CCI4*-S

THE four members of Ireland’s silver medal-winning team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in North Carolina competed in the NutriScience CCI4*-S at Ballindenisk last week when Co Meath’s Sarah Ennis won on her Tryon mount, Horseware Stellor Rebound.

Ennis, one of four female riders to top the podium on Sunday and one of three based in Co Meath, has a seemingly endless supply of superlatives when it comes to describing the 17-year-old VDL Ricochet gelding who added 1.6 cross-country time penalties to his winning dressage score of 22.6 for a total of 24.2.

“He’s just fantastic and one in a million! I wish I could make him younger, with new feet (the bay has had longtime issues with his feet); in fact, he is so special, I wish I could clone him!” said the rider who, as per the FEI database, owns the Irish Sport Horse bay in partnership with Horseware and her husband Niki Potterton while also listed is her late mother Orla who was so instrumental in building Ennis’s career as an event rider.

“This is what he will stick to in the future, although we first have to see how he comes out of the weekend. He’s on a few days off and, after that, we’ll see where we are and will take it as it comes. He was just brilliant in all three phases with not a wobble or a blip – he finds it all so easy! I always think my mother is watching over him and she must have been watching over me as well when I parted company with Horseware Woodcourt Garrison (her first ride in the class) as I got up and walked away!”

That unseating came at the one of the new fences, the NutriScience whiskey barrels at 10, where, having lost all momentum on landing at the first element, a hedge, the 12-year-old found it difficult to get the distance to the second, a skinny barrel, before ‘leaving’ his left foreleg on the final skinny element, dislodging his rider.

“The fence caused no problems in the long-format class on Saturday so I wasn’t expecting any on Sunday. However, horses do seem to find it hard to read whiskey barrels, or wine casks, and I was angry with myself for not getting it right on Woodcourt Garrison. I made sure that didn’t happen with ‘Rocket’.

“I was delighted with Grantstown Jackson in the three-star-short (where he finished seventh on his dressage score). I had first thought of putting him in the four-star but, in the end, I decided not too and am glad as it was quite a tough four-star track so he had a nice confidence-boosting run instead.

Not best pleased

“I wasn’t too pleased with Stellor Quick Change (finished fifth) in the three-star-long! He was working-in fine for his dressage but, with about 10 minutes to go, he threw all the toys out of the pram and started shying at a tractor that had been there from the beginning. He cantered through his test and I was lucky to get 42.5 – I’d have given me more! He was faultless in the other two phases.

“I have Woodcourt Garrison entered in Aston-Le-Walls (starts in over a week’s time) and hopefully things will go well there so he won’t have to head to Millstreet where Grantstown Jackson will most likely start. I have a few different horses out at Blackstairs this weekend and I have to make plans for them as well.

“Peter Fell and his team at Ballindenisk did a fantastic job preparing the tracks and it was lovely to see all the new fences which are a great addition while, of course, they have great terrain to place them. The new arena has bedded in well and makes a huge difference.”

Only two of the 20 combinations completed on their Les Smith (C) and Faith Ponsonby (B) awarded dressage scores, viz WEG team silver medallist Sam Watson, who finished second on David Bogossian’s 12-year-old Tullabeg Fusion gelding Tullabeg Flamenco (27), and Joseph Murphy, who placed fourth with his own 10-year-old Carpalano gelding Calmaro (32.3).

The pair were split by the England-based 2018 WEG team and individual silver-medallist Padraig McCarthy riding Leonidas II who picked up four time penalties on Sunday across the country.

There was a second elimination at 10c, where Elizabeth Hayden and DSL The Professor, who were lying fifth overnight, fell and one at 14 where the seventh-placed pairing of Louise Bloomer and Shannondale Icarus parted company.