See, it’s not just the Gaeltachts that can trot out the cúpla focal. Now, having exhausted the Irish language resources of this website editor, we’ll continue in English. It’s time to build on a great start to the Northwest League and reach greater heights this coming Sunday at the second leg.
We had a marvelous day at the season-opening show with a multitude of admirable performances. With Tutu under the weather, Louise was very unlucky to miss competing but Cliff came up trumps for the club with a masterful victory on Shyla. For a mare that can try a man’s patience, she cooperated when it really mattered and the partnership gave a lovely display at Primary level having warmed up over the Welcome Stakes course.
Competition was tough at Advanced Primary level with a remarkable degree accuracy with the optimum time from several riders. It was Kirsten Rice from Tirconaill who inched closest to the elusive target to take first place, with Enda and Liz snapping at her heels in second and fourth spots respectively.
Both Intermediate and Advanced Intermediate classes produced cracking jump-offs and the level of competition in both was high. Leo rode a blinder to win the Intermediate division on ever-cool Cool while Fenway took a leaf out of his smaller club-mate’s book and jumped with gusto to land his first ever league points in third spot for Libby. Keary, in a new and imposing partnership with Millie, took fourth while new member Shauna Boyle landed in fifth. Tanya and Al delivered a textbook clear round of jumping with a single time fault to put them in sixth in a class dominated by Letterkenny.
The Advanced Intermediate class has developed into a truly competitive challenge. Gone are the days when three or four riders took polite turns at claiming top points. This time there was a four-way jump-off with Damien just missing out on making it five with an unlucky last fence pole-roll from little wonder-horse Armstrong. Marina and Jenny gave it a good go and finished in second place but it was Anne, competing for the first time ever at this level, who showed everybody how it should be done. How lovely to see how Anne has risen up the grades, putting in a lot of hard work along the way. And how rewarding for her to have bred and brought on Star to compete so successfully in the show jumping ring. A very big pat on the back to our club Secretary.
Congratulations to everybody who competed. A very big thanks to everyone for helping out on the day and for making sure the show ran smoothly under Letterkenny’s stewardship. Let’s see if we can keep up the performance this Sunday at Templemore.
NWL Spring 2015 Results | Show 1
NWL Spring 2015 Points | Show 1
Letterkenny Riding Club 