THE Mid Antrims’ Christopher Smyth may have been presented with the horsemanship award for arena eventing at last weekend’s Barrier Animal Health Spring Festival at Castle Irvine, Necarne but he also competed in the show jumping section where he recorded an individual success.

This came in the nine-runner PC110 class where he recorded the faster of two double clears on the Irish Sport Horse mare Ballylurgan Hold Up (43.35secs), a 12-year-old home-bred bay by Hold Up Premier. East Antrim’s Erin McCrea finished second on another multi-discipline ride, Eisfee (45.26).

There were two individual show jumping wins for the North Down Branch thanks to Aoife Davis on the 21-year-old Ballymacad Starling gelding Oldtown Starling (PC90) and Matilda Ham riding Beechmount Grey (PC70). The Iveaghs’ Pippa Moore claimed the honours at PC100 level on the Dutch-bred Grade A gelding Scooby Bee while the busy Grace McIlroy and the 20-year-old Millennium Ace, a home-bred ISH gelding by Simba, landed the PC80 championship.

Dressage double

East Antrim’s Erin McCrea recorded an individual dressage championship double at Open and Intermediate level on board the Hanoverian mare Eisfee, an 18-year-old Embassy grey who she competes at EI110 (open) level with Eventing Ireland and is due to do so today at Vesey Lodge.

Representing the Fermanagh Branch, Alice Black also posted two wins in the individual dressage championships these coming at Novice level and in the sole dressage to music class on the same mount Donn Boy, a 14-year-old Connemara gelding by Black Shadow. The Iveaghs’ Sarah Cowan recorded the highest score in the PC80 on another Connemara gelding, the six-year-old Gleann Rua Storm (by Coosheen Stormboy).

It was a good weekend for Harry Campbell as he won the PC70 flat work title as a member of the Route trio who were successful in the Grassroots to Novice team dressage championship. Campbell recorded his double on the Dartmoor mare Coxwood Fabian Stedman, a 15-year-old daughter of Moortown Countryman.

It was a similar story in the arena eventing section where C.J. O’Brien, a member of the winning East Antrim team, claimed the honours in the individual PC70 championship on board the amazing diminutive bay mare Coolgarrane Candy Pops who is now 26 years old.

Going up through the grades, there were championship victories for Seskinore’s Maddison O’Kane riding the 19-year-old chesnut mare Be Royal (PC80); for Mid Antrim’s Callie Kennedy on the seven-year-old Diamond Roller-sired ISH gelding Correen Rock N Roller (PC90); and for the Iveaghs’ Una McClelland on board the ISH mare Murlough Beach (PC100), a Beach Ball five-year-old who she has entered in the EI90 at Vesey Lodge today.