THE Area 17 qualifier for the tetrathlon competition at the UK Pony Club Championships at Offchurch Bury in Warwickshire next month (August 14th to 22nd) was held last weekend between the Down Leisure Centre in Downpatrick and Hazeldene Farm on the outskirts of Ballynahinch.

The qualifier, which was well-organised by the East Down Branch with support from Area 17 and the Eventing Ireland Northern Region control crew, attracted a huge entry of Irish Pony Club members who won all but one of the team competitions which ran from the mixed Open/Intermediate class down to Beanies.

The name of well-known dressage judge and coach Corey Mawhinney featured among the list of valued sponsors without whom these events would not run. The cross-country course was designed by Andrew Napier who, with his wife Laura (fence dresser and stable manager for the qualifier), owns Hazeldene Farm.

The individual performance of the weekend came in the Junior girls’ competition where Annabel McKeown, a member of the Killultagh, Old Rock and Chichester Branch, amassed 4,496 points to see off the challenge of Killinick’s Caitlin Griffith (4,238), Wexford’s Sarah Finn (4,163) and Killinick’s Shannon Griffith (4,133) who were all members of the winning Ireland Green team.

McKeown held on to her full 1,400 points in the ride phase on the lovely Colacentric, a 14-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare by Lancelot who she also partnered when winning the Junior girls’ class at the IPC fun minimus and tetrathlon at Punchestown in early May.

After that, she rode a borrowed pony when she was one of the Area 17 trio who won the Junior Regional Tetrathlon at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. In late May, back on board Colacentric, she became the first member from Area 17 to win the girls’ individual title at The Pony Club’s Junior home international tetrathlon at Moreton Morrell.

The Killultagh member has qualified for Offchurch Bury at this level along with Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe (Fermanagh), Annabelle Clarke (Newry), Tori Veitch (Fermanagh) and Catherine Beattie (Seskinore).

The Junior boys’ team competition was won by Ireland Red whose Patrick Purcell (Golden Vale), Breandán Purcell (Golden Vale) and Dave Hennessy (Tipperary) finished first (4,241), second (4,125) and third (4,113) respectively in the individual competition.

The first qualifying ticket for the highest-placed Area 17 member went to the Iveaghs’ Ted Geary who finished fourth on 4,089 with Henry Irwin (Seskinore) and William Steele (East Down) also reaching the qualifying standard.

There was a disappointing entry of just three teams for the combined Open/Intermediate class where, on 9,504, the sole Branch team forward, the Iveaghs, were beaten into second by an IPC team (10,378) whose Sean Maher (Golden Vale) scored 3,711 to see off his sole rival, and thus sole qualifier, the Iveaghs’ Harry Purdy (3,401) in the Open boys’ individual class.

The Iveaghs struck back in the Intermediate individual girls’ class where, with 3,678 points, Una McClelland claimed the top spot on the final leaderboard ahead of Killinick’s Aoife Griffith (3,616). The East Downs’ Orlagh Massey also qualified.