A spell of old-school March weather played havoc with many activities this weekend and the cross country training day at Lenamore on Sunday didn’t escape the axe. Although Lenamore has very free draining ground, at least one of the fields was just too wet to make training feasible. As things turned out, it was a blessing in disguise. Neither horses nor riders could possibly have benefitted from exposure to gales, constant driving rain and freezing squalls.

But both horses and riders benefitted greatly from Friday night’s team building and mounted obstacle challenge at Eddie Gallagher’s arena in Ballybofey. Liam and Clodagh Barry proved brilliant trainers and the session lasted a good two and a half hours. All sorts of teams were successfully built. The evening began with a warm up session of girls versus boys, with Nadine and Libby taking on Damien and Francis. Tommy and Joanne finally completed their circumnavigation of Ballybofey in time to join the second warm-up group along with Rachel, Leo, Maura and Mick.

At that stage it was time to build the big teams for the evening. With five riders aside, the mounts split naturally along a colour divide into the White Horses versus the Rest. Grace, Angel, Hannah and Doolin (with Hannah competing for her team first with Maura and fifth with Francis) took on Millie, Mollie, Armstrong, Dante and Dancer. The Rest had the upper hand to begin with but the White Horses rallied magnificently towards the end of the game sequence. Between acts Damien announced his candidacy for the Irish Adult Mounted Games squad by reaching down from Millie to pick up a bottle off the ground — and that was in addition to springing blithely back on board after the occasional misfired flag, sock or bottle forced a mid-game dismount.

On the White side of affairs Doolin demonstrated the value of schooling in local pony races with some impressive acceleration down the arena. His speed was matched by his super manoeuverability but he was let down time and again by his inept rider who frittered away all the advantage he offered the team. In contrast, Grace’s brilliant efforts were complemented by Leo’s speed on his own two pegs. On the darker side of the arena, Armstrong also demonstrated his characteristic turn of foot and it didn’t take long for both himself and Tommy to master the obstacle challenges they met. Dante illustrated the beauty of the family pony that happily turns its hoof to anything while Rachel was in her element, finally in a position to practice what she preaches to her pupils.

Throughout the evening Liam and Clodagh offered all sorts of tips and advice on how to successfully negotiate the challenges at the highest speed with the greatest degree of accuracy and safety. They both have an immense amount of experience as well as great patience and an invaluable sense of humour.

In a final team building effort, Rachel and Tommy ended up together in the sack, bringing the curtain down on a memorable evening. Even Dante and Armstrong were laughing!