THE Irish Pony Club squad of 12 girls and three boys dominated the Mini International and Regional Tetrathlon competitions hosted by the Beaufort Hunt Branch of The Pony Club at the Etherington-Smith family’s Oxstalls XC in Gloucestershire, England, last weekend.

Having been safely delivered to the venue by George Mullins Transport on Friday morning, the Irish ponies were first settled in to their weekend’s stabling. The squad then had a practice shoot with John Flood, the IPC’s chairman of Minimus and Tetrathlon, followed by a course walk in the afternoon with Jo Breheny, coach and safety officer.

Two of the four phases, shooting and swimming, took place on Saturday followed by a French-themed party and disco. The run phase was held on Sunday morning, after which competitors took on the challenge of the cleverly-constructed, beautifully presented cross-country track. There were only 14 clear rounds in total and nine of these were recorded by IPC members.

A strong performance in the ride phase saw the Irish teams finish first and second in the International competition and first, second and third in the Regional competition. In both cases, the winning teams included the top individual girl, Duhallow’s Ciara Howard (4,537 points) and top individual boy, Killinick’s Max Doran (4,475) who, the previous weekend, was crowned the Overlander/IPC minimus champion boy.

They were joined for the international event on the Ireland Green team by Kilkenny’s Caroline Hughes (4,219 points), Tipperary’s Robyn O’Reilly (4,314) and Carlow’s Jack Hargaden (4,367). With Hughes’ score discarded, the quintet won on a total of 17,693. Second with 17,559 points was the Ireland Gold team of the newly-crowned Overlander/IPC minimus champion girl, Grace Power (4,369) with her Co Limerick teammates Martha Buckley (4,339) and Lucy Ryan (4,319) plus Duhallow’s Hannah Gould (4,449) and Aoife Walsh (4,402). England Red finished third on 16,394.

In the Regional team competition, Ireland White finished third on 17,340 points thanks to the efforts of Carlow’s Ali Hughes (4,298), Kildare’s Gloria Queally (4,375), Waterford’s Breffni Walsh (4,289), Wicklow’s Zoe Boydell (4,378) and Galway Mid County’s Harry Murphy (3,880).

As IPC Minimus competitors don’t shoot, it wasn’t surprising to see the British dominate this phase in both the boys’ and girls’ individual competitions. The Irish fared better in the swim where, on 1,072 points, Caroline Hughes finished second in the girls’ section to Cumberland Farmers’ Sophia Stockdale (1,099), while Max Doran also filled the runner-up spot (1,036) in the boys’ class behind Spooners and West Dartmoor’s Jamie Dixon (1,111).

Ciara Howard with her father Dennis Howard

Dominant

IPC members filled the top seven places in the girls’ run – headed by Grace Power on 1,126 points – while on 1,099, Max Doran was best of the Irish in third on the boys’ table, where the top score of 1,135 was posted by Avon Vale’s Charles Bailey. The IPC girls who were clear in the ride phase were Ciara Howard, Hannah Gould, Aoife Walsh, Gloria Queally, Martha Buckley, Ali Hughes, Breffni Walsh. Two of only four clears in the boys’ competition were recorded by Max Doran and Jack Hargaden.

As at the Junior International Tetrathlon earlier in the month when there were two of them, the IPC contingent were delighted to include the sole Area 17 representative, Maeve Rolston-McAuliffe, into their ranks for the weekend – competitively and socially. They cheered loudly when the Fermanagh Branch member was presented with her prize for finishing third in the First Year Junior Girls’ Tetrathlon.

Maeve (13) said it was a fantastic confidence-building experience for her. “It was my first time competing in England and it was nerve-wracking, going out on an international cross-country course that was full height and technical, but I’m so glad I did it and I learned a lot. I was disappointed with my shoot score, but I got PBs in the running and swimming phases, and placing third in the First Year Junior Girls’ class made it all the more worthwhile. It was a really well-organised event at an impressive venue and I’d recommend it to all Minimus and First Junior Tetrathletes.

“I’d like to say a big thank you to the Irish team manager, John Flood, coach, Jo Breheny and the Irish Minimus team, who supported me throughout the weekend, and to my mum for getting me there and helping me prepare in every way for the event! I’m looking forward to the rest of the Tetrathlon season.”

There was much praise for and appreciation of all the hard work put into the very successful weekend by local organiser Alex Connors and her assistants, Lettie and Hettie.