COMDT. John Ledingham was awarded Performance Coach of the Year for the second year in a row at the Horse Sport Ireland Coaching Awards at Palmerstown House, Co Kildare, last weekend.

Ledingham is the chef d’equipe to the young rider show jumping team who won this year’s European Championships at Millstreet. He also coached pentathlon athletes Natalya Coyle and Arthur Lanigan-O’Keefe throughout their Rio Olympics journey where both athletes produced clear rounds in show jumping. He is also chef d’equipe to the Irish Sport Horse Studbook team who won three medals at the FEI World Jumping Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken this year.

Ledingham said: “I love what I do, teaching, mentoring, coaching. The reward of preparing and executing a plan is winning and this is the result of a very successful year for Irish young horses at Lanaken, Pentahletes at the Rio Olympics and the young riders at the European Championships at Millstreet. Congratulations to the athletes, home coaches, families and sponsors who made these outstanding achievements happen.”

HSI awarded all of their successful coaches their qualifications in the HSI Level 1 Apprentice, Level 2 and Level 3 for 2015 and the 2016 Coaches of the Year.

Developed in 1998, this programme currently runs across four levels starting from Introduction to Coaching and up to Level 3 National coach level.

Liam Moggan of Coaching Ireland and sports psychologist Brendan Hackett were on hand at the event where over 80 coaches achieved their Level 1 Apprentice coach accreditation along with 21 Level 2 coaches. Just two Level 3 coaches achieved their qualification this year: Marion Hughes in show jumping and Sally Corscadden in eventing.

The Development Coach of the Year award was presented to dressage expert Anne Marie Dunphy who also has her Level 2 qualification. This award acknowledges the contribution to the early development of sport for young people under 25. Anne has fielded an Irish dressage team for the European Championships three years in a row.

The Irish Pony Club Instructor of the Year award was presented to Agnes Gibbons White by Tony Ennis, chair of the IPC training committee.