AT 5.45pm next Friday, May 15th, mounted games teams from the East Antrim, East Down and Route Hunt Branches of Area 17 of The Pony Club will battle it out for the Wilkinson sword in the Spar Main Arena at Balmoral Show.

At that stage, the Area 17/Northern Ireland team of Leigh Graham (East Antrim), Chloe Hamilton (East Down), Tilly Ham (North Down), Farah McCall (North Down) and Molly Reid (North Down) will just have started the second session of day two of four competing in the DAKS Pony Club mounted games at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in England. The team reserve is Jessica Curran, while the team trainer is Brian Kennedy.

The Irish Pony Club is also sending a team to represent the Republic of Ireland in this competition and those selected are Mikey English (Tipperary), Hazel Lucey (Duhallow), Grace Mangan (Meath), Tom Murray (Meath) and Robyn O’Reilly (Tipperary). The team reserve is Adam Beirne (Kildare).

Earlier on Friday, both the IPC and Area 17 will be represented in the dressage home international.

The IPC team comprises Ava Boyd (Carlow), Holly Browne (Kildare), Marie Fleming Hand (Carbery), Emily Grimes (Bray) and Julie McDonald (Waterford). Area 17 is fielding Chloe Cathcart (Fermanagh), Sophie Cathcart (Fermanagh), Kerry McGrady (North Down), Annie Morrow (East Antrim) and Alice Salters (North Down).

Area 17/Northern Ireland will be represented in Sunday’s Pony Club tetrathlon by Ted Geary (Iveagh), Annabel McKeown (Killultagh, Old Rock & Chichester) and Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe (Fermanagh).

The IPC is also sending a team to Wales (Malvern) for a competition over the weekend of May 16th and 17th. This all-girl squad is made up of Kate Condon (Duhallow), Alanna Dillon (Kildare), Lucy Headen (Laois), Orla Kelly (Carlow) and Lily May Sheehan (Kildare).

The North Down Branch is hosting the Area games at Pine Hill, Saintfield on Saturday, May 30th.

In other Pony Club news, July 17th is the date to save for the Rincoola Derby with further details to appear next week.