SHOWING CLASSES:LESLEY WEBB, who last year landed the supreme hunter championship on Yvonne Pearson's Double Take, won the first two titles on offer in the horse showing section yesterday when heavy rain in the morning took its toll on the going in Rings 1 and 2.
Pearson, whose horses are produced by Richard Iggulden at his stables in Comber, Co Down, provided Webb with her mount Kilpatrick Lord in the small hunter division. This five-year-old bay gelding, which is by the Irish Sport Horse stallion Kings Master, was bred in Ballymore Eustace by Joan Dolan out of a Colourfield mare.
Fintan Sullivan's Dunamore, winner of the six-year-old and upwards class, spoiled his chance of taking the tricolour when taking too strong a hold with his rider in the championship gallop.
Completing her double, Webb partnered Lynn Cairnduff's Irish Draught gelding Cairnside Adastra to claim the cob title.When not showing, this grey can be found competing on the Northern dressage circuit.
Aged 11 years, Joanne Hepburn's Corrilea's Imp, champion hunter recently at Tattersalls and Tinahely, is too old for the hunter section here, but triumphed in riding horse championship under Clare MacMahon, Ireland's leading female point-to-point rider.
The new Connemara working hunter championship attracted a large crowd and was won by the 11-year-old Ferdia grey, Blackwood Fernando, ridden for Enniskerry exhibitor Claire Devlin by her daughter Alicia Devlin Byrne. Earlier, Galway-based breeder Eamon Burke showed his own stallion Currachmore Cashel to land the in-hand Connemara title.
The RDS planned to lay sand on the arenas overnight but the going will be tiring today for horses and handlers, who were slipping during yesterday's classes. The decision to replace the grass in Ring 3 with a sand and fibre surface has gone down well with exhibitors.