THE Shillelagh Hunt Branch of the Irish Pony Club held their Connolly’s Red Mills eventing qualifier last Sunday when, once again, they were able to use the Coolboy grounds of the local Tinahely Riding Club.

There was a great atmosphere on a lovely summer’s day, but some new fences on the cross-country course caused a few problems. Over the seven classes, only three of those who led after dressage topped their leaderboards at the close of play.

Riding thoroughbred horses, two members of the Killinick Branch won the higher graded classes. On a score of 27.5 penalties, Kate Jordan was lying second after dressage in the 19-runner Intermediate, but was left in the lead when the flat phase winner on 26.8, Wicklow’s Louise McHugh, first had a fence down show jumping and then dropped out of contention following stops across the country on Pop The Question.

Jordan was on board her mother Emer’s unraced 2019 gelding Serene Ace (Sandmason - Rosies Rocket, by Definite Article) with whom she won the Treo Eile-sponsored thoroughbred league at the Stepping Stones to Success league at Wexford Equestrian in late April, when she and the bay were second in the final. Jordan and Serene Ace also compete at EI100 (J) level with Eventing Ireland.

On Sunday, Carlow Branch member Kezia Wade finished second, on her dressage score (30.5), with Lurgans Diamond Princess, just ahead of the Brays’ Charlotte Smith on Brightside (31.5) who, likewise, completed on her first phase score. There were three eliminations and one retirement in this class.

There were 24 starters in the Intro Intermediate, nine of whom failed to complete. Here, the Killinicks’ Amy Griffith led from start to finish on her father Mervyn’s five-year-old mare Shes For Luck (Vadamos - Presenting Brook, by Presenting), who finished third once in four runs in four-year-old point-to-point maidens in the spring of 2025 when trained by Johnny Berry.

Griffith and Shes For Luck also competed at Wexford Equestrian in the spring when they finished third in the league and fifth in the final. On Sunday, on their dressage score of 21 penalties, they comfortably held off the Wexfords’ Erin Forristal on My Girl Alice (29) and the Ward Union’s Lucy Flynn on another thoroughbred, Gervada (30.3).

There were two massive sections of Junior riders. In Section A, where the early lead was held by Carlow’s Maureen Tooher on Slieve Rushen Don (22.8), Waterford Branch member Sofia Delfino moved up to claim the honours on her dressage score of 23.8 with the 14-year-old Connemara mare Dernahatten Izzy (Dinger - Banagher Victory, by Cloughill Island).

It was a similar situation in Section B, where a pole down show jumping saw Newcastle Lyons’s Lucy Flynn drop to second on Rock Houdini (22.5), leaving the way clear for the Brays’ Emily Grimes to top the final leaderboard on 19.3 with the great 21-year-old gelding Millridge Buchaill Bui (Templebready Fear Bui - Anna’s Girl). Also representing the Bray Branch, Isabel Hamilton recorded an all-the-way success on 27.8 in the Intro Junior on the nine-year-old Connemara gelding Carrawinna Dusty (Kingstown Archies Boy - Gold Dust II, by Glencarrig Prince).

Two combinations who have qualified for the working hunter pony classes at Dublin were on the mark in the Under 12s’ class on Sunday. In Section A, Abbey Cassidy, another member of the Bray Branch, moved up from co-fourth to take the win on her dressage score (26) with her mother Catherine’s 12-year-old dun mare Darkly Julie.

In Section B, Newcastle Lyons’s Millie Dalton recorded a runaway success with Daphne Scholts’s Jubilee, when she and the 24-year-old chesnut gelding completed on their excellent first phase score of 17.3. The Brays’ Katie Haines, who finished second, also did so on her dressage score with Castlestrange Katie IV (25).