Star of the Month winner

CONGRATULATIONS to Sligo show jumper Kevin Gallagher who was voted The Irish Field/Gain Equine Nutrition for November. Gallagher, who rides at Ballypatrick Stables in Tipperary, won a two-star Grand Prix in Valencia with the Irish Sport Horse Ballypatrick Flamenco.

Duhallow charity ride

THE Duhallow Hunt is set to host a funride on January 3rd. The fun ride is in aid of cancer research and part of the funds raised will also be donated to the local primary school of Dromtarriffe. The ride is being held at Sandpit House, Dromagh, Mallow, Co Cork and starts at 12 noon. The fun ride will be run over some of the nicest country Duhallow has to offer, big bank jumping guaranteed so this is not suitable for novice riders or the faint-hearted!

Tribute to Miss Anorca

EVELYN Glynn contacted The Irish Field office this week to let us know that her partner, Michael Maher, had to put down his former Riding Club mare, Miss Anorca, just short of her official 27th birthday.

“I was only riding two or three years when I bought ‘Chelsea’ as a 12-year-old,” reported Michael who works for an agricultural contractor and drives trucks nationally. “She had been broken by show jumper Dan Walsh and was apparently being aimed at the four-year-old RDS qualifiers when she was injured in the field.

“Chelsea was a perfect schoolmaster for me when I started in Riding Club competitions as a member of Abbeylands and I moved up from Advanced Primary to Advanced Intermediate over a three-year period. She was a machine cross-country but, unfortunately, had no regard for poles. If we ever had a clear show jumping round, people would clap and cheer.

“I could feel time was catching up with her when we competed in the national eventing championships at Ballon in 2014,” continued Maher of the Gerard Young-bred Stetchworth Lad mare. “She did a good dressage and show jumped clear but had an unusual stop on top of a bank going cross-country. She still managed to get home 10 seconds under the time but, once I crossed the line, I dismounted, took the saddle off and retired her immediately.”

Quickly de Kreisker retired from jumping

THE 16-year-old stallion Quickly de Kreisker (Diamant de Semilly x Laudanum) has been retired from the sport of show jumping. Ridden by Morocco’s Abdelkebir Ouaddar, the stallion won all over the world, including the five-star Hermes Grand Prix in Paris in 2016, the CSIO5* Grand Prix in Al Ain in 2014 and the four-star Grands Prix in Le Touquet and Fontainebleau, among many others.

They also won World Cup qualifiers in Al Ain, Sharjah and Rabat. The pair represented Morocco at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen, France.

British grooms warned

THE British Grooms Association (BGA) is urging British grooms not to travel to Europe after January 1st if an agreement between the UK and European Union is not met, as the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) will no longer be valid for them.

This means that as of January 1st, grooms will not get free access to healthcare in Europe and therefore the BGA is urging grooms to take out travel insurance if leaving the UK.