THE Irish Pony Club squad arrived back into Dublin airport on Tuesday morning following their very successful, and hugely enjoyable, trip to Australia where they competed against teams representing the host nation, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in a three-round international tetrathlon exchange.

Some of the IPC members joined forces with riders from other nations to compete as mixed international teams in both the boys and girls competitions over the three weeks. The full IPC squads only once failed to register a win and that was when the girls finished second to the UK in the opening round at the Yandina & District leg at start of the month.

The exchange concluded last weekend at the West Toowoomba Pony Club grounds where, as announced by Pony Club Australia: “What a finish in Toowoomba! Ireland completed an outstanding team double at the third and final leg of the 2026 Pony Club International Tetrathlon Exchange, winning both the girls’ and boys’ competitions, while Great Britain claimed silver in both and Australia’s boys brought home bronze.” An international mixed team did so in the girls’ competition.

Not surprisingly, Ireland did well in the individual competitions. The Verling siblings, Margaret and Peter, who are members of the West Waterford Branch, won their overall individual titles on scores of 4,539 and 4,638 respectively.

On one of the mixed girls’ team, the South Westmeaths’ Amelie Henson finished a close-up second (4,527) ahead of the UK’s Georgina Featherstone in third (4,485).

In a clean sweep for the boys, Carlow’s Jamie Hargaden slotted into second (4,598) with Sean Cooke, a member of the North Kilkenny Branch, placing third on 4,571.

Although having to adapt to lasers, Leitrim’s Grace Quinn won last weekend’s shoot phase and the swim but didn’t finish in the first three in either the show jumping, where Henson placed third, or the run where Margaret Verling finished second.

Peter Verling topped the scores in the boys’ run with Cooke and Hargaden sharing third place. The latter pair finished second and third respectively in the swim where Offaly’s Tom O’Rourke claimed the top spot. Cooke also filled the runner-up position in the show jumping/ride phase.

Hopefully, all members of the squad will attend, if not compete, at next weekend’s Conlans Defender/IPC Tetrathlon Championships so they can share stories of their trip to Australia with other IPC members – covering both the three competition weekends and the many other activities they enjoyed while in Australia.

The shooting phase will take place at Punchestown racecourse next Saturday morning after which it’s on to K Leisure in Naas for the swim. On Sunday, when all the action will be at Punchestown, the run phase is due to start at 8am with the ride phase commencing two hours later. It is predicted that the prize-giving ceremony will start at 4.30pm.