IF Claire Ireland thought that the most exciting part of her day was over when she had finished her cross-country rounds at The Meadows, Lurgan, last Saturday, she was badly mistaken.

“We had just loaded up at the flexi eventing and were getting ready to drive off,” related Ireland, a geography teacher at Glastry College, where she also runs a small equestrian club. “Dad (Gordon) started the engine and I noticed there was a little smoke coming out from the exhaust area. Then, as he revved up, there was a lot of smoke!

“My sister Louise (McFarland), who was in the middle of getting changed and only had one welly on, and I jumped out and started taking the ramp down. Kathy McMullan came running over saying she could see sparks and had heard a bang. Ben Foster and a few other guys came running over and started swinging on the ramp to bring it down faster.

“When it was three-parts of the way down, I climbed up and started opening dividers and sent horses down the ramp for those on the ground to catch. We had three on board; my Mum Janice’s Technicolor Dream, my Dad’s Molly’s Prince and my own, Goin’ For Gold. While we were sorting the horses, Mum jumped into the living and got out our two dogs, Heidi, a miniature schnauzer, and Caoimhe, who’s an Irish Setter.

“Meanwhile, Jason Bridges was there almost instantly with a fire extinguisher; when we lifted the skirting, the area surrounding the battery was in flames. Jason got it out and then it flared up again and he put it out again! Because of his incredibly swift action, there appears to be very minimal damage and nothing was ever fully engulfed.

Helpful

“Kathy McMullan phoned Hugh McCusker (owner of The Meadows) and he couldn’t have been more helpful, offering stables and hay for the horses. Hugh also offered to lend us transport to get everyone home. However, we had breakdown cover from NFU, who arranged horse transport and collection of the lorry. Hugh also got us help from a neighbour mechanic, who came out on a cold Saturday night, leaving his family dinner to assist the breakdown company to disconnect the ramp.

“There were definitely more people involved, as lots came running to help and we are very appreciative of all their efforts; I cannot express how thankful we are.

“Due to the swift action, there was very little damage and trauma, but we are fully aware how catastrophic it could have been otherwise; five minutes later, we’d have been on the motorway and probably have lost everything.

“The team at The Meadows Equestrian Centre were amazing and couldn’t have done more for us. Thank you once again to all and apologies to the poor person who was in the arena jumping as everything was going on.”

Over the summer, Claire was selected as one of five people out of 1,000 applicants across the island to participate in the pilot season of ‘The Grassroots Gazette Rider Academy’ and thus had the opportunity to train with Heike Holstein, Geoff Billington and Lucinda Fredericks. In addition to the horses mentioned above, when the Ireland lorry is back on the road, it will also be transporting Claire’s project for 2024, the four-year-old dun gelding Garryduffs King Romeo.