Equestrian News NI » european pony championships

Dates Confirmed for 2014 European Pony Championships at Millstreet

News Desk — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 10:46:39 +0000

Note from Horse Sport Ireland: THE FEI has confirmed to Horse Sport Ireland that next year’s European Pony Championships in Show Jumping, Eventing and Dressage will take place at Millstreet in Co. Cork from Wednesday, July 30th to Sunday, August 3rd 2014.

Horse Sport Ireland Chairman Pat Wall complimented both Millstreet’s Duggan family on securing the championships and the HSI executive, who assisted in resolving initial difficulties with the FEI over the proposed dates.

He said: ”It is a great boost to have these championships in Ireland in 2014. Congratulations to the Duggan family, who have an outstanding facility and who put together an excellent bid. We have had great success in ponies at European level in recent years. Hopefully we can do the business at home in 2014.”

Millstreet’s Thomas Duggan said today: “We are pleased FEI has approved the dates of July 30th to Sunday August 3rd 2014 for the FEI Championships for Ponies, Dressage, Eventing and Jumping. We look forward to welcoming competitors and their families from all over Europe to compete at Millstreet. We are very excited that this occasion will mark the launching of our new Mike Etherington-Smith designed Cross Country Course on the grounds of the centuries-old Drishane Castle.

Holly Wray’s European Pony Blog – The Final Phase

News Desk — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 14:42:51 +0000

The final day started off at 8am with the final trot up of the competition. All the team Ireland ponies passed first time and were set to complete the rest of the competition. As a team we walked our showjumping course with team trainer Tom Slattery. The course had a few awkward lines but we had prepared for them through the training we did prior to our trip.

The showjumping walked well with a few combinations that we expected might cause some problems if they weren’t ridden with determination. The showjumping started off with a Swiss rider who was eliminated which was quite concerning as we couldn’t see how the course was riding before the first of the Irish would compete.

Before warming up Baxter I was able to watch a couple of riders from other nations and had the privilege of knowing how tight the time might be. Warming up was quite difficult in 40 degree heat as we didn’t want to tire the ponies before competing.

Baxter warmed up well with the thanks to Tom Slattery who helped us ‘get our eye in’ to ensure we were going to be precise when it came to the combinations in the arena. Baxter jumped fantastic and got a clear round inside the time. Many of the individuals from other nations I was competing against didn’t jump clear so it slowly moved me up the placings.

After showjumping I moved from 23rd place to 17th and finished on a score of 54. Baxter seemed particularly pleased with himself for jumping clear as it is his strongest phase of 3 day eventing. I was really happy with how he preformed as he was hoof perfect the whole way home and we finished the competition on our dressage score minus 3.20 time penalties.

Holly Wray Represent Ireland

News Desk — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 22:58:00 +0000

Giltspur Scientific, a local Ballyclare company who specialise manufacture HorseSlips, shoes for lame cattle and horses, has recently sponsored local eventing pony rider Holly Wray. Holly is the only member of the Irish Pony Eventing European Team to be selected from Northern Ireland and has travelled out to Arezzo, Italy this week for the 2013 European Championships.

Holly partners home produced 14.2hh Connemara Holiday Chase who was awarded most successful Northern Region pony rider combination in 2012. Giltspur Scientific are keen to support local riders and the local equestrian sport, earlier this month presented prizes at the Area 17 Showjumping competition hosted by Route Pony Club. Holly is hoping to keep everyone updated via her twitter account @holly_eventing1