QUALIFIED members of Branches in Area 17 (Northern Ireland) competed in a variety of disciplines at The Pony Club Championships in Offchurch Bury, which concluded last Saturday having commenced eight days earlier at the Warwickshire venue.

Two riders recorded stand-out performances - the East Antrims’ Grace McIlroy, who won the 90cm individual show jumping championship on Millennium Ace, and the Iveaghs’ Isaac McCarthy who was reserve in the ride-off for individual Novice dressage championship honours with Suirvalley Little Monkey. Both also competed in the eventing championships, where McCarthy fared the better.

Owned and bred by McIlroy’s mother Rhonda, the now 21-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Millennium Ace (Simba - Shantallow, by Arctic Lord) did a small bit of registered jumping in his younger days. In recent seasons, he has mainly campaigned with the Pony Club and Eventing Ireland.

Another show jumping result we should mention is the sixth-place finish in the Elite championship of Tullylagan’s Kym Moore on the eight-year-old ISH gelding Marlacoos Ralph (by Echonix), who she used to compete with Show Jumping Ireland.

On to dressage where, in addition to his individual reserve, McCarthy was a member of the Iveagh quartet who finished second in the Novice team championship. Here, he provided counting scores on both Dawn Carlisle’s 19-year-old bay gelding Suirvalley Little Monkey and his grandfather Denis Currie’s 21-year-old ISH gelding Arodstown Aramis. His fellow team members were Sarah Cowan riding Gleann Rua Storm (who were second in a warm-up class) and Catherine Cowan with Lady Remarque.

At Intermediate level, the best result for Area 17 came in a section of the team competition, where the East Antrims’ Annie Morrow finished 10th of 37 on board Liberty’s Benjamin. Morrow and this eight-year-old part-bred Welsh gelding had been in action a week previously at the Dressage Ireland Youth National Championships in Castle Irvine, Necarne, where they won the Category 1 Preliminary and Novice titles.

The eventing championships ran from last Thursday week until Saturday with Area 17 interest in all three levels of competition.

McCarthy had two good PC90 results. Riding Arodstown Aramis in a section of the team championship, he missed out on a win when picking up 4.8 penalties for going too fast across the country. In the tougher Individual championship, for those who were placed first or second in their Area qualifier, he finished sixth with Suirvalley Little Monkey.

These Pony Club Championships brought an end to McCarthy’s eventing year, which he started by winning the Flexi Eventing series at The Meadows back in late February. He returned to school during the week and will now concentrate, sportswise, on rugby and schools’ show jumping. Later on, he will do some Pony Club training with the Smith Brothers to be primed for the 2027 Flexi Eventing campaign.

McCarthy’s supporters at Offchurch Bury included his parents, Nigel and Judith, his siblings Henry and Molly plus, of course, his grandfather Denis who previously recorded numerous EI110 (Amateur) successes on Arodstown Aramis, a son of Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan.

Area 17 was represented at all levels in the Mounted Games Championships, which commenced on Friday, August 14th and ran for three days.

In the team championships, members fared best at Junior level where the East Antrim squad of Hannah McCammond, Harlow Robinson, Lucy Johnston, Leah Millar and Abbie Millar, having filled the runner-up slot in their B session, finished fifth of 13 in the final. They won the tack and turn-out award.

In the Senior pairs’ competition, the Area 17 duo of Jack Cowan (Iveagh) and Leigh Graham (East Antrim) won their qualifying heat before finishing a close-up fourth in the final.

The Tetrathlon Championships ran over the same three days and, again, Area 17 was well-represented at all levels.

There were 80 competitors in the Junior Girls’ championship where the Fermanagh Harriers’ Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe held on to her full ride score on Clashdoo Jay en route to placing 12th. Following her excellent results throughout the season, the Killultaghs’ Annabel McKeown would have been disappointed in finishing 26th.

The only Area 17 competitor in the Polocrosse Championships was the North Downs’ Eloise Kerr who, playing alongside Hatty Morrison (Sinnington) and Toby Miller (Suffolk), finished second in the Novice Seniors’ championship.