All eyes on ever-consistent Damien, Enda and Cliff as we hurtle towards the NWL final

Liz Potter’s deft management of the points table and results contribute greatly to the excitement and momentum of the Northwest League. After two more legs of the competition, admirably consistent performances from Damien, Enda and Cliff cast a very rosy tint on the club’s prospects as we count down the 14 days to the final.

For the third time in three attempts, Cliff yesterday bagged 7 points in the primary division leaving him perched at the top of the leader board. But the consistency of his competitors mean that he has to maintain that level of success to guarantee him an overall win in the league. Fingers crossed, Cliff!

In the Advanced Intermediate class, Damien’s equally consistent efforts with Armstrong leave him in a comfortable but certainly not unassailable position. With any little bit of luck at all, things are looking good, but show jumping is show jumping! Marina and Anne stand ready to defend the club’s honour should anything go awry.

At Advanced Primary level Enda has a fight on his hands as he attempts to overcome Liz Potter’s marginal advantage. This is the tightest class on the schedule and the final promises to be nail biting.

With Anne now competing in the Advanced Intermediate league, our competitive edge at Intermediate level has been considerably blunted. Rosaleen McGinley is streets ahead of the competition and looks home and hosed but there’s going to be a good scrap for the minor placings between a disparate group of contenders.

Well done everybody on your performances over the last two weeks. Here’s looking forward to the final!

NWL Spring 2015 Points | Show 4
NWL Spring 2015 Results | Show 4
NWL Spring 2015 Results | Show 3

Well done Marina!

Marina rode a blinder at Fairyhouse on Saturday when she fulfilled her dream of riding in a “real” race before she kicks the bucket. She finished in third place, losing second by a whisker, after an impressive run from the back, picking off victims one by one as she progressed relentlessly. The winning post came just a hair too soon but the performance was magnificent.

Very well done, Marina! We’re proud of you.

Friday evening activities continue apace

While the Northwest League receives all the limelight at this time of year our Friday night activities continue to attract a stalwart following. Lessons at Glenleary for the last two weeks were well attended and members enjoyed tuition from two less familiar faces in Ronan McLaughlin and Daniel Lusby. There are so many ways to skin the riding cat that we will never get to the bottom of all the individual styles of teaching. Every instructor has a slightly different focus and highlights different strengths (or weaknesses, as the case may be) in each of us.

This Friday there’s no tuition but we have the opportunity to keep up to snuff on our show jumping with some clear round jumping at Eddie Gallagher’s arena in Ballybofey. Book with Anne straight away, if you plan to go along.

How things stand after Round 2 of Northwest League

Liz Potter is as quick out of the blocks as ever with her first class results service. Here’s the picture after yesterday’s second leg of the Northwest Spring League. Everything is still to play for.

Congratulations to everybody who participated, particularly the winners. Well done Hillary on a wonderful victory for Letterkenny in the Advanced Primary class. All that schooling on the hunting field is paying handsome dividends!

NWL Spring 2015 Points | Show 2
NWL Spring 2015 Results | Show 2

Tús maith, leath na hoibre: Now for Round 2 of the Northwest League

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

Flatwork and jumping promise an active weekend

Competition season begins on Sunday with the first leg of the Northwest Spring League at Templemore. This Friday evening however introduces a new name to the club, Ronan McLaughlin. Well known as a competitive show jumper and proprietor of a riding school in Malin, Ronan will take the instructor’s seat for our flatwork lesson at Glenleary where he now operates his second base. Lisa is organising the session and the lessons begin at 7pm.

On Sunday we run the show! Cormac has put together the following rota for jobs, with two teams scheduled in each department to cover the full day while allowing everybody to compete. Helping on the day is very important but there’s no point in running the event if we don’t have members on horses participating!

Team 1 is in action during Crosspoles, Primary and Advanced Primary classes.
Team 2 cover Intermediate, Advanced Intermediate and Open.

Entries  Hazel, Anne, Maura, Marina
Safety  Team 1:  Francis  /  Team 2: Jenny
Call-up & Warm-Up Arena 
Team 1:  Christopher, Denis, Keary, Rachel
Team 2:  Suzanne Deeney, Fiona Haley, Liz
Arena Party  Team 1:  Leo, Libby  /  Team 2: Louise, Pauric
Judges Box  Team 1:  Lisa, Cormac  /  Team 2:  Enda, Patricia Warren

Social year off to a flying start at cracking bowling evening in Arena 7

There was a huge turn-out for our annual dinner and bowling night last Saturday at Arena 7. Along with all the usual suspects, the chattering tables included newer members like Lisa Moore and Micháel McClafferty. These two alone are a wonderful example of the diversity of our membership. We come in all shapes and sizes, ages and sexes!!

As well as bona fide members we had several riding club widow(er)s showing up on the night in the hopes of showing that equestrian prowess is not the only measure of a man. Liam, Rick, Cecil and Mervyn, as well as former member Declan, ensured that the boys were twice as well represented as the girls for the big occasion.

As has been the case for the past couple of years, dinner was served first and everyone had plenty of time to relax, let down their guard and do some undercover reconnaissance on the ambitions of their soon-to-be adversaries in the bowling lanes. The meal was as alway very good, albeit slightly unusual in the proliferation of potatoes to the exclusion of any other evidence of a vegetable!

Fueled by spuds, the large party made its way to the VIP bowling suite for the grand challenge. As the session progressed it became clear that the tussle for the Bottom of Table honours was being as closely contested as that for the top. The McClafferty clan were in with a shout in nearly all divisions — male, female, bottom and top.

At the heel of the hunt they pulled off 50% of the prize money with Marina (despite a shaky, ankle-recovering start) topping the girls scoreboard and Micháel elbowing out the younger pretender, Enda, for the Paddy Last title on the mens side. Suzanne bowled with great character and humour to take the equivalent title on the girls role of honour while Rick proved that he has the game in his American blood when topping the overall scoreboard and taking the boys title.

A huge thank you to Marina for organising the evening once again. We look forward to the 2016 edition already.

Plenty to look forward to between now and the derby

With Anne taking over in the Secretary’s hot seat, last Thursday’s club meeting was well attended and very productive. Significant annual events such as the Northwest Team Challenge, Flowerhill, Carrickfinn and our summer Derby & Dressage show were chiseled into their slots, allowing the rest of the calendar to fall into place around them.

We have a great series of flatwork lessons lined up to keep us on the straight and narrow through the Northwest League season, as well as clear round jumping and a lesson over poles at critical points as the competition hots up.

Marina has 14 stables booked for club members at Flowerhill and they are already over-subscribed. This means we have another Galway odyssey to look forward to on Sunday 19 April. Earlier that month we have ride-outs and cross country schooling to help eliminate the idea of coloured poles from our minds.

Our Northwest Team Challenge, this year for the Audrey Jacob Cup, takes place as usual at Eglinton on Sunday 26 April. There are no confirmed details for the RDS team qualifier as yet. As soon as they materialise, schooling sessions and/or lessons will be organised for those planning to compete. Maybe 2015 will be the year we make it to Dublin. Never say never!

Our Derby & Dressage show is pencilled in (subject to confirmation) for Sunday 14 June while we head to Carrickfinn to camp a month earlier in mid-May (when the weather is always at its finest…).

On top of our own club calendar, there’s plenty of activity planned collaboratively by the Donegal clubs. We hope to run a 2-Phase league in the summer months with events at Ryan & Liz’z place in Carrigart, Mona & Charlie’s place in Killybegs, and at either Lenamore or Deelside here close to home.

For now however all focus is on the first leg of the Northwest League on Sunday 8 February. Remember that Letterkenny is responsible for running this show so Cormac and his crew will be expecting all hands on deck. The league runs to its normal format with one notable change to the points system. Your best three points results from the first four shows will count, together with your double points at the final. In other words, you have a discard score after the first four shows. This should make things interesting!

The only thing that stands between us and the NWL is the promise of a great night out this Saturday for bowling and dinner at Arena 7. See you there!

Sadness as club members and friends lose loved ones

Our deepest sympathies are extended to Mary Finneran, who lost her mother last weekend after a long battle with illness. Mary nursed her mother throughout her illness, making enormous personal and professional sacrifices to make sure she received the care she deserved.

We also extend our condolences to Tanya who lost her granny last week. It’s been a tough year for the family and we would like to offer our deepest sympathy.

Our thoughts are with you both, Mary and Tanya.