THREE Pony Club competitions were staged during last week’s Royal Windsor Horse Show, mounted games which ran from Thursday to Sunday, dressage which took place on Friday and, over the weekend, Junior tetrathlon which saw Area 17 of The Pony Club/Northern Ireland come out on top.

Eight regional teams affiliated to The Pony Club took on this four-phase challenge where the Area 17 trio of Ted Geary, Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe and Annabel McKeown accumulated 13,296 points to narrowly claim the win ahead of the South West (13,199). The Southern region finished third on 12,823.

Winner of the Junior Girls’ competition at the previous weekend’s Fun Minimus and Tetrathlon run by the Kildare Branch of the Irish Pony Club at Punchestown, McKeown fared best individually. The Killultagh, Old Rock and Chichester member, who won the run along the riverbank, placed second on 4,528 points.

The Fermanagh Harriers’ Rolston-McAuliffe finished sixth on 4,420 with the Iveaghs’ Ted Geary slotting into eighth on 4,348. Arthur Webb, a member of the South & West Wilts Hunt Branch topped the individual leaderboard with 4,601 points to his credit. Out of the 24 individual starters, only Rolston-McAuliffe, who was joint-first in the girls’ shoot, held on to her full 1,400 ride points.

England totally dominated Friday’s dressage home international, which they won on a converted score of five. Of their four counting scores, three riders won their classes while the fourth was second to a fellow team member. Even their non-counting rider was fifth in her class. Wales finished second on 15, just ahead of the Republic of Ireland (16), Scotland (22) and Northern Ireland (26).

Twelve-year-old Emily Grimes, a member of the Bray Branch, finished a highly-creditable second (68.20%) in the Open section to East Kent’s Zara Head (70.16). Grimes partnered the 21-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Millridge Buachail Bui while the Fermanagh Harriers’ Chloe Cathcart slotted into sixth with the 17-year-old ISH gelding Killoughey Clover Imp (62.97). Kildare’s Holly Browne placed ninth on the nine-year-old Connemara gelding Manusmore Result (62.19), a place ahead of Fermanagh’s Sophie Cathcart riding the nine-year-old gelding Captain Moonlight (60.70).

At Intermediate level, three riders from this side of the Irish Sea finished fifth (66.33 (collective 93.5)), sixth (66.33 (collective 92)) and seventh (66.08) viz Waterford’s Julie McDonald (Shanbo Hazel’s Boy), North Down’s Alice Salters (Drumiller Design) and Carlow’s Ava Boyd (Ballinamoona Boy). Riding the British-bred Connemara gelding Fonzie, a 14-year-old son of Cheeky Bobby Sparrow, North Down’s Kerrie McGrady finished 10th (62.08) in a class won by the Heythrops’ Pippa Krzywiec on 70.08.

In the Novice class, where the Berkeley South’s Alice-Jayne Pain topped the final leaderboard on 75.10, Marie Fleming-Hand, a member of the Carbery Hunt Branch, finished second with the 22-year-old dun gelding Bishopshall Joe (68.80). The Iveaghs’ Annie Morrow placed fourth on the eight-year-old palomino gelding Liberty’s Benjamin (67.50).

Following five earlier rounds, including one that afternoon, the final of the DAKS home international mounted games was held in the Castle Arena on Sunday evening as the curtain came down on the four-day show.

England proved extremely strong. They started the final round with 130 points in the bag and, with double points on offer, brought their total up to 180. The Republic of Ireland and Scotland went into Sunday evening’s decider with 103 points apiece, but had contrasting results in the final, Ireland edging clear to clinch second place on 147. Wales jumped up to third (131), ahead of Scotland (126) and Northern Ireland (88).

The Republic of Ireland, represented by the Irish Pony Club team of Mikey English (Tipperary), Hazel Lucey (Duhallow), Grace Mangan (Meath), Tom Murray (Meath) and Robyn O’Reilly (Tipperary), recorded their best result with a win in the Frogmore arena early on Sunday afternoon. The team reserve was Adam Beirne of the Kildare Branch, while Chris Ahearne acted as chef d’equipe.

The Northern Ireland/Area 17 team comprised Leigh Graham (East Antrim), Tilly Ham (North Down), Chloe Hamilton (East Down), Farah McGail (North Down) and Molly Reid (North Down). Jessica Curran of the North Down Branch was reserve for the squad, who were trained by Brian Kennedy.

At Malvern in Wales, the IPC mounted games team of Kate Condon (Duhallow), Alanna Dillon (Kildare), Lucy Headen (Laois), Orla Kelly (Carlow) and Lily May Sheehan (Kildare) finished fifth.