EACH year, eight lucky members of The Pony Club are invited to compete with their 128cm ponies in the Mini Major show jumping class at the London International Horse Show, where they are teamed up with one of the senior international riders competing at the five-day FEI 5* fixture.

Having qualified at The Meadows in early July, Area 17 will be represented in the ExCel Arena next week by the Fermanagh Branch’s Lily McBride riding Poynstown Little Albert Einstein and by North Derry’s Harry Kelly on Paris. The class, which is sponsored by GS Equestrian, is due to get underway at 12.40pm when the show opens on Wednesday.

Ten-year-old Lily, who has been a member of her local Branch since 2021, has been competing Poynstown Little Albert Einstein since the end of May this year. They are heading over to London on the back of a win in the 128cm 90cm competition on the Saturday of the recent Winter Pony Championships at Cavan. Besides riding, Lily’s only other interest is gymnastics.

The young rider will have plenty of support at the show – and that’s just from her immediate family, as she is travelling from Trillick to London via the ferry out of Dublin in the company of her parents, Jane and Seamus, and siblings Katie (16), Max (12), Rory (eight) and seven-year-old twins Mary and Conor.

They are staying in London until Saturday at least, as they intend being at the ExCel Arena again that morning to support one of Poynstown Little Albert Einstein’s former riders, Sam Widger, who is competing in the Green Mile Bedding Mini Stakes for top-rated 148cm ponies on Western Ranger. Lily and Rory were both jumping at SouthView last month, when Sam qualified Joe McMahon’s dun gelding for next week’s international.

Harry Kelly, who is eight, first sat on a pony in 2020 and began show jumping two years later, following his sister Lily and his brother Liam into the sport.

The 16-year-old grey mare Paris began competing under Showjumping Ireland rules in 2015 with Liam Hayes. She has been partnered by four other young riders since the end of that year, with Harry taking over at the start of this season. The new combination obviously gelled quickly, as they qualified for Balmoral and have been very busy since then.

Harry, who attends Scoil Íosagáin Primary School, enjoys being a member of North Derry Pony Club, as he gets to meet up with his friends and learns a lot. He likes to play football when not on his pony. Harry intends giving the Mini Major competition his best shot next week but, most importantly, he wants to really enjoy his hard-earned time in the fantastic arena.