THE Coloured Horse and Pony Society (CHAPS) NI/Ireland is a new branch of CHAPS UK, operating in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland with the aim of offering shows, training and judge training.

Under the chairmanship of Ryan Anderson, the committee consists of members with considerable experience in showing and show organisation including Julie Donaghy Simpson, Brian Murphy, Jane Whitaker, Mya O’Toole, Sarah O’Rourke, Chris Gibson and Zara Doyle.

So far this year, CHAPS NI/Ireland has run two showing clinics and a demo with Vicky Smith, as well a an information seminar on neurodiversity for judges and interested parties.

The committee felt there was an opportunity to offer riders an outing before the show season gets started and so, in a few short months, aiming for an Easter date, managed to put together an ambitious schedule of 48 horse and pony ridden showing classes - for hunters, ponies, riding horses, cobs, side saddle and Connemaras, plus 23 horse and pony working hunter classes and 20 evening performance championships.

Attracting over 500 entries, all came to fruition last Saturday at Portmore Equestrian Centre, where each class was sponsored as were all of the evening performances.

With classes affiliated to CHAPS, the Irish Pony Society, The Showing Register, as well as UK Ponies and Horses (with Royal International M&M qualifiers), the show offered riders the chance to qualify for established fixtures in Great Britain, as well as working hunter classes at the Northern Ireland Festival in Cavan in May.

The day’s judges were the Chairperson of CHAPS UK, Caroline Hamilton, Debbie Spears who has been running The Showing Register (TSR) since 2024, Richard Telford, Emma Greene, Vincent Seddon, Sharon Draper and Kevin Lee.

Supported by a strong team of experienced volunteers, which included Kevin McGuinness, Jamie Smyth, Chris Connell and the familiar voice of commentator Carey Knox, the day was heralded as a success and plans are already in place for more training clinics, as well as next year’s Easter show.