Island Pony Club                   Newsletter November 2002
Co Wexford, Ireland

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Newsletter November 2002
Activities in our club commenced early this year with our Hunter Trials. This attracted a large entry, and was well represented by all our neighbouring clubs.

CAMP: This, as always, was a huge success, enjoyed by all our members.

MINIMUS: Our teams competed very well considering it was their first year taking part.

HORSE TRIALS: A large number of our members travelled to many of the Horse Trials qualifiers and had a number of wins and placings.

CHAMPIONSHIPS
GAMES: Our Senior and Junior Games teams won the championships.

DRESSAGE: We had two teams at the Area Qualifier, run by the Wexford branch. They were placed 1st and 2nd. The team of Claire O'Gorman, Christina French, Ann-Marie Martin and Tina Martin won the Championships. Claire O'Gorman won the Ride-Off and qualified as the Irish Individual for the UK. The team travelled to the UK for their Championships, and had a most enjoyable time. The team of Christy Anderson, Jenny Duggan, Claire Sinnnott and Sammy Jo Murphy were 4th. This is our third successive year to win the Dressage Championships.

COMBINED TRAINING: Sam Titley was 2nd in the Senior Combined Training.
Claire O'Gorman was 2nd in the Members Combined Training.
Denise O'Brien was 2nd in the Intermediate Combined Training.

HORSE TRIALS:  
Senior:  Samanta Titley was placed 1st in Dressage and 1st Overall. She travelled to the UK for their championships and was placed  
Members: Christina French was placed 1st Overall and 2nd in Dresssage and 2nd in the Red Mills League. The team of Christina French, Sean Cleary, Ann-Marie Martin and Martin Ryan were 2nd.
Intermediate:  Tina Martin was placed 1st in Dressage and the team of Tina Martin, Wayne Chapman, Jenny Duggan and Claire Sinnott were placed 6th. Jean O'Connor was 1st in her Arena.
Junior: The team of Anthony Byrne, Katie O'Reilly and Aubrey Chapman were placed 4th overall, with Anthony Byrne being 1st for Dressage and 3rd overall. Katie O'Reilly was also placed 3rd overall. Katie O'Reilly was 3rd in her arena and Sarah Cleary was 3rd in her arena.

SHOW-JUMPING:
We had four teams competing at the championships.   Wayne Chapman won the ribbons for horsemanship.

OTHER NEWS:
Congratulations to Aubrey Chapman on his success at the RDS Horse Show.

Congratulations to Ann-Marie Martin, Sean Cleary and Christina French, who passed the 'B'Test.

Congratulations to Martin Ryan, Anthony Byrne and Aoife Hogan who represented their school, Gorey Community, at the schools show-jumping championships at Hickstead, where they were placed 5th.

Congratulations to Martin Ryan and Aoife Hogan who were on the winning inter-schools Show jumping team, at Mullingar Equestrian Centre recently.  

Congratulations again to Martin Ryan who won the Young Event Horse Mare championship recently. We wish Martin the best of luck in the Senior Show-jumping Classic for which he qualified at Mullingar. The finals will be held at Wallslough on Sunday 7th December for a bursary to an international yard in Germany valued at €2000.

Congratulations to Claire O'Gorman who competed so successfully with Eventing Ireland this year. She had many wins and placings around the country. After the disappointment of Blarney being cancelled due to bad weather, she travelled to Burgie in Scotland for her first 3-day event, which she completed very successfully. She was placed 3rd of the Irish Juniors and 25th in the CCI* competition. She was selected for the Irish Team who travelled to Belgium for the European Junior 3-Day Event Championship. The team was placed 6th, and Claire was 3rd best of the Irish.

HUNTER TRIALS: We ran our Hunter Trials on 20th October. Despite the dreadful weather conditions, we attracted over 100 entries and our U12 competition was well represented by our club and our neighbouring clubs.

LILLINGTON CUP: We are all very proud to have won the Lillington Cup for the second year in succession. This is a great achievement for our club.

CAREW AWARD: Having worked tirelessly over the years, Ann O'Donohoe was nominated for the Carew Award, which was presented to her by Lady Carew at our Conference on November 9th.  Congratulations Ann.

BILL FISKE: The passing of Bill Fiske on 30th October, shocked and saddened us all. Bill was one of the most enthusiastic and prominent people to be associated with our club. He took a keen interest in a number of our members in the Curracloe and surrounding area, providing them with horses and training, travelling long distances, to compete at qualifiers and championships.  He was always most helpful, building dressage arenas for our area qualifiers. To use the words of the Rev. Norman Ruddock, he was a 'Pied Piper'. He will be sadly missed by us all.  We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife Christine and to his family.

Our club has had a most successful year and we look forward to the challenge again next year!

Please send any items that you think should go into the next newsletter to our Hon Sec Eithne O'Gorman or email islandponyclub@eircom.net