Downshire Excel at NIRC Championships
Katie King and Rod Redudon winners if the Senior Open Class for Downshire Riding Club
Downshire members in the winning line up of the Senior Intermediate Class l/r
Nikki Cullen -Tango Lad 3rd. Alan Martin- Inishcara 4th and Katie King -Colonel Gun 5th
Downshire Riding Club were out in force at the recent NI Riding Club Indoor Show Jumping Championships held on a very blustery Saturday 25th January at Portmore Equestrian Centre. Chef D’Equipe Sarah McLean had a very long and busy day organising the 18 horse and rider combinations who turned out to compete for Downshire-a superb effort by Club members. Many other Downshire members provided great vocal support and encouragement from the viewing gallery and they were certainly given something to cheer about throughout the day !
First Downshire rider to compete was young Jade Herron on Buckeroo in the Junior Open but it was not to be her day this year as she didn’t reach the jump off-maybe next year. Next class up was the Senior Novice-a very large class with some 44 entries and Downshire fielded an amazing ten competitors. Nikki Cullen, Kathryn Henderson, Pamela Fox, Lucy McGuiness and Victoria Wray all produced double clear rounds to reach the jump off. Suzie Davis, Joanna McNamee and Jacqueline Mallon were very unlucky in having the one fence down and so missed out on reaching the third round. Sarah Kee despite jumping well also had faults as did Rebekah Hanna and so both missed out on getting to the third round. After a thrilling speed round Downshire had three riders in the winning line up- Lucy McGuinness 3rd on Duchess, Kathryn Henderson 4th on Dickenson Fern and Nikki Cullen 5th on her young horse Dawsky Clover Lass. Pamela Fox on Bonnie Sir Edward were posting a very fast time but unfortunately had the last fence down and so just missed out on a place. Victoria Wray on her horse Uncle Ben also were unlucky to have faults while trying for a fast time. A great start to the afternoon for Downshire
Senior Novice Class l/r 3rd Lucy McGuinness-Duchess 4th Kathryn Henderson -Dickenson Fern and 5th Nikki Cullen -Dawsky Clover Lass
The four Downshire riders in the Senior Intermediate Class had a hard act to follow and rose to the occasion with all riders making the jump off with double clear rounds. First to go in the speed round was Alan Martin and his grey mare Inishcara who set the standard with a fast clear which was good enough to take 4th place. Nikki Cullen followed on her ever reliable Tango Lad and jumped clear with a faster time than Alan to finish in third place and Katie King on Colonel Gun also produced a very good clear round to finish in 5th place. Uncharacteristically Zoe Munroe and Forthill Sharamai had a navigation problem and so finished out of the ribbons but it was another great result for the Club.
The icing on the cake was surely the result of the Senior Open Class. With the fences now standing at 1.10-1.15m new Downshire member Katie King topped off a fantastic day for her by adding to her 5th place in the Senior Intermediate by capturing the Senior Open Championship on Roc Redudon- or Rocky to his friends. Katie was not content with first place and also managed to pick up 6th place on her lovely coloured mare Skewberry.
All in all a very good day for Downshire Riding Club- Thank you to all the competitors and to those Club members who helped on the day and a special thank you to the vocal supporters and to the Chef D’Equipe Sarah McLean who carried out her duties magnificently!
Category: News, Riding Club, Show Jumping
