BALLYCAHANE Equestrian was the venue for the Co Limerick Hunt Branch’s Connolly’s Red Mills/Irish Pony Club eventing qualifier on Sunday, July 5th when The Kingdom and Duhallow Branches recorded doubles.

Victoria Roche struck first for Duhallow when, completing on her dressage score (33 penalties), she won the Open on Glenomra Andy, the 18-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Crannagh Hero with whom she competed in the Pony Club Nations’ Cup CCI1* at Ballindenisk last September.

With the addition of 6.4 cross-country time penalties, Wicklow’s Sorcha Vickers finished second (35.9) with Interface. Half of the 10-runner field failed to complete including Carlow’s dressage winners (29.25), Rosemary Dundon with Killags Foxy Lady, who incurred a technical elimination in the show jumping phase.

The hosts claimed victory in the sole Intermediate class where, completing on her dressage score (28.25), the only one below the 30-penalty mark, Jane Moloney saw off 26 challengers on board Harle du Puissant, a 12-year-old ISH gelding by Puissant.

Emilie Browne recorded the first leg of The Kingdom’s double when seeing off the challenge of 27 others in the Intro Intermediate, completing on her second-placed dressage score (28) with the eight-year-old Craigsteel gelding Steel Me Darling. Disappointingly for the Branch, their Eimear Ambrose, who led (27.25) following the first phase, had a cross-country stop on Shirocco.

Only two of the 13 starters in Section A of the Junior class completed on their flat work mark led by the winning combination of the Killinicks’ Shannon Griffith on the British-bred Welsh pony WNDA Toby, a 10-year-old gelding by Wiston Dill.

There were 25 starters in Section B where Carbery’s Maria Fleming-Hand recorded an all-the-way success on the 21-year-old skewbald gelding My Romany Knight. There were three eliminations in both of those divisions but only one in the 25-runner Section C which was won, on her dressage score, by Newcastle Lyons’s Lucy Flynn riding the 12-year-old gelding Rock Houdini.

The Kingdom double came up in Section A of the Intro Junior thanks to Saibh Prenderville who completed on her winning first phase score with Sunny Girl, an 18-year-old daughter of Wings Of Justice. Two riders, Kildare’s Niamh Killaly and Scarteen’s Mia McCormack shared the lead throughout Section B on 32.25 but, as she was closer to the optimum time across the country, Killaly was declared the winner on the Connemara gelding Dernakesh Darby Jessie, a nine-year-old grey by Coral Bambi.

Waterford’s Ella Mai Power won Section A of the Under 12s’ class despite picking up two cross-country time penalties on board the British-bred Connemara gelding Ballyerk Floss, an eight-year-old grey by Ballybeg JJ. On her second-placed dressage score, the Duhallows’ Orlaith McCarthy was left in the lead in Section B on another 2018 son of Ballybeg JJ, the Connemara gelding Ballyerk Paulo.