THERE were additional Horse of the Year Show qualifiers at this year’s Northern Ireland Festival with Paul Smith, chairman of the organising committee, saying: “We hope the 11 who qualify will continue to represent the show as successfully as those who have qualified in previous years.”

A standalone qualifier on Saturday was that for the National Pony Society/Baileys Horse Feeds ridden Connemara of the Year championship and this was won by last August’s Dublin flat champion, Loughderg Star, whose many other titles to date include that of supreme ridden pony at Clifden in 2023.

The seven-year-old Glencarrig Joe gelding is produced at home by owner Zoe Price and ridden at shows by Ciara Mullen who also partnered him to win the Equine Viewer Ireland/NIF ridden Connemara championship on Saturday evening.

On Friday morning, Price’s daughter Holly (16) landed the ridden Connemara Junior class on the bay who then stood reserve that evening to the four and five-year-old class winner, Ballylee Lemon, Chloe Lacey’s owner-ridden 2021 gelding by Slackport Prince.

Loughderg Star is one of 10 horses and ponies being produced in Malahide by dog groomer Mullen with the help of her mother Rufina Shiel and her boyfriend Lee Cosgrove. Among the string is Blakehill Bobby who is ridden by Dahlia Durkan for her father Liam and this combination was also among the winners at Cavan last weekend.

On the Friday, Durkan junior and the 13-year-old Cnocbán Cassanova gelding won the ridden Connemara class for riders aged under 14 while on the Sunday they topped the line-up in the 70cm pony performance class, going on to stand champion.

It was a great Bank Holiday weekend for the extended Durkan family as, following on from Dahlia’s success, two of their racehorses, Topgun Simmy and Baltic Bird, won on Monday at Down Royal where another, Fairbanks, was narrowly beaten into second.

The plaited working hunter golden tickets were secured by the following: 133cm, Louise Lyons’s Dartans Séoda Bán (Nancy Lyons Teehan); 143cm, Louise Lyons’s Newydd Lady Marmalade (Nancy Lyons Teehan); 153cm, and champion, Helena Hennessy Ruane’s Dartans Atom Man (Aoibhinn Ruane); Intermediate, Birol Nadir’s Zavy Echo (Aoibhinn Ruane); horse, and reserve champion, Lady Perdita Blackwood’s Clandeboye (Louise Lyons).

The following qualified in the Jacksons of Yorkshire Mountain and Moorland working hunter category: Junior 122cm, Jenny Deary’s Malby Mahyong (Darcey Forster Brannen); 122cm, and reserve champion, Louise Lyons’s Twnffyd Carys (Nancy Lyons Teehan); 133cm, Stuart Murphy’s Bronheulog Harvey (Ellie Murphy); 143cm, Louise Lyons’s Newydd Lady Marmalade (Nancy Lyons Teehan); exceeding 143cm, and champion, Moya Teeling’s Shanbo Myles (Owner).