OVER 200 members of the Irish Pony Club, mainly representing local Branches but also from as far away as Sligo, Cavan and Leitrim, enjoyed a very successful hunter trials run by the Kildare Hunt Branch at Punchestown last Sunday.

There were nine single or pairs competitions for a variety of age groups and competency levels, providing riders with the opportunity to compete at the height which suited them best. Following the Pony Club event, the organisers ran an open schooling session where riders could pick and choose which fences they wanted to jump while skipping others. There was a lot of positive feedback about this format.

The hard-working committee of the Kildare Pony Club run numerous events at Punchestown throughout the year, namely a Minimus competition, a Tetrathlon event, one of the largest Connolly’s Red Mills/IPC eventing qualifiers in the country and, for the past two years, they have hosted the IPC National and International Tetrathlon championships.

Understandably, there is considerable wear and tear to a cross-country course over years of use so Sunday’s hunter trials was run to generate funds which will be reinvested into the track for next year. “We thank all the participants and their parents for supporting our hunter trials and look forward to having some surprises and new challenges for you on the course next year,” said Una Holohan, one of the Branch’s joint-District Commissioners.

The day’s hosts won the Novice pairs thanks to Kjeld and Robin Hemsing, the Novice over 12s’ individual through Emily Condon, the Senior pairs’ courtesy of Lucy and Jamie Maughan and the Senior singles where Kate Moore topped the final leaderboard.

The Senior pairs’ was won by Kildare's Lucy (pictured) and Jamie Maughan at the Kidare Hunt Pony Club hunter trials at Punchestown \ Emma Doyle/meldoyle.ie

The North Kilkenny Branch struck in both the Intro singles (Elsie Clarke) and the Novice Under 12s (Molly Jean Clarke), Carlow’s Muireann Togher and Rebecca Salter claimed the honours in the Junior pairs while in the Junior singles, Newcastle Lyons’s Anna Curry won the Under 15 section while Laois’s Holly Gee came out on top in the Over 15 division.

The North Kilkennys had a lot to celebrate last weekend as at the Horse of the Year Show in Birmingham on the Friday, Nancy Lyons Teehan, who is a very active member of the Branch, won the National Pony Society/Mole Valley Farmers 133cm working hunter pony of the year on Dartans Séoda Bán. Earlier in the year, Nancy and the five-year-old palomino mare were on the North Kilkenny Lionesses squad who finished third in the team competition at the national Minimus championships.