

“That’s jumping, though, you can’t win them all but we’ve had a brilliant championship with this silver medal adding to the junior gold.”

Ireland held a slender advantage of just 0.11 penalties ahead of Belgium after the first two days of competition, having produced six clear rounds ahead of Friday’s final.

First in was Wachman and Coolmore Showjumping’s Obora’s Laura, who had sat 11th overnight individually and had jumped a clear round on Thursday on the second day of proceedings. Wachman has been in fine form of late and he proved why Blake sent him in first for Ireland, delivering a crucial clear to apply massive pressure on Belgium, who had a four-fault score with their first combination.

After a difficult day on Thursday, Williams and Floris R Z were foot-perfect, leaving all poles standing, but picking up three time penalties. Brennan and his speedy mare Diadema Della Caccia were next to jump. Brennan came into the ring lying in second place individually, but when he faulted at the middle part of the triple combination, their fate was then in Belgian hands - a clear from their last line rider would secure them the gold medal.

Leon Brutsaert duly delivered with Corleone Tour Vidal when clearing all the fences, picking up a single time fault which was good enough to see them finish on a score of 5.72 ahead of Ireland on 7.61. Britain took bronze on 24.05.

McEvoy was all class when last to go in the competition, jumping another foot-perfect clear round to secure the silver medal for Ireland and put herself into fifth place individually ahead of Sunday’s final on 1.85. Tom Wachman was in sixth place (2.16) ahead of Tim Brennan in seventh (4.60).

Individual final

Sunday’s individual final was big and caught combinations out all across the course. McEvoy, Wachman and Brennan all faulted once in the first round, moving to sixth, eighth and 10th places, respectively.

The final round was tense until the very end as poles fell and the time was tight. Brennan bounced back from four faults in the opening round to produce a brilliant clear and finish in eighth place. Wachman then put the pressure on with a clear round and he continued to rise up the placings as those ahead of him faulted. At one point, it looked like he might sneak on to the podium but eventually he had to settle for fifth place on 6.16.

McEvoy was sixth last into the ring and faulted early with BP Rocket Man and added another to end on eight faults in 12th place (11.85).

Irish-bred winner

The final three riders all jumped five clears across the competition and coming out on top was Britain’s Rachel Proudley with HK Horses’ Irish Sport Horse Quality Street (OBOS Quality x Lux Z) on a score of 0.70. HK Horses is owned and run by Irish international show jumper Richard Howley and his wife Morgan Kent in England. Proudley and Quality Street recently won the CSI2* Grand Prix at Mullingar International where they spent two weeks competing in the lead-up to the Europeans.

Quality Street was bred in Co Monaghan by Ciara Marron and was previously sold at Cavan Sales.

France’s Eden Leprevost Blinlebreton finished with the silver medal aboard Barbie de la Roque Z (0.93), ahead of Belgium’s Mathieu Guery and Time-Breaker S Z in the bronze medal position (1.09).