THE first of this season’s Irish Pony Club/Connolly’s Red Mills eventing championship qualifiers, hosted by Area 7, was held last Saturday at Killossery Lodge Stud in north Co Dublin where the Ciaran Glynn-designed and built cross-country courses were widely praised – as was the going.

“The Glynn family couldn’t do enough for us,” said event organiser, Christine Brooks. “The place was pristine and everything was so efficient. Ciaran built super tracks and we were delighted with the level he pitched them at. We had hoped for a slightly larger entry but there were exams, Confirmations and Communions on so families had other commitments.

“The weather was super all day, apart from a shower just before the end, and, while we had a handful or so of eliminations in each class, we had just three fallers during the day with no injuries which was great,” concluded Brooks whose daughter, Emily, recorded the first leg of a double for the Ward Union Branch in the 27-runner Intermediate.

The 15-year-old completed on her dressage score with the Irish Sport Horse gelding Ardagh Mayday (27.8 penalties), an OBOS Quality 004 six-year-old on whom she has been placed at EI100 (Junior) level.

Also finishing on their first phase marks to place second and third were Clodagh McGauran, a member of the Meath Branch, riding Cruising Caricello (28.3) and the Killinicks’ Isabelle Barry with Kildromin Mentor (29.5).

Dressage judge Yvonne Monahan was obviously very impressed with the flat work of the Meaths’ Meabh Long who won that phase by a big margin on Abu Dhabi (19.5) and even held more than a four-point advantage over her nearest rival, Brooks, at the conclusion of the show jumping phase despite having a fence down. Unfortunately, Long and her 14-year-old Silvano gelding were one of six combinations eliminated on the final cross-country leg.

The Ward Union double came up in the non-qualifying Junior Starter through Caoimhe Rice on board IHWT Fay.

Two Newcastle Lyons members also topped the leaderboards in their respective Junior classes, Hazel Gleeson doing so on the well-known 17-year-old skewbald gelding Remondi Bobtail (26.3) in Section A. Lucy Gaffney led Section B throughout on the nine-year-old ISH Orestus mare, World Of Orestus (26.3) whose dam, the thoroughbred mare Tell The World, is a half-sister to the Cavalier Royale geldings Cavaldi (CCI4*) and Telroyale (CCI3*).

Shillelagh’s Jane Fitzgerald won the Intro Intermediate with the ISH mare Broomfield Banner, an 11-year-old grey by Silver Banner, while Laura Treacy, a member of the Bray Branch, landed the Under 12s’ competition on the 20-year-old black gelding, Little Feet.

This weekend’s action

Today, the Westmeath Branch is hosting the second of the Connolly’s Red Mills qualifiers at Annaharvey Farm near Tullamore with the third scheduled for next Saturday, June 4th, at the Ballinamona Equestrian Centre outside Waterford where it will be staged by Area 3.

The Carlow Branch of the IPC hosted a Fun Minimus/Tetrathlon training day last Sunday when there was an early start for the five contestants in the Senior Boys Tetrathlon as their warm-up in the pool in Graiguecullen started at 6.50am and they were encouraged to be on-site 30 minutes in advance.

All told, from those senior Tetrathletes down to Minimus Fledglings, 203 members of IPC Branches from all over the country were entered. The Golden Vale Branch is holding another Fun Minimus next Sunday, June 5th, as the countdown continues towards the IPC National Minimus Championships over the weekend of June 18th and 19th.

Training for Pony Club mounted games is now in full swing and senior members of IPC Branches will be hoping to advance to the Dublin Horse Show through the qualifiers at Gorey Show (June 18th), Charleville Show (June 25th), the National Hound Show at Stradbally Hall (July 3rd) and Carnew Show (July 16th). At Dublin, the mounted games competitions run over two days, Saturday (heats) and Sunday (final), August 20th and 21st.

Qualification for the IPC combined training championships at Dublin will take place at each of the nine Area Qualifiers where the winners of both the Intermediate and Members’ competitions will be invited to compete in the Final. At the Ballsbridge showgrounds, the two-day competition will be held on Friday, August 19th (dressage) and Saturday, August 20th (jumping).