TWO members of the Irish Pony Club, Kildare’s Emma Dillon and Amelia McCarthy of the Meath Branch, passed their A Test this year, when assessed at Faith and Peter Ponsonby’s Ballylannigan House in Co Tipperary on September 10th by Faith and Bridgette McCarthy.

It’s easy for McCarthy to remember the exact date, as on that day she celebrated her 18th birthday. Roughly two weeks earlier, she had passed the H Test, one of the requirements for taking the higher level exam. “I was eight when I joined the Pony Club and, while I took part in all activities, one of my aims was to pass all the tests,” revealed McCarthy, who won the Members’ Pony Club combined training championship at the 2022 Dublin Horse Show.

There, she competed her mother Zazel’s Finsceal Endeavour, one of the two horses she brought down to Ballylannigan House, along with one of the Meath Pony Club’s best-known schoolmasters, Carbury. That 23-year-old bay gelding is owned by Kay Nolan, senior coach with the Branch, who provided McCarthy with all her training prior to taking those two summer tests.

“I was delighted to pass the A Test,” said Amelia, who is in Sixth Year at Maynooth Community College, although living on the Meath side of the county border line. “It was difficult, but it needed to be to keep up the standard. I hope next year that I can do a lot of coaching, as well as getting back to eventing. I think that having the A Test will be a great addition to my CV for the future.”

At times, the rider’s father Eric has been heard to mention the Leaving Cert which, we are sure Amelia will tackle with the same determination, which saw her achieve success in the Pony Club tests and when representing Ireland at the 2023 European Junior eventing championships at Montelibretti, Italy.

That was on the aforementioned Finsceal Endeavour (aka Tia), a nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare by Metropole. The combination started their association together with a win in the EI100 (J) at Rosanna in May 2022 and have since scored twice, including in the CCI1*-Intro at Ballindenisk (also in 2022), while recording numerous top six placings.

On their third start this year, McCarthy and Finsceal Endeavour finished 10th of 38 on their dressage score in the CCI2*-L at Millstreet, after which the rider could reasonably have expected she would be selected once again for the Irish squad at the Junior Europeans. Unfortunately, in July, she suffered a flare-up of the juvenile arthritis, with which she was first diagnosed in March 2020, and this led to a back issue, forcing her out of the saddle until the end of August.

No doubt training for the H and A tests gave McCarthy something to focus on during her time on the sidelines. “It was tough not being able to ride and I have to thank Chloe Fagan for keeping Tia going for me,” stated Amelia.

In addition to Finsceal Endeavour, McCarthy has a second event horse to compete in 2025, The Doctors Touch, an eight-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Indoctro, who is owned by Clive Swindell and Sean Lydon. She is also breaking a three-year-old and may get another youngster to break before the turn of the year. She has no time for other sports, but does do PE at school.