THE second of this season’s Young Eventhorse Series qualifiers was held last Wednesday at Tullylish where the two five-year-old sections were won by Northern Region riders.

The honours in Section A went to Jonny Steele on Mon Ami Beauvallet who, the previous Sunday, qualified for the eventing section of The Pony Club championships in Britain next month when finishing second in his PC100 arena at the Area eventing in Laurel View Equestrian.

Not too surprisingly, Steele wasn’t on board the Irish Sport Horse gelding that day, the bay then being ridden by East Down member Tom Rowlatt-McCormick whose mother Fran, the Branch’s District Commissioner, owns and bred the five-year-old who is by the eventing stallion Centre Stage.

“Mon Ami Beauvallet, Rollo to his friends, is out of our Mile Hill mare Mile Lass who is dam also of Mon Ami Alme (CCI2*-L),” commented the delighted breeder. “He was broken and backed by Jonathan Steele with help from both our sons, Ben and Tom, and did a bit of hunting. Ben rode him at some EI events last year but when he went back to University (the School of Veterinary Science in Liverpool) Jonathan took over the ride.

“We have all been having a lot of fun with Rollo and Tom intends to show jump him and Pony Club him while Jonathan events, but all at a low level. He is so talented that it would be easy to do too much, so we are taking care and building the foundations slowly. Next year, or possibly later this year (all being well) we would like to move him up to EI110 and look towards his first International.”

The Ballynahinch family will have a bit of a quandary next month as the young event horse championships at the RDS take place on Wednesday and Thursday, August 17th and 18th, while the PC100 eventing section of the British Pony Club championships runs over Friday and Saturday, August 19th and 20th.

In this section, Patrick Byrne also qualified in second on Richard Ames’s Newmarket Venture gelding Belline Newmarket Delight (325). Behind two previously qualified combinations, Lesley Jones secured a ticket when finishing fifth with Yvonne Pearson’s OBOS Quality 004 gelding, Quality Choice (318.5).

Steven Smith was disappointed that he didn’t qualify all his horses down at Forth Mountain, narrowly losing out with Terry Johnston’s ISH gelding Strangford. However, much closer to home on Wednesday, he won Section B on that Luidam bay, securing qualification by a nine-point margin. The only other qualifier in this section was the Watervalley Cool Diamond gelding Modelcounty Bojack (308.8) who was ridden for Eftim Ivanoff by Noel Dunne.

Always on the search for a good-looking, athletic horse with plenty of quality, Johnston didn’t have to travel too far to find Strangford (317.8) who was bred in Co Antrim by Dorothea Wilson out of her Cruisings Micky Finn mare Templepatrick Dara Bay.