THE heavy rain which caused havoc with horse sports in the south of the country on Sunday made its way northwards to hit the Bangor area early on Tuesday morning as the Stuart family hosted the first stand-alone qualifier for next month’s Knotts Bakery young event horse classes at Balmoral Show.

Fortunately for all, the dressage and triangle phases were held indoors at Gransha Equestrian and the rain had eased slightly by the time the jumping phase began outside. The ground in the all-weather arena could be described as ‘slushy’ but did not seem to inconvenience the 19 four-year-olds and 23 five-year-olds who competed at the Co Down venue.