THE neighbouring Castle Leslie club took home the bulk of the prizes from the Border Counties’ riding club one-day event held at Cloncaw Equestrian last Sunday.

Unfortunately, there was a small entry at the Co Monaghan venue where a huge amount of work has gone into upgrading and refurbishing the cross-country course ahead of Area 17 of The Pony Club (Northern Ireland) holding its eventing trials there later this month.

New fences have been built by Adam Stevenson and Johnny Bellew with the latter’s daughters, Rosemary and Caroline, and members of the Border Counties club taking charge of painting and presentation. Those who attended the event outside Glaslough appreciated the work which had gone into the course.

Disappointingly for Castle Leslie’s Lucinda Blakiston Houston riding Beltrim Full Moon, she was the only one entered in the G&G Shop Open class. However, completing on her dressage score of 35.5, she will be pleased to know that her homebred Maximum Clearance mare is in good fettle ahead of the resumption of Eventing Ireland action in the Northern Region at Tullylish next Saturday.

Cheval’s Claire O’Dwyer led the Combi Lift Monaghan Advanced Intermediate section after dressage on Cut Above (20.75) followed by Benbulben’s Sharon McGowan with Somethings Gotta Give (22) and Mo Chara’s Aoife Farrelly riding Sorrento Lass. O’Dwyer lost her hold on the top sport with eight show jumping penalties but the other pair fared even worse, both being eliminated.

Their misfortune worked in favour of Donegal Gaeltacht’s Sally Mahon who completed the day on her dressage score of 24.75 with her well-bred Graf Landlord, a 14-year-old Limmerick own-brother to Graf Liberty. That 2005 gelding finished fourth in the CCI4* at Luhmuehlen last month under England-based Australian Chris Burton.

Mahon and Graf Landlord won the Open power and speed class at this year’s AIRC Festival in Stradbally and are on the Donegal Gaeltacht team heading to Dublin next month for the Horseware championship final.

Six of the 16 starters in the Brian Finn Intermediate class were eliminated, some for jumping an incorrect fence or for omitting a fence altogether. Here, the all-the-way winner on 20.21 was Castle Leslie’s Niamh Foley with her 15-year-old bay gelding Railway Bar.

Her clubmates filled four of the next five placings, topped by Shane McKeever on KHS Impact (21.678), with Killossery’s Olivia Foley breaking the stranglehold when third on Tilladavins Curious George (38).

Low on horse power at present, Border Counties’ Caroline McQuillan borrowed According To Angelo from Castle Leslie’s Holly Breakey to win the Pauls Bar Inter B section but Castle Leslie struck back when Joanne Evans took the Annyalla Chicks young/green horse class on her five-year-old Bertie mare My Festy Dancer.

The host club had the final say when Bernadette Curry and Teo completed on their first phase score of 42.5 to land the 18-runner Polar Insulation Advanced Primary division. The dressage winners, Border Counties’ Fiona McKenna and Cloncaw Smartie (32.75), dropped down the order with 12 show jumping penalties while Castle Leslie’s Evanne McKenna slipped to second when picking up eight show jumping penalties with Bella Rosi.