THE third leg of the 2024 Baileys Horse Feeds flexi eventing series at The Meadows was staged by the Northern Region of Eventing Ireland last Saturday, when there were record entries across the three phases and a welcome appearance by the sun.

In dressage, the 28-runner Novice class, which was judged by Coreen Abernethy, was dominated by Alex Houston, who claimed the honours on 72.8% with My Atlantic Encore (aka Dinky) and, riding Minty Imp (aka Indy), shared second place on 71.8 with Denis Currie on board Arodstown Aramis.

Houston told the Irish Horse World a bit about her busy life. “It’s a constant juggle between working and finding the time to do the horses properly,” said the Co Antrim rider, who is employed full-time as a quantity surveyor for a construction company. “As everyone knows, horses take a lot of time and money, especially when you’re trying to compete and train for the higher levels.

“I’ve found I can really only compete two horses well, between time and cost. I’m incredibly lucky that I have a very supportive family, especially my Dad, Sam Houston, who would be well-known on the eventing circuit. I quite literally wouldn’t be able to do what I do without him. He takes on every role to help make it happen – groom, driver, coach – and travels the length and breadth of the country with me to every event and training, which, given we’re based in Portrush on the north coast, means a lot of time on the road!

Denis Currie riding Arodstown Aramis, winners of the Intermediate Dressage at the Flexi Eventing on January 27 \ Tori O'Connor

Training

“We’re very fortunate in Ireland to have some of the best and most talented people in the world to train with. I’ve been using Terry Boon for dressage for years; he’s great for coaxing every mark out of a test. For show jumping, I work with Ian Fearon when I can; he’s the best in the business so, despite the travel for us, it’s worth the trip.

“We were delighted with how both mares performed at the weekend,” continued Houston. “My Atlantic Encore is a seven-year-old home-bred by Centre Stage out of Lady Coroner, an unraced thoroughbred mare by Coroner. We’ve been a bit slow getting her going, but we hadn’t properly got her riding until the end of last year, as we had other horses taking priority.

“I’ve been working away with her in the background. I’ve always liked riding her, but I wasn’t sure she was going to be anything special. We were just ticking away with her at home, but she has come out at the flexi eventing series and really impressed. She feels like a bit of an old pro in the dressage and enjoys showing off what she’s learnt. And, in the show jumping, again I’ve been slightly surprised with how much enthusiasm and scope she has when she gets an audience!

“We’re aiming to have her out eventing at Tyrella, but she hasn’t done any proper cross-country yet, so we’ll have to see how she takes to it. It’s way too early to be setting big targets but, if everything goes to ‘Plan A’, she will get a few internationals under her belt before we consider possibly bigger targets. I’m trying to stay realistic, as good as she’s performing at the moment, she still has a bit of ground to make up for her age group, but never say never!”

Future plans

Houston also revealed her plans for the 14-year-old S Creevagh Ferro mare Minty Imp, who she has evented at four-star level. “I bought Indy when she was six. She’s always been a bit of a live wire, which makes her particularly tricky in the dressage, but she has always been really bold and willing in the jumping. Despite the seemingly endless setbacks, just when I think she’s not going to do it, she does something great and gives me a glimmer of how good she could be, which just ignites my ambition for bigger things again!

“Last year was a bit difficult; we missed a couple of key runs and, in hindsight, we were just a bit off the pace going into the big events. But we’ve learnt from that and I’ve taken it back to basics over the winter, with the view to building her up at the start of the season and hopefully we’ll get back on track for some of the internationals. I’d love to tick a few of the bigger overseas events off the wish list next year, so we’ll focus on getting the preparation and plan in place for that.

“We have only dabbled lightly in breeding so far; it’s really Dad’s hobby project. When my Young Rider mare, Missey Elliot, retired, a few people told us we would be mad not to take a foal off her, so that was the beginning of a new passion for both me and Dad.

“We’ve been very lucky so far with our ‘breeding programme’. We only got two foals out of Missey, but had a lot of fun producing one of them, Atlantic Rockstar (by Beach Ball), who I rode at Le Lion D’Angers in 2022 as a seven-year-old. I love competing at international level, especially on the bigger stages, but doing it with a horse Dad and I bred and produced ourselves was the realisation of a real dream.”

Intermediate

Denied victory at Novice level, Denis Currie maintained his bid for another flexi eventing series success, when he partnered his 19-year-old ISH gelding Arodstown Aramis (69.1%), a son of Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan, to victory in the seven-runner Intermediate.

Here, Coreen Abernethy also had joint-seconds on 67.5 in Emma Hobson riding her 1998 Dutch Warmblood gelding Rolando and Ella Boyle on her nine-year-old ISH gelding Samiro Cruze MC (aka Tiger).