THIS year, Horse Sport Ireland introduced two pony classes to its autumn dressage development series with standalone legs being run at Ower Equestrian Centre, Co Galway, in September, at Danescroft EC last month and at Sunday’s series final day in CoilÓg, Co Kildare.

Disappointingly, there were no entries for Sunday’s six and seven-year-old class and just three registered combinations started in the five-year-old division. However, there was a very eye-catching winner in the Michelle Gilligan-owned and ridden Avalon Outkast, the only Class 1-approved Perlino Connemara pony stallion in Ireland.

A winner also at Ower, Avalon Outkast is by Bog Mac Bobby out of Mickeys Girl (by Woodfield Sammy); Gilligan, who is the registered breeder of the stallion, credits Castlerea’s Niall Gannon for his input into the mating. A perfect example of the versatility of the Connemara, Avalon Outkast has competed in showing (was fifth in the Connemara stallion class at Dublin in 2022, but was unplaced this August), try-eventing and combined training.

He has amassed 42 Dressage Ireland points, the vast majority of which were earned under Gilligan this season, but one, on his debut, he picked up at last year’s Wild Atlantic Way Dressage Festival, where he was ridden by his owner’s good friend, Lorraine Balaine. He also has nine Show jumping Ireland points and was, in fact, jumping on Saturday at Duffys EC, where he recorded a double clear in the 148cm 90cm class in the hands of Holly Maher.

“I thought it was brilliant to get pony classes included in the series and, of course, the money is great,” said mother of two Gilligan who, with her husband John, runs a dairy farm near Ballinasloe, where they also have a broodmare band of 10, comprising pure Connemaras, thoroughbreds and Irish Sport Horses. “I would very much like to thank my dressage coach, Shauna Finneran, for all her help this season.

Exposure

“Outkast is a brilliant pony and exposure such as the HSI series will really help promote him as a stallion.

"He covers by AI only and started when he was two with just two mares; this year that number has grown to 70.

"He had some time off from competition after Dublin, so we’ll keep jumping him away over the winter, do some dressage classes and, hopefully, some arena eventing next spring.”

As with the HSI horse section, this class was judged by The Netherlands’ Hanneke Gerritsen and Ireland’s Bernie Foley, who awarded the Co Galway partnership a score of 62.59%. The two judges also assessed those forward in the FEI pony classes, where there was mixed luck for Laragh Byrne and her European Pony Championships team mount, Steendieks Dali Gold.

Laragh Byrne and Steendieks Dali Gold won the FEI pony individual class at CoilÓg \ Louise O'Brien Photography

In the Gerritsen-judged Individual test, Byrne and Jan Heine’s German-bred nine-year-old palomino gelding scored 68.92% to see off their sole rivals, Aoife Nee and Maracuja AG (64.59). In the three-runner Team test judged by Foley, Byrne and Steendieks Dali Gold finished third (66.14) behind Nee and Carmel Curran’s six-year-old chesnut gelding Maracuja AG (70), another German riding pony, and Isla Coad on Klein Roderijs Gold Fee (68.29).

Jean Halpenny (List 4) judged all five Trailblazer classes where, having narrowly won the four-runner warm-up Walk/Trot test on 70.59% with Mungret Boy, Harper Halpin comprehensively defeated two rivals when recording an amazing score on the same pony in the Under 10s’ Walk/Trot test, where there was one less starter. Some very close judging in the three-runner Junior Preliminary saw Georgia Kehoe and Aoife Crean share the honours on 70.53 with Kassala First Edition and Ragazza Blue Bella respectively, while Ellen O’Hara took third with Miss Pollypockets (70).