Margie McLoone

ONE of the features of the recent Association of Irish Riding Clubs annual festival in Stradbally was the large number of club and family members who supported competitors in the Horse Sport Ireland novice showing section on day two.

At the end of the session, the Frank Mangan memorial trophy was presented to Greenhills’ Lianne O’Shea on board the eye-catching Bento van de Noordheuvel, the novice class winner. However, everyone who took part gained from the experience, thanks to the advice they received from judges Jayne Powell (conformation) and Joanne Logue (ride).

Logue rode every horse forward in the four classes which tested her fitness in advance of heading to Germany where she is working for the summer with Irish international dressage rider Judy Reynolds. Logue, like all judges in the section, appreciated being looked after so well by showing co-ordinator Emily McDonagh.

O’Shea also won the advanced primary dressage title with Bento van de Noordhuevel, a 14-year-old former Grade A jumper by Concorde, who she has leased since January. The rider was another on her travels after the festival as she is a production manager with Company SJ which was bringing two pieces to the International Beckett Season in the Barbican Centre, London.

The reserve champion, Hes Just Dandy, a 14-year-old Cult Hero gelding ridden by Enniskerry’s Fiona Lee, was second in the same class.

Also forward to the championship were the two top-placed horses from both sections of the introduction to showing class. The winners of Section A were Kilkenny barber Fiona Dalton and her 15-year-old Connemara gelding Bel Lad, representing Thomastown & District.

Topping the line-up in Section B was Ashbrook’s Helena Fitzgerald with the former Galway Blazers hireling Gentleman James, a 15-year-old Clover Dubh gelding on whom she also competed in the dressage section.

First in a very large primary showing class was Winterdown’s Maeve O’Toole with the five-year-old grey mare, When Ur Ready, who she purchased over two years ago and with whom she competes in dressage.

The HSI showing section opened on the Saturday with the veteran horse class where the winners, representing Clonmel, were Carly Walsh riding her 18-year-old Westfalian gelding Pasodobel on whom she competes in all Riding Club activities but mainly dressage.

A beautician in Clonmel, Walsh was attending the Festival for just the second time as it usually clashes with the minimus championships and she has children who want to compete with their friends in the Pony Club, show jump and event.

The Horse Sport Ireland working hunter champion for 2015 is Foxborough’s Primavera, winner of the Festival’s Advanced Intermediate and upwards class under primary schoolteacher Laragh McFeely who had partnered the 14-year-old bay mare to finish second in the 90cms championship at the Northern Ireland Festival.

The reserve champion was the intermediate winner Cill Dara’s Grainne III, a six-year-old dun mare who may be aimed at Dublin by owner/rider Fiona Doggett. This combination won the Frank Mangan trophy last year.

Also through to the working hunter championship were the winners of both sections of the cob and small hunter class.

Topping the scoring in Section A was the well-known combination of Castle Hill’s Sarah Cassidy riding her 15-year-old bay gelding Woodland Badger with whom she had finished fourth in Saturday’s lightweight cobs’ class.

Owner Eimear Keogh was on hand to see her 13-year-old bay gelding Ballustree Little Brook, who she hunts with the Meath Foxhounds, win Section B under Copperfield’s Jill Revill. The event rider and young horse producer is slowly returning to competition having broken her pelvis in five places in early January; this working hunter class marked her first outing over jumps since that incident.

The four and five-year-old class was dominated by Clonshire’s Emily Vial. She won with her 2010 Womanizer gelding Carraigane Heart Of Gold, who is out of a Rame Z mare and who landed the young horse class at last year’s national eventing championships, and finished second with Heathfield Lady Ellen, a 2011 grey by WRS Sun Rich out of an unraced Snurge half-sister to four winners.

The working hunter classes were judged by Imelda O’Shaughnessy and Kevin McGuinness over a course designed and well-decorated by AIRC chairman Tony Ennis.

Over a similar track, Vivienne O’Connor’s winner of the ex-racehorse performance hunter class was the 11-year-old Presenting gelding Fit For Anything, ridden for Clonmel by former top amateur jockey Caroline Hutchinson, while Thomastown & District’s Bernadette Murphy claimed the Irish Draught performance class on Tinford Lad, a 10-year-old grey gelding by The Bard.