THE Agria Irish Pony Club national Minimus championships were held last weekend when torrential downpours on Saturday morning did their best to stop the opening ride phase going ahead at Killossery Lodge Stud. They failed to do so.

“We were meant to begin at 10am, but took the decision about 9.30am or so to push the start time back to 12 noon,” said the IPC’s chair of Tetrathlon John Flood who had assisted the Kildares’ T.J. Dillon in building and dressing the fences on the cross-country course, designed by Killossery’s Ciaran Glynn. “To ensure we got going, we had to take out one fence and trim a couple of hedges. We also extended the time allowed because of the ground conditions.”