THE finale at the Northern Ireland Festival in Cavan last Sunday was, as usual, the judging of the Festival supreme working hunter championships in the Gold Ring where, for the second year running, the winner of the pony title was Dartans Atom Man, while Castanasky was crowned supreme champion horse.

The 11-year-old gelding Dartans Atom Man, who won the show hunter and working hunter championship at Necarne last year, before heading to Cavan where he also secured a Horse of the Year Show ticket, didn’t enjoy the best of luck for much of the remainder of the season – to the upset of his rider, Aoibhinn Ruane.

“He was out in the field, did a pirouette and ended up with a small hole in his check ligament,” said the rider’s mother, Helena Hennessy Ruane, who owns the much-beribboned chesnut. “Aoibhinn was doing her Leaving Cert at the time and had been looking forward to finishing her exams and then preparing to represent Ireland at the European working hunter championships in Scotland, followed by Dublin.

“We took ‘Dexter’ to Clinic na gCapall (in Old Leighlin, Co Carlow), where Bill Twomey and Jerry O’Sullivan used stem cell therapy to treat the injury. We didn’t think he’d get out again last year but, around four weeks before HOYS, we got the all-clear, so he went there and finished third in the 153cm working hunter.

“This year, we brought him to Kilbride, where he qualified for NIF, and then to the Show of the East at Greenogue, where he won his show hunter class, going reserve champion, and won his working hunter class and was working hunter champion. As you can imagine, we are not going to do too much with him this year – we want to mind him.”

Aoibhinn, who is now studying Commerce at UCD, had some other nice rides at the Festival, finishing second in the HOYS ridden Connemara qualifier on Tullaree Fear Buí, and will be riding for Aubrey Chapman at Balmoral. To further her experience in the saddle, she rides out for local racehorse trainer Jim Bolger during her holidays and, when there are no shows on, every Saturday and every second Sunday.

Castanasky and Barry Higgins, supreme working hunter horse champion at NIF 2024 \ Laurence Dunne jumpinaction.net

Ridden for Knocklyon’s Louise and Aideen McCormack by Barry Higgins, Castanasky also competes with Dressage Ireland. Here, the eight-year-old Irish Draught mare won the Festival 90cm working hunter horse class in the Gold Ring early on Sunday evening before taking the overall horse honours as the curtain came down on the 2024 show.

A grey daughter of Emperor Welcome, Castanasky was bred in Co Roscommon by Francis Lafferty out of his Castana mare, Castana Princess.

Partly thanks to the wonderful weather, the 2024 Northern Ireland Festival was a huge success and it was great to see the results of the multitudinous classes, championships and supreme championships being published so quickly on the show’s website.