Name: Ellie-Rose Cassidy
Age: 16
Parents: Gareth and Lucia Cassidy
From: Ballymaguigan, Co Derry
Top ponies: 148 - Claggan Gypsy Delight, 128 - Little Ceaser, 138 - Ballywire Mirah, 128 - Tuity Fruity, 128 - Robbie Malone, 128 - PARC Chit Chat, 138 - Springhill Copper Beech, 148 - Parc Judy. At the minute I compete in 148cm classes
Who is your trainer? Adrian Williams (Parc Stables, Co Clare) but with Adrian being so far away from home, when I’m not down in Ennis, Joan Adrain from Templepatrick gives me a lot of help. My Dad also helps a lot.
Who has been your greatest influence so far? Adrian Williams has been the greatest influence on me so far. His knowledge and experience have been invaluable during my pony career. He almost thinks like a horse. He’s always looking perfection and when me or the boys win classes, he’s always standing at the pocket, he rides every fence with us. Some of the ponies I have ridden for him were class.
My parents have also been a great influence, encouraging me in everything I do, through the good days and the bad. Also, the endless trips leaving me down to Parc Stables in Ennis is a job on its own.
Who is the rider you most look up to and why? Darragh Kenny – he has an unreal string of horses and he’s done it from scratch working his way through the levels. When we went out to the Cannes Global Champions Tour last year, he gave me some great advice.
What are your major achievements and wins? The RDS 148cm win this year was my biggest accomplishment in ponies. Samuel (Claggan Gypsy Delight) is such a fighter in the ring, he busts a gut everyday he’s out and when you ask him for more, he just finds it. He has so much scope and power but is so careful as well.
He’s just one in a million. The second highlight was the National Pony Spring Tour Winner 2019 Samuel (Claggan Gypsy Delight). Samuel (Claggan Gypsy Delight) won two Premier Grands Prix last year which were hard won. Riding Little Ceaser, we won a 128cm Premier Grand Prix at Reape’s EC. Max (Ceaser) was a serious pony, brave as a lion who would try to jump anything.
In Eglinton Northern Indoor Pony Championships U-10s, I was the Grand Prix winner with Tuity Fruity. In Ulster it’s the one to win and this little mare didn’t disappoint that day. Ballywire Mirah 138cm had a second place in a Pony Premier at Barnadown at just seven-years old, another pony who went on to the main arena in Dublin that year with me. I qualified for RDS Dublin Horse Show in 128s, 138s, and 148s which is something I’m proud off.
What were the key things you learned from the 2019 season? 2019 has been a rollercoaster of a year. To win Dublin was just unreal for someone like me and my family, something I thought would never happen to me. It just seemed like closure on my pony career and all the long nights of training and the long road trips to shows.
The sacrifices you make to compete at this level is unbelievable, my friends at school have no idea of the commitment. And the endless trips to Parc Stables. That day in Dublin just seemed like a reward for everything we all had done as a team.
As I came through the ponies from the age of five looking to win every day you’re out, you soon realise this can’t happen.
The ponies aren’t machines so you learn to accept defeat and congratulate whoever wins and enjoy the good days as much as possible.
What are your goals for 2020? Heading into horses seems like moving from primary school into secondary school. I am at a new level, probably back to the bottom of the ladder so to hopefully I will get a few nice horses from Adrian and start progressing through the levels again I guess.
Ellie-Rose Cassidy was in conversation with Emer Bermingham.