LYING second going into the final qualifying round of the Baileys Horse Feeds Flexi Eventing league at The Meadows, Catherine Cowan’s attendance at the rather chilly Lurgan equestrian centre on Saturday ensured that she was crowned champion on 58 points with Lady Remarque.

Judy Maxwell, the face of Baileys Horse Feeds in Ireland, has attended every round of the series and will be back at The Meadows today to present Catherine with the Baileys champion trophy, her winner’s sash and rosette. Sashes and rosettes will also be presented to Connor McClory and Zara Reid, second and third in the league on Bestman Bryan and Greylands Diamond Girl respectively, while the £1,000 prize money on offer is allocated to the top 15 placings.

Cowan, who is a long-time member of the Iveagh Branch competing in nearly all disciplines, also won the league’s Pony Club award with Lady Remarque. This 17-year-old black Irish Sport Horse mare by the thoroughbred stallion I Was Framed was bred in Co Antrim by Mary Gibson, out of Zigadell Dawn (by Lenamore Playboy).

Nineteen-year-old Catherine is in first year studying Sport and Exercise Nutrition at the University of Ulster Coleraine, so is very dependent on her sister Sarah keeping Lady Remarque, aka Leisha, fed, watered and exercised, while she is away during the week.

Anticipation

Leisha moved into the Cowan yard in June 2020 and, shortly afterwards, Catherine joined Becky Cullen’s junior eventing academy with the mare. This is Catherine’s second year being a youth member of Eventing Ireland and she has enjoyed some training days. She is very much looking forward to attending the EI youths’ camp in Castle Irvine, Necarne next weekend for more training before the season starts.

While some competitors at The Meadows on Saturday will be heading down the dressage or show jumping routes for the remainder of the year, the majority are, like Cowan, looking forward to the start of the EI season.

These include Co Down-based US international event rider, Gillian Beale King, who won the 25-strong Vanda Stewart-judged Novice class on Lawrence Patterson’s ISH gelding Bonmahon Triomphant (73.5%), a seven-year-old bay son of L’Arc de Triomphe. The former multi-Flexi Eventing league champions, Denis Currie and Arodstown Aramis finished second on 73.

There were just seven starters in the Coreen Abernethy-judged Intermediate class, where there was a dead-heat on 67.1% between Erin McCrea riding her father Clinton’s 13-year-old OB Active mare, Rubane Candy and Nichola Wray with her nine-year-old Lislap Benedict gelding, Springhill Showman. Ahead of the EI event at Tyrella on March 22nd, Wray is heading to the Northern Region’s two-phase competition at the Co Down seaside venue over the weekend of March 8th and 9th.