The Connolly’s Red Mills Spring Tour reached its climax on Sunday 24th March at Ravensdale Equestrian set amidst the snow capped Cooley mountains.  With the weather having been so severe during the week leading up to the finals the pony committee decided to drop the 128 90cms and 138 1mtr classes and stage everything indoors.  This turned out to be the right decision as the easterly arctic winds continued to keep temperatures below freezing and as a result a great days competition was held in the shelter of the indoor facilities on offer at Ravensdale.

Rafael Suarez was flown in from his base in England to design the courses and as ever asked all the right questions of the athletes.

The 128cm class started the days proceedings with thirty seven starters from which fifteen made their way into the jump off.  Going into the last leg there was a tie at the top of the leader board between Jason Foley and Aaron O’Leary, the former having gone clear in the first round and O’Leary having picked up four faults. There were only five double clear rounds the quickest of these coming from Kate Derwin on ‘Toorboy Tommy’ their time of 29.16 gave them the class win, with James Smyth and ‘Kilbrean Lad’ taking second in 24.84 and Harry Allen on ‘Little Jack Spratt’ third in 30.70.  As neither Foley or O’Leary gained any points in the final leg it was declared a tie for first place with both athletes finishing on 24 points with Harry Allen making full use of the points and a half on offer and moving up to take third place in the league.

Twenty six competitors started in the 138 1.10 Connolly’s Red Mills Spring Tour where eight left everything up in the first round.  This height category had Michael J Pender at the top of the leader board only one point ahead of Jason Foley and Harry Allen, so with Pender and Allen making it into the jump off there was a lot at stake.Dromore based James Houston and ‘Woodfield Superstar’ rode a blistering round to take the class in 40.11 and move from 6th place on the leader board to finish second in the league. Sean Monaghan and ‘Ballygawley Braveheart’ were the only other clear in the jump off to take second place in 55.02, Kate Derwin finished third having rolled a pole in 40.49 with ‘Lennon Prince’. Harry Allen and ‘Scarletts Billy The Kid’ also picked up four faults in a time of 40.60, but their fourth place in the class was good enough to move them to the top of the leader board and give them the 138 title with Pender finishing the league in third place.

This was followed by the last HSI 148 1.30 class for Fontainebleau qualification, in which there were twenty seven starters.  Five of these made it into the jump off with Michael J Pender aboard Paddy Quinlan’s ‘Blackwoodland Rock’ taking the win when going clear in 42.09  ahead of the only other double clear, Susan Fitzpatrick and ‘Rock Dee Jay’ their time being 44.02.  Killian Norris and ‘Java’s Alun’ took third place having picked up four faults in 39.46.

The last class of the day and of the tour was the 148 1.20, this started at 7.00pm and saw sixty six competitors starting.  From these twenty went through to the jump off which produced four double clear rounds.  The quickest of these was Aoife McDonagh and ‘Carrenhill Clover Lass’ this pair broke the beam in 31.73 ahead of Tim MacDonagh and ‘Delphi Heather’ whose time time was 31.88.  Third place went to Michael J Pender on ‘Attyrory Rebel’ in 32.56 with Anna Carway taking fourth in 33.04 with ‘Trendy Captains Dream’

League leader James Kenny picked up points for sixth place which proved to be enough to retain the title and be crowned 148 Connoll’s Red Mills Spring Tour winner, taking second place was Shane Dalton whose fifth place in the class brought him to within one and a half  points of the winner with Aoife McDonagh taking third.

Once again this has proved to be a very successful tour and a huge vote of thanks must go to Connolly’s Red Mills for their continued support of this league, to Mr Ger Foley the Red Mills representative who has been in attendance at all the legs of the tour and to the venues who have hosted this league.