Hectic weekend in a nutshell

This weekend must surely be a record for club activities with action on four consecutive days concluding this evening with our AGM in Tír na Og.

Valerie taught two lessons on Friday evening at Templemore. The first was a sedate affair with four earnest pupils on well behaved mounts. The second was a cavalry charge with nine exceedingly fresh horses ridden by a colourful bunch of riders. Valerie controlled things admirably having got off to a worried start. We probably didn’t learn as much as we might have on a properly populated lesson but it was nevertheless a lot of fun.

Erica’s working hunter clinic with Toni Donnelly was a great success at Cyril’s on Saturday with two riding club sessions followed by pony club time. Toni took riders through the jumping element of the competition before proceeding to demonstrate the showing part in great detail. Participants stripped down their horses and were shown how to properly present them to the judge.

While the hunting brigade were out in force at Herbie Lusby’s meet in Porthall on Sunday, eight members travelled to Keash Equestrian Centre in Ballymote for the final of the Western Region’s show jumping league. It was a wonderful venue and there was an excellent turn-out from all over the region. Donegal was very well represented with plenty of members from all three clubs competing. We had no big wins but Nadine’s consistency was highlighted once again when she and Molly took fifth in both the morning(!!) class and the afternoon(!!!!) final at Advanced Intermediate level. Orla had a great day finishing both 2nd and 5th on Lady and Sonny respectively in the morning class and she rode HC with great credit in the afternoon final. Armstrong and Libby were just pipped to the post in a great jump off for the morning’s 29-entry Intermediate class.

The journey home through thick fog and frosty roads was a long one but the day had been well worthwhile. Not very surprisingly, it seems as if the new policy of holding regional qualifiers and league finals at a mid-point in the region is a great success.