THE first three in the TRI Equestrian pony producers’ class at Wexford Equestrian on Wednesday showed what a diversity of animal, and rider, is competing at the Stepping Stones to Success league qualifiers.

The comfortable winner, on 192.3 points, was the six-year-old Connemara mare Kinamara Lady Destiny, who was ridden by professional producer Caoimhe Eivers for British-based Irish owner Tara Musgrave. The 26-year-old runs a yard near Trim where, in addition to her own horses, she takes in liveries and the odd few breakers.

The runner-up, on 186.3 points, was a four-year-old unnamed thoroughbred gelding by Gustav Klimt ridden by 12-year-old Lily Walsh from nearby Tomhaggard for her mother Jenny. One of a number of full-time riders at Richard Ames’s Belline Equestrian, Caitie Slater (22) finished third of the 16 starters on her own and her mother Allison’s Grantstown VIP (184.8), a five-year-old black ISH mare by Condios out of a Primary mare.

“I’ve been riding this mare who came in from England for about two years,” said Eivers of Kinamara Lady Destiny, who is by Fear Beag Bui and was bred in Co Roscommon by Micheal Burke out of Millicent Destiny (by Ashfield Festy). “She qualified for the younger Connemara performance hunter championship at the Dublin Horse Show last August, when she was one of just two five-year-olds and finished fourth.

“The aim is to get back to Dublin with her this summer, but we will finish this league first and see how things are. Like everyone else, I’m finding it very hard to plan things at present with the weather, as I have two five-year-old Connemaras to come out and a few horses to go eventing as well. I’m very lucky to be able to get away from the yard, where my mother (Deirdre Loughran) looks after everything in my absence. She is breeding some nice Connemara youngstock and I’m really looking forward to producing them; I love Connies!”