MEMBERS of the Irish Pony Club and of Area 17 of The Pony Club travelled over to England last week to represent the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in Pony Club dressage and mounted games at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Area 17 was also invited to send a team for a Junior Tetrathlon competition in which, on a total of 12,892 points, the Killultaghs’ Emma Stewart (4,453 for fourth), the Iveaghs’ Harry Purdy (4,299 for sixth) and North Down’s Heidi Martin (4,140 for 14th), finished second to Scotland (13,430) and ahead of Central (12,717) in third. The highest individual score (4,603) was recorded by Lauderdale member Jacob Hedley (4,603).

“It was a great result for Northern Ireland, certainly the highest in my recollection,” commented Area 17’s Tetrathlon coordinator and team chef d’equipe, Heather Williams. In a bid to keep costs down, the three team members rode borrowed horses as Heather explained. “Heidi Martin rode Monty (Hill Monarch) who was borrowed from the East Down Branch, Harry Purdy rode a horse borrowed from Henry Tweddle (Northern England Area) and Emma Stewart rode a horse from Jacob Hedley (Scottish Area).

“The ride phase was tricky with skinnys, doubles and doglegs which are not easy when you don’t know the horse and so are not familiar with its strides. The slip rail in the middle of the arena is also challenging when you are on a horse that you have only ridden for approximately 10 minutes before going into the arena. You are never sure will it slow down for the slip rail or try to jump it! All rode exceptionally well getting clear rounds. I was immensely proud of the team.”

The first Pony Club competition to get under way was the dressage home international which took place on the Friday when the Republic of Ireland placed third in the team competition on a converted score of 27 behind England (15) and Wales (18).

The ROI team comprised Duhallow’s Amber Lane, who was second in her Novice test with Barkway State Affair (69.90%), Kildare’s Lucy Maughan (Cuffestown Flyover Lady (65.73)) and Sligo’s Yasmin Hughes (Lightning McQueen (62.10)) who were sixth and eighth respectively in their Intermediate test; plus Bray members Jodie Scully (Lassban Silhouette (61.64)) and Zara Kelly (Roo Too (60.78)) who finished seventh and eighth at Open level.

The IPC Dressage and Combined Training Committee had a difficult time picking the ROI team as they received 33 expressions of interest from members. The riders received sponsorship from TRI in softshell jackets and cooler rugs while Collette Gaffey from Essentially Equestrian Athlone sponsored embroidered numnahs for the quintet.

Salute fired

“Our riders all performed brilliantly,” reported the IPC’s head of combined training and dressage, Kate Harvey who travelled to the show to support the team and chef d’equipe, Marie Hennessy. “And they did so in challenging circumstances which included the trooping past (three times!) of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, culminating in their six-gun salute in the Main Arena, which coincided with the last test. The English rider and her horse coped magnificently, as did Irish rider Jodie Scully and her horse who had remained in the warm-up arena.”

Northern Ireland didn’t field a dressage team but was represented individually by North Down’s Charlotte Keers, who was fifth in the Intermediate test on Western Ocala (66.77%), and by East Down’s Caoimhe Crozier who was sixth in the Open with the above mentioned Hill Monarch (61.95).

Award presented

During the show, Charlotte was presented with her Gold Young Equestrian Leaders Award by the Chief Executive Officer of The Pony Club, Marcus Capel and the organisation’s Chairman, Tim Vestey.

Charlotte was commended for giving over 150 hours of her time during the programme and particularly for her Special Project which was to organise a fund-raising gymkhana and show jumping competition for the North Down Branch. Charlotte is in her Second Year studying law at the University of Exeter.

Reunited with Hill Monarch on Sunday, Caoimhe Crozier, who won team bronze with Kildromin Banjo at the 2021 European pony eventing championships, competed in the pony showing section where she and her mother Christine’s eight-year-old Masurenfuerst gelding placed fourth in their 153cms working hunter pony class. Caoimhe and Monty are entered in the EI110 (J) at Hazeldene today.

The ROI’s youngest team member, Amber Lane, also competed in Sunday’s showing section and she finished third in the 122cms show hunter class with the part-Welsh gelding Barkway State Affair, a 19-year-old son of Rotherwood Statesman.

Unfortunately, neither the ROI nor the NI mounted games teams fared as well although Max O’Reilly (Tipperary), Thomas Sherry (Shillelagh), Harriet Mangan (Meath), Katie Foley (Carlow), Nicky Bolton (Kildare) and Megan Adams (Laois) did have the satisfaction of being judged winners of the entertainment piece!