ALICIA Devlin Byrne has been riding side-saddle for over 20 years now and has some great memories.

“I started when I was eight or nine. Early memories would be of riding junior classes in Dublin on my show pony. I was junior champion one year with Selor Minetsky. That would be my biggest win in the ring in side-saddle,” she told The Irish Field.

“I also remember doing local charity rides on my 11.2hh hunter and I have won the only side-saddle jumps race at the Kildare Hunter Performance at Punchestown.”

In what was a first for France, a side-saddle race held on the track there last month saw the Wicklow rider lead an Irish one-two-three on her veteran mare Crossdrum Gemini.

“This was the last trip myself and dad had been planning for and he had every faith in her, despite my worries for her age,” commented the rider, whose father and her biggest supporter, Bernard, sadly passed away last December.

“The invitation came through Antoinette de la Bouillerie, and we had been planning this for a while. A few ladies were invited to race side-saddle at the summer racing festival in Craon, France on September 1st.

“I travelled over, along with Susan Oakes and Hazel Valentine and we were joined by Katie Featherstone from the UK and French rider Dorothee Tersen.”

Valentine completed in second place on the ISH Templemartin Coevers, borrowed from her partner Tom Berney, ahead of Oakes in third riding the Clover Flush gelding, My Cavalier Flush.

The race was run over a mile and a half and took in both hurdles and banks and was watched by some 30,000 spectators. It was the first time the French racing authority allowed a demonstration of its kind on a racecourse.

Some of these banks were also used in the Prix Louis de Guebriant, won by Roi Mage and James Reveley for Dublin trainer Patrick Griffin. The riders had paraded ahead of this race.

Hunting field to track

“The organisers were fantastic in that they covered the entire trip,” Devlin Byrne added. “I brought my own horse and drove over myself with my boyfriend Daragh Callanan, while the other two horses went separately.”

Crossdrum Gemini is by Lester Lad and was bred in Co Meath by Anne-Marie Galligan.

“She’s usually ridden side-saddle in the hunting field,” the school teacher said of the 22-year-old mare, who had come back from injury sustained in late 2023 to win the race.

“I had her back in work to go hunting with the Bray Harriers, so she was in great form. She loved both the parade before the big race of the weekend and her own race.

“She bounced around the course, giving me a great spin to win and then looking to go around again. She is now convinced she’s a racehorse.”

Devlin Byrne, who teaches biology at the Educate Together in Wicklow, had to take some personal days from school to make the trip, but thoroughly enjoyed the few days away.

“It was an honour to have been invited to race side-saddle on the beautiful cross-country track at Craon. Many thanks to Antoinette de la Bouillerie for inviting me and arranging the race, and to the committee at Craon for their wonderful hospitality and warm welcome to all of us.”

Aside from this race, Alicia Devlin Byrne had a busy enough season competing side-saddle and picked up several placings with the 12-year-old, The Duchess of Allen, who was crowned reserve champion ladies’ mare at the awards in Kilkenny last weekend.