PRESENTATIONS were made throughout the Balmoral Park showgrounds over the four days, but here we are concentrating on just three.
The first took place between the two Pure Jump ‘Balmoral Star of the Future’ performance horse championships in the Main Arena on Friday morning, as it was in this very ring that this year’s Kentucky CCI5*-L winner, Cooley Rosalent, first came to the notice of the wider public.
That was when the Valent mare, at the time just named Rosalent, won the four and five-year-old section of what was then the Knotts Bakery young event horse championship under Colin Halliday. Joining breeder Woods Rosbotham and daughters Barbara and Lisa for the post-presentation photographs was Co Wicklow’s Richard Sheane, who was responsible for the addition of Cooley to the grey’s name.
Following the second performance championship, Adrienne Stuart’s 25 years as course builder for the working hunter and performance horse classes at the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society showpiece event were celebrated, while the show also marked the official retirement of international show jumper, Suma’s Zorro.
Adrienne and well-known commentator Raymond Bready will be doing a charity sky dive in September, in support of the Northern Ireland Air Ambulance service.