Iveagh’s Successful Campaign to the UK Pony Club Championships

Iveagh Pony Club have recently celebrated one of their most successful campaigns through the Area 17 Competitions, gaining 5 team and 10 individual qualifying spaces for the Pony Club UK Championships in August, hosted at Chomondely Castle in Cheshire.

The Area Competitions ran for 3 consecutive weeks, with the first being the Area Dressage at Ballyarnet Country Park in Londonderry run by the North Derry Branch. Dressage not usually being one of Iveagh’s best disciplines, the weekly training sessions from some of the area’s best coaches helped the riders come home with some of the best dressage results the club has ever had. The first class of the day was the Open Class, the team of Laura King, Roisin Muirhead & Ciara Muirhead secured first place and a qualifying envelope to enable them to compete at the UK Championship Competition. Laura King also secured first place individually overall. Not to be beaten, the Intermediate Team of Lynn Clarke Hearty, Erin Burns, Caitie Slater and Laoise O’Farrell also secured first place (and a qualifying envelope) with Lynn, Erin & Caitie all securing top 3 positions in their arena’s. Vicky Campbell & Daniel Kehoe also managed to pull off qualifying scores to see them both heading to Cheshire for Individual Positions. Lastly, Katie O’Hare in the Novice Section also managed to ride a superb test to also gain her qualifying envelope to compete at the Championships.

The following week brought a massive number of riders to Meadows Equestrian Centre for the Area Show jumping Competition, run by the Tullylagan Branch usually our top discipline Iveagh won all three sections to secure qualifying envelopes for 3 teams as well as 3 Individual Positions. The first class of the day was the Open Show jumping, with the Iveagh Team of Casey Webb, Rachel Chapman, Charlotte Eakon and Abbey Morton being the only team to finish with a clear score sheet and gain their qualifying envelope. Rachel Chapman also finished 7th individually and secured an spot in the individual class.This was followed by the Intermediate Competition. The Iveagh Team of Hannah Agnew, Hollie Smith, Hannah Rafferty and Kathryn Morton won and Hannah Agnes also qualified as an Individual. Next competition of the day was the Novice Show jumping, with Jasmine Crothers, Sarah Clarke, Harry Haire and Shanie Murphy also being the only team with a clear sheet at the end of the competition to secure their trip to Cheshire! Eva Kerton also secured herself an individual position.

The final week was the Area Eventing held at the excellent facilities of Cloncaw Equestrian run by the Seskinore Branch, non-stop rain left for very tricky conditions with the Cross Country Phase having a lot of problems. However, 4 of our members managed to negotiating the testing weather and secure themselves qualifying spaces in August. In the Open class both Casey Webb & Carla Troughton both rode double clear to secure their trip to Cheshire, whilst in the Intermediate Class Ciara Muirhead took first place and Kathy McGaffin third to also secure their spots. Kate Shields and Jasmine Crothers also qualified as Novice Individuals. Kiara Lane was first in her ring but unfortunately cannot make the Championships.

On top of the above qualifiers, Tabytha Bonar secured her spot in Endurance, whilst Rebecca Mackey and William Armstrong both make the trip over for Polocrosse.

In total, 31 riders & horses will make the journey to Cheshire for a week of competition between the 19 Areas of the UK Pony Club. As expected, everyone has been working incredibly hard towards qualifying and the work now begins towards the Championships. Nothing would be possible without the backing of some incredible trainers throughout the disciplines and the extremely hard work of the Iveagh Committee who keep everyone on the right track.

 

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Category: Dressage, News, Other, Pony Club, Results, Show Jumping