IT was a far cry from the heady year of 2006 at West Clare Horse Show, when that year’s Grand Prix winner was Ronan Tynan’s Krafty Jack with Tholm Keane on board, to last Saturday when no entries for the pony show jumping classes meant their cancellation.

The lure of all-weather arenas, qualifiers and indoor facilities are now a constant rival for country shows, however the West Clare committee are nothing if not resourceful. Reintroducing cattle classes proved a smart move, as did adding on a fun class for family ponies to have their day out at the local show.

Another crowd puller for this show, revived in 2003, was hosting the fourth and final round of The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship. Andrew Gardiner, deputising for George Chapman, and Philip Scott, who had judged at the other three nationwide qualifiers, selected the final four.

Two former finalists and two new owners qualified for next month’s championship and the opening show jumping section attracted five entries. Dermot O’Sullivan, who won the 2015 final with his Aidensfield Flamenco and her OBOS Quality foal, topped last Saturday’s line-up, this time with a Cornet Obolensky mare HHS Cornetta Royale and her Querido VG Z filly foal.

Michael Egan’s Oakfield Sweetheart, by Womanizer, with a DS Shotgun colt foal at foot, also goes through to the Dublin final, held on the Friday of Horse Show week. Seven entries lined out for the eventing section and John Birchill’s Slatequarry Sasha is set for another Dublin return visit. The winning mare in 2016 for previous owner Paula Howard, the Ghareeb bay has changed hands since and like last year, has another Tyson foal.

The remaining place for Dublin was taken by Oranmore owner Pat Finn with his OBOS Quality mare with her Chelis HC Z filly foal at foot.

Rebecca Monahan with her yearling Dermish Not A Dare, the young horse champion at West Clare Horse Show \ Susan Finnerty

Head scratching

“We had two good winners. For our second qualifying places, we had a lot of debate and head scratching while judging: a good mare with a weaker foal or a poor mare with a better foal,” Philip Scott remarked afterwards about weighing up their options.

In the other West Clare broodmare classes, judged by Tom Conlon with junior judge Mary Davoren under his wing, the championship went to Tiernan Gill’s Flogas Liqueur. The Barnaby Flight mare was the young horse champion here back in 2018 and is now in foal to Drumhowan Stud’s Cascari.

Incidentally, the reserve broodmare champion - Sheelagh Barry’s home-bred Harlequin du Carel mare Mythical Darwin - produced a Cascari foal this year and he stood champion foal.

The reserve foal title went to Edel Burke Curtin’s Centennial filly out of her OBOS Quality mare Corgrigg Joules, like Mythical Darwin and Flogas Liqueur, another to come up through the West Clare young horse classes.

Back to 2006 when another winner that day was Paddy Downes’ sublime Dromelihy Imp, the young horse champion. The late horseman’s family have since put up the Paddy Downes Cup for the champion three-year-old at his local show and the latest to be added to the names is Gill’s Flogas Penelope.

The Dutch-bred filly by the Kannan son Jardonnay VDL, (champion at the 2017 KWPN stallion show) is amongst her Ballina owner’s Dublin entries, as is Flogas Liqueur.

Flogas Penelope then stood reserve in the following young horse championship to Rebecca Monahan’s yearling Dermish Claddagh, now renamed Dermish Not A Dare. Bred by Gabriel Mullins, the filly is by CC Captain Cruise out of the Pacino mare Lady Alison.

Conlon was full of praise for his champion choice, saying: “I think the yearling filly was one of the nicest fillies I’ve seen in a very long time. I just thought she was very correct. The reserve [Flogas Penelope] was a lovely type, very little between the two of them but I just think, for me, the yearling just had that wow factor.”

The champion’s owner had a busy day, also judging the three-year-old loose jumping and here Monahan selected PJ Meere’s Luidam-Indoctro entry as her winner. Both the winner and runner-up - Johnny Kelly’s Vivant van de Heffinck entry - also secured two places for Cavan’s Elite Sale as a bonus.

Numbers were steady in the young horse classes with the three-year-old classes here and at Longford the following day, amongst the best numerically so far this year.

The West Clare Show committee will no doubt have their thinking caps on before next year’s show, however it was good to see their hard-working secretary Bridgette Coghlan and local breeder Jenny Glynn recognised for their efforts.

On the European squad

JUST yesterday (Friday), the Jenny Glynn-bred Capels Hollow Drift, by local stallion Shannondale Sarco, and his rider Tom Jackson were included on the British team squad for the European Eventing Championships next month in Haras le Pin. This followed another strong result by the pair when they finished fifth at Badminton, having also been runners-up at Burghley last autumn. His breeder Jenny and work colleague Bridgette Coghlan, travelled over to Badminton to watch him in the flesh. While the weekend downpours didn’t dampen their dream trip, it was a photo of the waterlogged West Clare pair that inspired committee members Simon Clancy and Nicky Johnson for this year’s now customary presentation.

As well as a bottle of Prosecco, they each received a voucher for a wash and blow dry and another for a manicure by Caoimhe McParland (whose new nail bar enterprise is profiled in the upcoming Dublin Horse Show Magazine) as part of a ‘treat day’ for their hard work and recognition of another West Clare-bred in the spotlight. (See Picture Desk page 98).