SLIGO’s Adrian Gilmartin had an exceptional few weeks at Meditterean Equestrian Tour in Oliva, Spain where he won a total of five one-star 1.20m classes about his own Carnaval Cocktail.

Getting back in the international arena for the first time since 2019, Gilmartin and the 15-year-old mare ended their tour on a high when winning back-to-back classes last Thursday and Friday. In Friday’s two-phase class which saw 79 line out, the pair was the fastest of 29 double clear rounds in 23.61 seconds, just beating Switzerland’s Annick Talbot, who is married to Irish show jumper Niall Talbot, into second place.

A name to catch the eye in the line-up was Westmeath’s Aisling Byrne who slotted into 11th place with the Irish Sport Horse Wellview Lucy. Byrne broke both her hips and crushed her pelvis in a freak fall in February 2018 and was told she would never walk again, let alone ride. However, the she has shown incredible strength to get back in the saddle and compete internationally.

On Saturday, she jumped the two-star 1.45m ranking class with Chin Cham Cham. Writing on her social media afterwards, she said: “Can you actually believe we jumped a world ranking class! I am still pinching myself!! A massive thanks to the most amazing team who I couldn’t do any of it without. Your support and encouragement is everything.”

Also in action at the venue was Aisling McGuinness who was runner-up in Thursday’s one-star 1.30m with Kilderrys Joint Venture.