ON Tuesday, Britain’s Jeanette Brakewell, whose international career will forever be associated with the great team horse Over To You, was in Co Wexford, where the chesnut thoroughbred was foaled, as one of the judges for round three of the Young Eventhorse Series.

“It was a long day,” said the multi medal-winning rider, who is now also a British Eventing accredited trainer and a UKCC level 3 coach.

“There was a lot to concentrate on, but the nice weather helped. There were lots of smart horses, but the ones that stood out were those ridden and produced well; those with good rhythm and balance, who were ridden with a good contact. These horses looked confident and happy.”

Joining Brakewell as suitability and potential judge for the ridden phases of the four and five-year-old classes at Forth Mountain was Les Smith, a member of the three-star ground juries at the Millstreet International Horse Trials.

He commented: “It was a real pleasure to judge a lot of lovely young horses at this terrific venue and I look forward to watching their progress over the coming years.”

Co Meath’s Lulu Parkhill was the suitability and potential judge for the jumping phase, while the more locally-based George Chapman assessed the young horses in the presentation phase. Here, with some horses having a higher percentage of thoroughbred blood than others, the points ranged from 29.5 down to 13.5.

Ballyclare’s Sandra Hamilton, a longtime, successful supporter of the Young Eventhorse Series in its present guise and as the Future Event Horse League, has produced another eye-catcher this season in Rathdrum Spirit, who won Section B of the four-year-old qualifier under Jonny Mulligan.

The brown Irish Sport Horse gelding by Spirit House, who finished second in his four-year-old working hunter class at Balmoral Show last month, was bred in Co Tipperary by Thomas Griffin, out of the Garrison Royal mare Rathdrum Queen.

As the winner on 280.8 points, Rathdrum Spirit claimed Tuesday’s first qualifying ticket for the Dublin Horse Show, ahead of the already-qualified Tykillen Shindig (277.8), whose owner/breeder/rider, Ciara Kinsella, very nearly recorded a treble on the day.

Double jobbing

Happy for the ticket to be passed down the line was another local rider/producer Louise Codd, who finished third on Richard Power’s home-bred ISH mare Cillbhrid Lucky (276.6), a bay daughter of Lucky Luck.

Once she had finished competing, Codd took up the role of suitability and potential judge of the Junior/Young Rider event horse classes.

As the first two finishers in Section A of the five-year-old class, Fraser Duffy and RNH Othello (313.4) and Daniel Alderson with Seafield Celt (313.2), were both already qualified, the Dublin tickets were awarded to the third, fourth and fifth-placed combinations

These were Steven Smith with the ISH gelding You Neek (310.4), Cathal Daniels on board Paul Donovan’s ISH gelding KBS Quality Quartz (309.8) and Alice Copithorne riding Belinda Johnson’s home-bred ISH mare My Lion J’Adore (309.4), who finished third in the DAFM EI100 for five-year-olds at Ballindenisk on Sunday.