IRELAND was extremely well represented at the Defender Blair Castle Horse Trials over the weekend with an Irish Sport Horse winning the CSI4*-L, an Irish rider placed fourth and a gaggle of plucky pony riders dominating the placings in the pony class.

The Norman Watt-bred A Class Cooley (ISH), an 11-year-old grey by Heritage Fortunus out of New Years Clover (Clover Echo), executed one of only two show jumping clear rounds in the class, sending Britain’s Wills Oakden to the top of the leaderboard in the CCI4*-L.

“It’s unbelievable,” Oakden said. “I thought winning one class here last year was massive, but to win two is beyond belief. We’ve been telling A Class Cooley’s owners all summer that we’ve been prepping at one-days for a big win, and now we’ve pulled it off – I’m not sure how, but we have.”

Oakden also won the CSI3*L with Irish Sport Horse Keep It Cooley (Ramiro B x Rathlin Imp), bred by Georgina Philips.

Four-star winner

Two rails down for Toshiyuki Tanaka and Jefferson JRA dropped this pair below Oakden and past Blair four-star winner, Rosie Fry, took third place on Romantic.

Wexford’s Lucy Latta finished in fourth with RCA Patron Saint with a dressage score of 37.4, four jumping faults and 16 cross-country time penalties to finish on 57.4 Her fellow Irish rider Declan Cullen finished 10th in this class with Seavaghan Ash.

Ireland was also well represented in the CCI3*-L with Rose de Montmorencey finishing sixth with Bikini, and Padraig McCarthy seventh with MGH Mr Messack and in the CCI4*-S Padraig McCarthy was ninth with Pomp N Circumstance and 12th with Lady Ophelia.

Powerful ponies

Kitty Cullen’s trip from Armagh to Blair Castle paid off with the youngster winning the CCIP2*-S class with Coppenagh Spring Sparrow.

With a dressage score of 29.2 and adding just four jumping faults and 1.2 for time, she finished on 38 penalties. Great Britain’s Arabella Henderson was second with Our Billy Eile on 40.9 after adding four jumping faults to her dressage score but after that it was a sea of green, white and gold with Irish riders taking the rest of the top six placings.

Anna Nangle of Kildare was third with Liscannor Tulira after adding 8.8 cross-country time penalties to her dressage score of 33.8.

Gilby Monaghan of Carlow and Longwood Laura were fourth after adding 10.8 cross-country time faults and four jumping faults to a dressage score of 33.9.

Kildare’s Jessica O’Ryan was fifth with Carhu Melody on a total of 50.1 penalties and Ali Fitzpatrick of Cork was sixth with Houndswood Moonbay on 51.7.