A huge contingent of Irish athletes, ponies and supporters made their way to Southview in Cheshire for the English Home Pony International. This, the last of the HPI’s in the calendar year, has become a firm favourite for our young athletes and provides strong competition and great jumping throughout. Peter Gillespie made a welcome return as course designer, no stranger to Ireland Gillespie was one of our strongest supporters.
This year saw the show extended to five days which greatly benefitted the Irish as there were now two days for team selection. This began on Wednesday for the 128, 138 and 148 Debut categories, whilst these classes had points restrictions on them the Irish competitors who exceeded these were allowed to jump hors concours for team selection. The highest placed in the 128 class was Abbie Sweetnam ‘Murphy Spartacus’. In the 138 class Harry Allen ‘Fountain Ranger’ was best of the Irish whilst in the 148 Debut class Molly Irwin ‘Riverview Annie’ took full points towards team selection.
Thursday saw Harry Allen take the first place in the Winter 128 First Round on ‘Little Jack Spratt’ ahead of Jason Foley second and third on ‘Sparkel II’ and ‘PARC Pixie’. The Irish dominance continued as Abbie Sweetnam ‘Murphy Spartacus’ took fourth, Ciaran Nallon ‘Courtyard Buttons’ fifth, and Jennifer Kuehnle ‘Jacodis Anja’s Admiral sixth.
James Houston ‘Woodfield Superstar’ took the Winter 138 First Round title with Jason Foley ‘Kiltormer Hero’, second and also fourth with ‘Mayfly Green Pepper’.
In the 148 Debut Performance Team Trial class Tim MacDonagh and ‘Carrenhill Clover’ took 100th of a second off the leader to win the competition with Michael Pender ‘Doon Laddie’ taking fourth.
Best of the Irish in the Pony 1.25 Open was Rachel Houston ‘Blessington Grange Mist’ this pair finishing in fifth.
With the teams selected the 128’s started proceedings when they paraded at noon, once again the Irish teams got full marks for turnout as our athletes are the only nation to be supplied with team jackets, numnahs and rugs all provided by the Pony committee of SJI.
Ireland was represented by Jason Foley ‘Sparkel II’, Kate Derwin ‘Toorboy Tommy’ Abbie Sweetnam ‘Murphy Spartacus’ and Harry Allen ‘Little Jack Spratt’, this quartet looking very strong on paper. Foley and Allen produced first round clears, Sweetnam had one pole on the floor and unfortunately Derwin had a crashing fall of both pony and rider, this leaving Ireland lagging behind England by on fence as they remained on zero. In true Irish tradition this young team rallied to produce a zero score in the second round where England picked up four faults resulting in a nerve racking jump off. Once again Ireland finished on zero with the English team picking up 12 faults the Gold medal was secured.
In the 138 division Ireland was represented by Jason Foley ‘Kiltormer Hero’, James Houston ‘Woodfield Superstar’, Kate Derwin ‘Sligo Lux To Queeny’ and Harry Allen ‘Scarletts Billy The Kid’, all of whom jumped clear in the first round leaving them equal with England. Foley jumped a further clear in the second round but unfortunately a pole from Houston and Derwin left Allen not having to jump as the English remained on zero and could’nt be caught.
The 148 Debut team was made up of athletes who have never been on a 148 team, the Irish quartet were Ashlee Byrne ‘Quantum Solace’, Molly Iriwn ‘Riverview Annie’, Paul Lynch Jnr ‘Katies Grey’ and Ciaran Nallon ‘Atlantic Hope’. This is a great team event as it gives up and coming riders a chance of team experience and the Irish squad did themselves proud as they finished on zero after the first round tying with Wales. Lynch and Nallon stayed on zero in the second round where a pole each for Byrne and Irwin increased the tally to four with the Welsh staying on zero Ireland took their second silver medal of the day.
Drawn first in the 148 Team event the Irish were made up of Rachel Houston ‘Blessington Grange Mist’, Nicholas Connors ‘Sluggar Mustang Sally’, Tim MacDonagh ‘Who’s Arco’ and MJ Pender ‘Doon Laddie’.
Uncharacteristically this team were lying in third after the first round as all but Pender picked up four faults as England and Wales went into the second round on zero. Once again all was not lost as Houston and Connors jumped foot perfect rounds to only add a further four as MacDonagh and Pender lowered a pole each, but with England finishing on eight and taking the Gold medal there was a jump off with Wales for Silver as they too finished on twelve. As the Irish team held their nerve they completed the third round on four faults still tying but with the clock deciding the result Ireland took their third silver medal.
Saturday was a rest day for the top ponies as they prepared for the Grand Prix’s on Sunday where the Irish continued to be a force to reckoned with. Abbie Sweetnam concluded a very successful 128 career and added to her RDS title when winning the 128 Grand Prix on ‘Murphy Spartacus’, this pair stormed round in a time of 26.66, with Harry Allen and ‘Little Jack Spratt’ taking second in 27.01 as he too leaves the 128 ranks behind. Kate Derwin and ‘Taggarts Express’ took a very creditable fourth place with younger brother Francis Jnr and ‘Ballinvella Cutie’ finishing in sixth over a course set at 1.30.
The 138 Grand Prix finished at 1.40 and saw Jason Foley in first place with his new mount ‘Bear Me In Mind’ as they jumped clear all the way in 28.11. Harry Allen took fourth and sixth with ‘Fountain Ranger’ and ‘Scarletts Billy The Kid’ with Kate Derwin ‘Sligo Lux to Queeny’ in seventh.
Tim MacDonagh and ‘The Galway Blazer’ jumped one of only three double clear rounds in the 148 Grand Prix to finish third with Nicholas Connors and ‘Mighty Patch’ taking tenth over the 1.55 track.
Concluding a very successful season and finishing top of the medal table for a second year running Chef D’Equipe Katy Saunders congratulated the performance and behaviour of all the athletes throughout the year and commented on the wealth of talent that this nation has coming up through the pony ranks. She also thanked Michael Condon for all his help at the HPI’S and in recognition of this he was presented with an oil painting of his favourite hunter, painted by Sophie Dalm on of our top young riders.
The next date on the calendar is the Pony Showjumpers Awards Ball which takes place at The Mullingar Park Hotel on Saturday 18th January 2014 and is a date not to be missed.