Great Victories at NW Team Challenge

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Great Victories at NW Team Challenge

April 28, 2014 by Donegal Gaeltacht

Yesterday saw the hosting of Letterkenny Riding Clubs annual North West Team Challenge in Eglinton Equestrian Centre, Derry. The weather was superb with golden sunshine all day which added to the enjoyment of this excellent event. There was a great attendance from all 4 clubs with a total of 13 teams entered in the Showjumping & 9 Teams in the Dressage. We managed to put together 3 Showjumping teams- ‘Pink Ladies’ Paul, Ruth, Laura & Emily, ‘The Spitfires’ Lawrence, Liz, Rudy & Trish, & last but not least ‘The Turnips’ Ryan, Eamon, Mickey & Carmel. All on team ‘Spitfire’ went double clear, closely followed by the ‘Pink Ladies’ who had a paltry 4 faults in the first round which was then their discard score. Unfortunately our third team ‘The Turnips’ had several faults leaving them out of the 4 way Jump off between the 2 Letterkenny RC Teams & our 2 teams. As always the jump off course was extremely challenging & it was left to our 2 most experienced members Laura on ‘Chloe Lass’ & Trish on ‘He’s a Dandy’ to do the honours on behalf of their 2 teams. Trish & Dandy were first in & delivered the goods for ‘The Spitfires’ with a perfect round in an astonishingly quick time of 29.20 seconds, Nadine Gallagher of Letterkenny RC was next up with an unfortunate pole down, Damien Gallagher of Letterkenny RC also had unlucky knock down. And so it was all down to the last rider Laura & her beautiful grey mare ‘Chloe Lass’ and as she entered the arena Rudy had warned her ‘you better not beat us Laura!!’, it was a nail biting end to the day as it came down to the two Gaeltacht Teams, but unfortunately victory was not to be for the ‘Pink Ladies’, as Chloe Lass tipped a pole down as she sped around the tight course. A very big well done to Trish & Laura for doing the jump off for us all, & bringing back 1st & 2nd place in the overall Team Showjumping, a great achievement considering we had only 3 teams in the competition.

In the Dressage arena our 2 Teams the ‘Drama Queens’ & the ‘Drama Princesses’ lived up to their names in taking 1st & 2nd place with magnificent scores, another proud acheivement for the club to be able to bring home not one, but two ‘Cups’ . Everyone agreed the day was great fun & the team spirit was very much alive in the heat of the sun over Eglinton Arena. Well done to all our team members, who rode their hearts out, and Thank You to Letterkenny Riding Club for hosting such a great show , we look forward to defending our titles next year!!!

More Photos are available to view in the ‘Gallery’