CHEVAL Riding Club held their annual pre-festival show on Sunday, May 31st at their Jordanstown grounds, where a couple of early showers were followed by dull but warm weather conditions.

Caroline Giles Lee (conformation) and Glen Farrell Walker (ride) judged the showing classes, the vast majority of which were sponsored by Plusvital. The odd one out was the Connemara class, which was won by the host club’s secretary Christina Knowles on her six-year-old Cloughill Island gelding Grey Lad and was sponsored by Carnoon Bay Connemara Ponies, which is owned by the club’s chair, Maria Carrick.

Cheval also won the very poorly-supported Plusvital lightweight hunter class with the sole horse forward, the Jamie Buckley-ridden John Leeper. The winner of two races on his first two starts as a three-year-old and placed many times until having his last start in early September 2024, the bay gelding is by Frankel out of the brilliant racemare Snow Fairy (by Intikhab).

The small hunter class was won by Fingal’s Mary Hagan and evergreen 20-year-old bay mare Sweetwell with Chris Carter, chairman of Tara Hill and the Association of Irish Riding Clubs, standing top of the medium/heavyweight line-up on his ISH gelding Bohermeen Pure Quality.

Jemma King, secretary of the Tara Hill club, won the Primary showing class on her 16-year-old bay mare Drumbo Jessie. Foxborough’s Vikki Bennett was the judges’ choice to top their final line-up in the cob class on her eight-year-old gelding Cairnview Ian, a skewbald son of Santana.

There was a very strong entry for the Plusvital Irish Draught class. Here, Carter had to settle for second on Cloonan Hector, his well-known 14-year-old son of Clew Bay Bouncer, while Drynam’s Jill Brown claimed the red rosette with the versatile A Heros Welcome.

For the JWM Sporthorses championship, Carter handed the ride on Cloonan Hector over to partner and fellow Tara Hill member Damien McCormack, while he opted for the Declan Daly-bred Bohermeen Pure Quality (Munther - Floating Valley, by Brookfield Floating Lux). He made the correct decision between his two horses, but was called into the reserve slot on the bay, while Brown was crowned champion with A Heros Welcome (Gortfree Hero - Tawney Lady, by Cream Of Diamonds).

Bred in Co Dublin by Ashling Moffitt, the 10-year-old A Heros Welcome has been very successful on the regional and national riding club circuits and also on the wider showing stage, both on the level and in performance classes. The combination were acknowledged for their achievements last year, when Brown was presented with the season’s best ridden Irish Draught award for 2025 by the Irish Draught Horse Breeders’ Association.

Connemara class winner Christina Knowles riding Grey Lad at the Cheval pre-festival show \ Sagittarian Photography

Performance hunters

In the ARKequine performance hunter section, Rosaleen Barry judged the action over a Tom Holden-designed course. Working down the grades, Drynam’s Jill Brown won the 1m class with the aforementioned A Heros Welcome; Abbeylands’ Mary O’Driscoll landed the RC90 Open on her eight-year-old ISH mare Moneyquid Beauty (by Flagmount Clover King) and Meath’s Joy Murray topped the scores in the RC80 on her 14-year-old bay cob Bee Smooth.

The host club won the RC70 and the newcomers’ class thanks, respectively, to Sandra Hannigan and her daughter-in-law Claudine Hannigan, the latter scoring on board her five-year-old skewbald gelding Golden Rock. Sandra not only won the RC70 on her similarly-aged Irish Draught mare Dowdstown Janes Legacy, but also picked up the sponsor’s best turned-out prize on the Moylough Dancer grey.

Dressage

Bernie Webb judged the dressage section of the show in the main arena, where the only club to record two wins was Ashbrook.

New member Gerry O’Byrne topped the scores in the Showtime Equestrian RCP3 class on his 11-year-old Connemara gelding Doon Finn (by Newgrange Lad), while Mairead Dolan ran out the winner of the Mattie Andrews Transport walk/trot test on Jimbo. Mullaghmore’s Lisa O’Gorman claimed the honours in the Thornton Sport Horses RCP2 riding her ISH mare Emmas Blue Ruby, a 10-year-old daughter of KEC Bluejay Diamond.

The remaining three classes were won by members of clubs outside the North Eastern Region. Representing Killegar (South Leinster), Jill Southern landed the ACE Plumbing RCE on board the 18-year-old ISH gelding Ardmount Rio (by Vriend). From the West Leinster Region, Rathangan’s Caroline Graham topped Webb’s scores in the Jones Transport RCP1 on her 13-year-old ISH skewbald gelding Pollardstown James (by Ballysax Shakespeare) and Moyglare’s Elaine Kilbane won the Maxi Zoo RCN on board her 10-year-old Connemara gelding Roisin Star (by Coosheen Stormboy).

As the organisers were unable to hold the annual Friends of St Luke’s Charity Pony Show this year, Cheval very kindly donated €3 from every entry to St Luke’s Charity in the name of Kilronan Show.