HAVING been to the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) on a number of occasions, I can understand the hype that surrounds it. It is quite unlike any show in Ireland.

Held at the NEC in Birmingham, overseas visitors just about need to leave the airport (only by a connecting one minute train) to get to the venue so many choose to travel, and a huge indoor show with showing classes and an atmosphere on that scale is not something we have here.

In terms of the showing, Irish-bred and Irish-produced horses more often than not sweep the decks and that seems to be the case again this week with big wins for horses such as Bloomfield Eloquence (Watermill Swatch), Ricruiso (Ricardo Z), and View Point (Loughahoe Guy) who won his third lightweight championship title at the venue, among others.

It is not quite as common, however, for an Irish raider to land a big title and even less so on a 24-year-old pony! Irish Horse World readers will be well aware of the Connemara Blackwood Fernado and his incredible career over the last 15 years with Alicia Devlin Byrne in the saddle. The Patrick McNamara-bred gelding truly deserved the ‘legend’ title having won every single big title there is to win and now, on his first attempt, has won the M&M Working Hunter at HOYS. They followed on from an Irish victory in 2019 with Amber Marnane and Danny’s Pride winning on that occasion.

Whatever he does now, Fernando will be remembered as one of the great Connemara ponies of this era. There was more good news as we were going to press when another Irish raider, Emily McPolin from Ballynahinch in Co Down, won the 153cm working hunter with the Connemara Glenmore Miss Mirah. There will be a full report from HOYS in next week’s paper.

Bumper sales

It was another big week of public sales in Ireland. Patrick Kehoe received a nice return of €35,000 at Goresbridge for his home-bred ABC Copperhead Road, which will in turn help him breed the next one, and that is what it is all about for breeders (see page 95). There were also top prices in Cavan (page 96-97) and Mullingar (page 92). This weekend the Mayo Roscommon Breeders’ select foal sale takes place in Glenamaddy, Goresbridge host a breeding sale next weekend, while the big four-day Connemara Pony Sales in Clifden on the October bank holiday weekend is only around the corner.