Last Friday, the Route Branch hosted the eventing competition at Alan and Muriel Campbells’ Dirraw Farm, an Eventing Ireland venue. The Finvoy couple had worked hard all week to ensure the course was ready. The fields were cut and rolled to perfection, there was plenty of space to park and also to warm up for dressage, show jumping and cross-country. Most of the cross-country course could be seen from a couple of vantage points and the sun shone all day.

The 21-fence course, designed and built by Adam Stevenson and Fred White, was at maximum distance for the higher graded classes. All six in the open and all but 10 of the 48 intermediate combinations jumped clear, but the cross-country time and the show jumping tracks built by Fred Guthrie proved very influential.

Due to a hiccup, Casey Webb discovered this week that, in spite of qualifying, she didn’t have an entry in the combined training class at next week’s Dublin Horse Show. However, the Iveagh member is off to Cheshire having won Friday’s open with Gina Johnston’s Spirit House gelding Hill Dancer.

The intermediate team winners were the Killultagh A squad of Hannah Blakely (Kizzy), Rachel Rendle (Primrose Hill), Katie Lyttle (Dicksons Dream) and Morgan Hirst (Gay Gordon). There were four individual arena winners as there were at novice level where the team honours went to the Iveagh Dalmations’ Lynne Clarke Hearty (Homegrown Lexi), Laoise O’Farrell (Abbagail Dream), Herbie Purce (Tully Tiger) and Lucy Johnston (Tynan Mist).

Webb also competed at the previous Sunday’s show jumping qualifier which the Seskinore Branch hosted at Omagh showgrounds. The Newry rider didn’t feature in the individual results (although she did win the horsemanship award judged by Heather Coyle) while, in the team competition, Webb and her fellow Iveagh Zebras had to settle for second place behind Killultagh A.

The winning squad comprised Jemma Parkhill, Charlotte Creighton, Daniel Brown and Katie Lyttle all of whom bar Brown, who replaces Michael Parker, were narrowly beaten into second at the championships last year. The quartet also won the tack and turn-out award while Lyttle claimed the individual open title with Patricia McAuley’s home-bred OBOS Quality 004 mare Dicksons Dream.

Represented

The Iveaghs were well represented at intermediate level and claimed the team competition through their Puffins line-up of Hollie Smith, Hannah Agnew, Rachel Chapman and Hannah Rafferty. The branch, who won and placed fifth in the team competition in England last year, dominated the individual results, winning through Rachel Chapman on Duffy and filling four of the top five placings.

The Iveaghs’ Skunks and Saddlebacks finished second and third in the novice team event behind the North Down Sky’s The Limit contingent of Jazmin Vollands, Kathryn McCaughan, Holly Boal and Izzy Riley. The last named won the individual title with the 11-year-old Monarch Of The Glen on whom she landed a hat trick of EI Pony C events in the early part of the season.

The Seskinores were rewarded for their hard work when their Lions squad of Niamh McEvoy, Clara Daly, Katie Conlon and Ellen Thompson proved unbeatable in the junior team competition. Conlon doubled up by landing the individual title on the Grade A gelding Brookhaven Prince.

The branch completed a team double when their Jaguars’ quartet of Beth Thompson, Robert McLaren, Arthur Conlon and Matthew Hempton topped the mini division ahead of clubmates, the Seskinore Panthers. Conlon did best of the eight individually but was narrowly beaten into second by the Mid-Antrims’ Alex Byrne riding Willow Wisp.

The qualifying season started off with dressage which the Tullylagan Branch hosted at Cookstown on Thursday, July 17th when the sun shone all day and the turn-out was impeccable.

The Killultaghs were on the mark here as well, winning the open team qualifier thanks to the skills of Daniel Brown, Jemma Parkhill, Abi Carlisle and Sophie Williams. The East Antrims’ Rachel Coulter won the ride-off for individual honours on board Gorsehill Mayo, a 10-year-old Grange Bouncer mare who comes from the family of the three-star eventer Walterstown Don.

The Killultaghs will be well-represented at Cholmondeley Castle as they also won the Intermediate team competition through Katie Parker, Rachel Rendle, Hannah Blakely and Katie Lyttle. Only Blakely remains from the four who finished fourth across the water last year.

A good month for Izzy Riley began here as she was on the North Down squad who won the strong novice competition; her teammates were Charlotte de Montmorency, Katie McKee and Kathryn McCaughan.