TOMORROW, 16 members of the Irish Pony Club will fly out to Australia to take part in the International Tetrathlon Exchange, accompanied by the IPC’s Head of Tetrathlon and Minimus, John Flood, plus chaperones, Julie Quinn and Rebecca Lowe.

The International Tetrathlon Exchange takes place every two years between Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. This year’s competition will be hosted by Pony Club Australia over the course of three weekends in July.

Each competition will be held in a different venue, with the first taking place on July 4th and 5th at the Yandina and District Pony Club in Doonan on the Sunshine Coast. The teams will then move on to the Mudgeeraba Pony and Hack Club on the Gold Coast for the second competition (July 11th and 12th), with the grand finale being hosted by the West Toowoomba Pony Club as part of the Queensland State Tetrathlon Championships on July 18th and 19th.

The IPC boys’ team comprises captain Jamie Hargaden (Carlow), Sean Cooke (North Kilkenny), John Asple James (Island), Tom O’Rourke (Offaly), Peter Verling (West Waterford) and Daragh Walsh (Waterford).

Leitrim’s Grace Quinn will captain the girls’ team of the Kildare Hunt Branch’s Dillon sisters, Ellie and Katie (whose brother TJ designed and built the cross-country track at the recent IPC Minimus championships), Amelie Henson (Offaly), Tianne Kelly (Wicklow), Grace Murphy (Co Clare), Anna O’Callaghan (Tipperary), Clodagh O’Reilly (Ward Union), Emily Quinn (Leitrim) and Margaret Verling (West Waterford).

This is an amazing opportunity for all involved, as members will have some downtime between competitions, with activities such as surfing, snorkelling, beach days on their agenda.