LAST Sunday, Killossery Riding Club held the first show of the spring/summer season in the North Eastern Region of the Association of Irish Riding Clubs at their home base of Killossery Lodge Stud.

They were blessed with a day of beautiful weather, one that would have been enjoyed by their late chairperson, Sharon McCabe, in whose memory a new cup was presented to the showing section’s supreme champion, Mullaghmore’s Leonie O’Gorman riding Lackaghbeg Augustus Star.

“To get everything going again after Covid, I wanted to hold a club show last year, but Sharon fell ill and it didn’t feel right to continue,” said Killossery secretary, Lisa Baker. “After Sharon sadly passed away in November, Patricia Leonard (treasurer) and I were determined to keep the club going and run some events this year.

“We held a very successful course walk evening with Frank Glynn, and have other things planned for later in the year, but I really wanted to hold a big show like Sunday’s and, with the help of the Glynn family, we ran classes in dressage, showing, performance hunters and show jumping. Two weeks before the show, in all that bad weather, we decided to move all classes onto the sand. The Glynns worked out all the logistics for this move and everything panned out perfectly.

“We were finished all classes, including the supreme championship, by 5pm, and I would like to thank the Glynn family, my fellow club members and the NER secretary, Sarah Richardson, for all their help. Thanks also, of course, to our generous sponsors including Sagittarian Photography for our gorgeous rosettes and sashes.

“The highlight of the day for us was the inaugural presentation of the Sharon McCabe Memorial Trophy. Sharon’s passion for showing brought her on many adventures, including to the Dublin Horse Show, where she was placed with her beloved Carrabawn View gelding Ruadh.

“Following Sharon’s death, the Supreme Champion Trophy was purchased after fundraising by her fellow club members, friends and family, many of whom were in attendance on Sunday. The day concluded with prosecco, speeches and perfect timing, as the first raindrops fell after a show bathed in glorious sunshine.”

First recipient

Mullaghmore’s Leonie O’Gorman was delighted to be the first recipient of the new trophy, following her supreme championship success on her Irish Sport Horse gelding Lackaghbeg Augustus Star, an 11-year-old Emperor Augustus grey, who was bred in Co Galway by Connie Joyce out of the Star Kingdom mare Keelans Star.

En route to victory, they first topped the final lightweight hunter line-up of judges, Jennifer Breslin and Laura Snow (who were good friends of Sharon McCabe) and then stood champion of the Botanica International ridden section, ahead of Moyglare’s Emer Lawlor and Drum Sligo Gypsy, who had finished second to Fingal’s Mary Hagan and Sweetwell in their small hunter class.

Lackaghbeg Augustus Star is one of three horses O’Gorman and partner Garett Conway keep at their home in Co Meath, while there are 11 more up at the O’Gorman farm in Co Monaghan.

“I saw Gus a few years ago, but failed to buy him then so, when Helen Cooke was selling him in 2022, I decided I better do so,” said O’Gorman, who went back to college to do an Arts Degree in NCAD, has just finished an apprenticeship and is now working on her own art jewellery. “We have done a couple of training shows at Killossery, but this was our first big outing of the year.

“We’re next heading to Balmoral, we qualified at the Tatts July show last year for both the side saddle and amateur lightweight hunter class at the Royal International in Hickstead, so we may go there, and I’d hope to qualify again for the side saddle in Dublin (finished fifth last August).”

Reserve Supreme and 90cm Performance Hunter class winner, Liz Keegan and Edoxtown Cash Cruise at the Killossery Riding Club Spring Show 2024 \ sagittarianphotography

Reserve

Frustratingly for Liz Keegan, a member of Killossery, she narrowly failed to win this inaugural supreme championship for the Sharon McCabe trophy, when beckoned into the reserve spot with Edoxtown Cash Cruise, on whom she had earlier filled the same position in the White’s Agri performance hunter championship.

Then the judges, Niamh O’Connor Barry and Jenny Banks had preferred Fingal’s RC80 winner, the Mandy McLeod-ridden Morgiana Minstrel, a seven-year-old Irish Draught gelding by Eponastables Uibh Fhaili. However, at the end of the day, it was Keegan and her RC90 winner who stood beside O’Gorman and Lackaghbeg Augustus Star.

Pharmacist and mother-of-three Keegan and her husband Stephen Comerford, who is a whipper-in with the Fingal Harriers, purchased ‘Cash’, a six-year-old by CC Captain Cruise, as a yearling. He was bred by Padraic Mannion out of the Ard Grandpa mare Maries Joy. He too is heading for Balmoral and, while he does a bit of show jumping, Keegan would love to see more dedicated opportunities for traditionally-bred horses such as Cash.