THE reigning Dublin Horse Show working hunter pony champions, Jessie Murphy and Darcy De Chanteloube, won the 158cm class at the first of four qualifiers for this year’s show, which was held at the Sceilig Equestrian Centre last Wednesday week.

Murphy (19), who has just completed First Year at Piltown and is now free to ride for the summer, has recorded many successes on her mother Melissa O’Connor Murphy’s Anglo European Studbook-registered gelding. This year alone, she and the French-bred 12-year-old Rotspons Prince MFS bay just missed out on a Horse of the Year Show ticket at the Northern Ireland Festival but, having won their show hunter class, were open intermediate champions and reserve supreme ridden pony champions.

At last month’s Balmoral Show, where there was no intermediate class, they won the small horse working hunter championship and stood reserve in the working hunter horse championship. While they have to complete another of these pony working hunter qualifiers to secure their entry to Dublin, Melissa and Jessie are heading off to Britain, with ‘Darcy’ and two five-year-olds, to compete at the Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Royal Highland Shows.

“I think it’s a good idea to have these qualifiers,” said O’Connor Murphy.

“We’re going to miss Mullingar, but will be back for the one up the north and hopefully we’ll finish qualifying there. Having the same course builder will ensure the standard is kept high and is consistent. Johnny (Kyle) always builds a good track, but you have to make sure of your lines between the fences. At Dublin, there’s not much space and the fences come up very quickly.”

This win, on a score of 104 points, prefaced a great few days for the extended O’Connor family from Ashwood Lower outside Gorey, as Jessie’s cousin Ciara, who is in her first year out of ponies, very much made her presence felt at Millstreet (see pages 80-84).

David Kiely, a hunting-mad, eventing-mad member of the Duhallow Branch of the Irish Pony Club, did his bit as one of the few male competitors at the qualifier by finishing second on the dun gelding Paddys Best (99.5 marks), who’s just a five-year-old, while Eimear Furlong placed third with the Irish Sport Horse mare Thistletown Rose Royale (97.5), an 11-year-old Royal Concorde bay, who has 102 Showjumping Ireland points.

153cm class

Aoibhinn Ruane, who stood reserve champion at Dublin last August on Dynamite Reply, decided not to start that 10-year-old mare, but did contest the 153cm class where, with one of only two clear rounds (13 combinations were eliminated), she recorded a comfortable success on her mother Helena Hennessy Ruane’s ever-reliable Dartans Atom Man (99.5 points).

Two grey Connemara geldings finished second and third. Hannah Mackey filled the runner-up spot on 91.5 aboard the 17-year-old Ella’s Melody (I Love You Melody – Ella’s Glory, by Windy Day) while, with 90 points, Katie Wyse placed third with Claire Bannon’s eight-year-old Clareville Codiac (Caherlistrane Bay – Tegan, by Slisneoir) on whom she won the Clifden high performance qualifier at Balmoral Show last month.

While his 2023 campaign was interrupted by injury, Dartans Atom Man has proved himself as good as ever this year. At the Northern Ireland Festival, where he just failed to collect a HOYS ticket, the 11-year-old chesnut gelding, who has no recorded breeding, enjoyed a very successful weekend, which culminated in him being crowned Festival supreme working hunter pony champion.

The plan is for the Co Kilkenny combination to finish qualifying for Dublin at Mullingar, after which Helena and Aoibhinn are heading over to England with their stable star in a bid to secure a HOYS ticket at Stoneleigh and the Mid Herts Show in Addington.

143cm class

Third to Wyse and Clareville Codiac at Balmoral, Lara Field and Creganna Kerfuffle bagged their RDS ticket at Sceilig in the 143cm class. On 100.5 points, they narrowly saw off Maggi Caffrey on another well-known Connemara, the 13-year-old Castleside JJ Junior gelding Illaunurra Bay (100), who had finished second in the young riders’ Connemara class in Balmoral.

Creganna Kerfuffle, a nine-year-old mare by Silver Shadow, was home-bred by Field’s mother, Marjorie Hardiman, out of the Tulira Robuck mare Prospect Suzy.

Aisling Malone on Mister O’Malley and Nancy Lyons Teehan riding Tybroughney Cloud both completed on 94.5 points in the 133cm class but, following a required second look at the marks, Malone claimed the honours with the higher jumping score (90 to 85).

The pair, who finished in the reverse order in the Horse of the Year Show qualifier at the Northern Ireland Festival in April, were well clear of the third-placed combination of Abbie O’Connor and Paddington Pal (88.5). A 16-year-old chesnut gelding, Mister O’Malley is owned by the rider’s mother Grainne.

While 2.5 points separated the winner and second-placed pony in the starter stakes, it was again a member of the Lyons Teehan family, who filled the runner-up spot on Tybroughney Cloud, Robin being the one in the saddle this time, when the 17-year-old grey gelding amassed 82 points.

Co Galway 12-year-old, Amber Tobin competes some much younger ponies under Showjumping Ireland rules, but here stuck to her mother Lucy Townsley’s very experienced Glansevin Fairfax, a 20-year-old British-bred Welsh gelding by Cwrtycadno Cadfridog, to win the qualifier with 84.5 points.