WHAT a difference 12 months can make. Last year, the Newcastle West Show field lay under 5cm surface water. Last Sunday, the mercury hit 23 degrees (73 Fahrenheit) at the West Limerick fixture.

It’s a show that’s undergone a number of changes, firstly, a move from its original Ballynoe location to a more urban footfall-friendly site near the lively market town. Terence Leonard’s farm is still the ideal location for the Dublin potential event horse qualifier and both he and brother Peter were busy stewarding traffic arriving at the show field, no easy task with the volume of Kerry-bound tour buses on the main road.

How many of their top horses, including Ballynoe Castle RM and future Olympic horses went to local shows? “All of them,” replied Peter. “We still have show jumping classes for horses here, but not ponies,” as the preference now for all-weather surfaces led to dwindling pony entries.

Another change is an earlier show date. Previously held on the third Sunday in July, Newcastle West seized the opportunity of five June weekends in 2024 and 2025. The date change worked out perfectly, with many exhibitors taking in a pre-Charleville outing.

Cancelled last year due to the wet weather, Newcastle West Show had one of the best crowds in its history, with car parking fields filled to capacity.

Sunday had a real family atmosphere and both Billy Lee (the Racehorse to Riding Horse class ride judge) and local TD Patrick O’Donovan were amongst those who brought their children along for a day at their local show.

Another political guest was John Moran, the first Mayor of Limerick to be elected by a public vote. He brought along his Irish Setter, Aonraí - or “the first dog of Limerick”, as he was quickly dubbed, no pun intended, by one wag.

Limerick’s new Mayor John Moran with some of the Newcastle West team: Liam Ruttle, Seamus and Margaret Shanahan, plus ‘First Dog’ Aonraí and a stray voter \ Susan Finnerty

Business

Over to the business end, where Jane Davis and Willie Corrigan had some very competitive ridden classes to sift through in the first ring, adjacent to the show jumping ring.

Both rings were overlooked by a portable cabin unit, complete with wifi for the secretarial team, power sockets, USB ports for charging the ubiquitous mobile phones, and toilets.

Several of the classes served as qualifiers for the Connolly’s Red Mills Champion of Champions final at Barnadown.

The hunter championship was first on the cards and taking a second title in as many weekends, plus the highest-placed four-year-old qualifying slot, was Ballarin Boudica for her owner-rider team of Robert Jeffares and Nicola Perrin.

Champion at the Showing Show of the Year, held at Mullingar Equestrian Centre the previous Saturday, she was bred by John Galvin and is mostly bred on Irish Draught lines, with Offaly Clover and Corran Ginger in her pedigree.

Jill Moran, Askeaton and Siobhan Madden at Newcastle West. Watch out for a special feature on Jill and the Moran family in The Irish Field’s Dublin Horse Show magazine, out next month \ Susan Finnerty

Reserve was another of this year’s Balmoral winners in the Jodie Moran-produced small hunter winner Tiger Eye and owned by Orla Cusack, who completed the Boston Marathon in April.

Limerick is noted for a cluster of show horse producers and another, Shane McKenna won the riding horse championship with Michelle Swaine’s Fabia, ahead of Sarah Whelan’s reserve, the smart coloured Quid Pro Quo.

In the Champion of Champions amateur qualifiers, the first two places were taken by the O’Brien sisters: Suzanne with her lightweight hunter class winner Munther’s Ranger (Munther), ahead of Lyndsey with Mr Bloomfield (Gortfree Hero).

Links effect

A half-dozen thoroughbreds lined out in the Racehorse to Riding Horse class, including Emily Kate Robinson’s entry, the 2022 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard. Tessa Foreman’s eight-time winner Aloneamongmillions (Mahler), ridden by Tony Ennis, stood top of this strong line-up.

Lee was impressed by the standard, saying: “They were lovely horses to ride, in fairness. Everyone had a great job done, they were really amenable and well-educated horses.

“Doing that work, it’s a real change of pace for them. You’re giving them a squeeze, just to ask them to lob along, not gallop, so they were very good. It was a high standard today.”

There was another racing link in the mini pony classes, where ex-Galway Racecourse manager John Moloney watched on as five-year-old Rohan Moloney won his 10th working hunter lead rein class this year.

Tabita Mini Minx was Rohan’s winner and, as her prefix suggests, the Welsh Section A/B cross was bred by Mary Dooner in Athlone.

“We bought her eight years ago from Veronica Cleary in Wexford, she’s by Tabita Showtime and out of Gwendraeth Mari Lwyd. She was first ridden by [brother] Lennan and together they won both the mini working hunter pony and Irish-bred Pony of the Year titles at the Irish Pony Society National Awards in 2019,” said their proud mum, Zoe Shannon.

Team Moloney: John, Lennan, Rohan and Eamon with the family favourite Tabita Mini Minx \ Susan Finnerty

“Last year, she reclaimed the mini working hunter title with Rohan and also won the mini show hunter title with Lennan at the Irish Pony Society (IPS) national awards.

“She also competes in combined training and Pony Club. She is just the best little pony and we are so lucky to have her.”

Two more paragons were the mini and reserve champions: Orla Whelton’s Whiteleaze Secret Temptation and Tara Rocca Houlihan’s Proclins Prince Charming.

Ridden Connemara classes were nicely-filled with the championship going to Harry Williamson’s Castleside Tom (Clochan Dandy) and Nathan Ruttle’s Clifden buy, Rachel’s Menlo Boy (Rian Ór).

This week, the Dutch federation announced its teams for the Paris Olympics and two Totilas offspring - Glock’s Total US and Glock’s Toto Jr - appear on their dressage team.

There was an interesting link to the Newcastle West show pony champion, Diamand Anfrody, another with part-bred Welsh bloodlines and this Dutch-bred cremello mare (Klein Rugidours Cocktail) has only recently returned to the showring after breeding four foals in recent years.

Her yearling is by Glock’s Dream Boy, the Vivaldi stallion that competed for the Dutch team at the Tokyo Olympics with Hans Peter Minderhoud. Diamand Anfrody herself competed in international dressage, with local rider Robyn O’Neill, and owner Gary Cusack offered the mare to the local O’Doherty family after daughter Helena’s pony was injured.

The 148cm class winner stood show pony champion, ahead of Margaret Greene’s Harwent Mooncracker, last year’s top points earner and Champion Pony of the Year at the IPS points awards.

Nicholas Byrne and Shauna Finneran had a busy day judging ponies at Newcastle West Show \Susan Finnerty

Breath of fresh air

Nicholas Byrne had a busy day judging the working hunter rounds and Rachel Lane’s Creganna Dancer was both the champion in this section and reserve champion show hunter to Charlotte Goor’s Royal International-bound Underhill Bobcat.

As Creganna Dancer had lost a shoe, the Lane family’s supreme championship hopes rested on Barkway State Affair, another pony that has qualified for the upcoming Royal International Horse Show.

In the supreme pony championship decider, judged by another excellent team in Denise Colebrooke, Shauna Finneran, Rachel Bennett and Tara Sweeney, the combined panel opted for the starter stakes champion, Barkway State Affair, ridden by Amber. The reserve supreme title went to Arizona Gold, who had claimed the intermediate tricolour for Abbie Shannon, from Murroe.

Amber Lane with the Newcastle West supreme pony champion Barkway State Affair \ Susan Finnerty

Newcastle West, Limerick and Cappamore are Co Limerick’s three agricultural shows for Abbie and other Treaty exhibitors, including Lili Stapleton. She had the reserve working hunter horse champion in Sarco To Perfection (Shannondale Sarco) and the champion was Camilla Kear’s Lance (Castleforbes Lord Lancer), a four-year-old that has hunted with the Scarteens, who his owner thinks has a promising future.

Rebecca Monahan and Harry Scanlon had another section to judge when young horse classes returned this year to the Newcastle West schedule.

Liz Ryan, who will have a busy weekend at Charleville, was another who welcomed their addition as hers and Maurice Coleman’s Kilroe Gold (Lagans OBOS Quality) took the blue ribbon and reserve young horse title on his first day out as an early birthday present for Ryan.

Champion was the winner of this combined three-year-old class in Paul Coffey’s Seamair Newport Rosie Q. A fresh face on the showing circuit, Coffey is from Newport in the adjoining Premier County and credits Michael Lyons - “an out-and-out gentleman” - for setting foot in a showring.

The arrival of his and wife Geraldine’s twins - Jack and Hughie - also spurred on Coffey, a salesman for a Belfast company. “We had twin boys last summer and I decided then I’m going to start my showing career. My wife loves going to shows, but she was looking at me as if I had two heads! We didn’t even have a stable.”

Another bemused onlooker sized up Coffey’s showring start-up package of “two bales of shavings, two bags of meal and a gallon of Kentucky Carron Oil. He turned to me and says, ‘Coffey, what are you going to do? Massage the oil into her?’”

The intended show horse was Sunday’s champion, bred by his neighbour Timmy Sheehy. “She’s out of Newport Lady May, a Heigh Ho Dubh-Clover Hill-thoroughbred mare.”

With the help of Willie Ryan, the pair entered their first show at Bridgetown last year and were hooked.

Their Newcastle West championship win was particularly poignant, as the connections recently lost Newport Lady May. “She was in a field only 500 yards from me, but she lost the foal and poor Timmy ended up having to put the mare down too. The mother now is gone, we all adored that mare.”

‘After bad luck, comes great luck’, proved true last Sunday when they qualified for the All-Ireland final at Dungarvan. “I’m going to Charleville, hoping to get a ticket for the Bannow final and I’m going to enter her for Dublin as well. Sure, why not? I might never have a nice one like her again.”

Abbie Shannon aboard the Newcastle West reserve supreme pony: Arizona Gold \ Susan Finnerty

What they said

“We were so lucky to find such a gem and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find her on the couch one of these days.” - Zoe Shannon predicts a Tabita Mini Minx takeover of the TV remote control.

“The shop for a cup of coffee and The Irish Field. That’s my Saturday morning. And on Thursday, it’s the Farmers Journal. There’s only two papers I buy.” - Discerning reader Paul Coffey.

“I would have said it would probably be the first Group 1 win on Fiesolana up in Leopardstown. The gap didn’t open until about 100 yards from the line, she burst through and won, so days like that. It was for my boss Willie McCreery as well, so that was a special day.” - Billy Lee recalls his favourite racecourse win.

“I am over the moon with how the show went. As a show committee, we had a lot of effort put in last year, but the weather let us down. We more or less copied and pasted our plans for this year. Our new show site is fantastic on the outskirts of the town and we’re looking forward to next year already. We have notes taken on how and where we can improve. We have a small but mighty committee and we’re all delighted with how our show went this year.” Liam Ruttle, Newcastle West Show chairman.

“It’s too hot, I’m going home.” One overheated spectator. You can’t win.