Latest News
KBIS Qualifiers for July:
6th - Vale View
9th - Myerscough
July 2008
Paralympic Council of Ireland Announces 2008 Team
The Paralympic Council of Ireland has officially announced the team of athletes who will represent Ireland at the 2008 Paralympic Games.
The team consists of a total of 45 athletes from 9 sports, making this the largest Paralympic team from Ireland since Atlanta in 1996.
Eilish Byrne and her horse Youri will be the sole Irish representative at the Para Equestrian competition in Hong Kong, competing in Grade II. GOOD LUCK EILISH!
Millfield Junior International, 5-6 July 2008
Well done to Kate Horan and Helen Kearney who traveled to Millfield in Somerset to represent Ireland at their first ever international para competition. They both achieved very respectable scores and placings. See the full results here.
KBIS Qualifiers - Vale View and Myerscough
I took Taurus (Trev) and Indi to the KBIS qualifiers at Vale View on 6th and then Myerscough on 9th July.
Both horses are going really well and Trevor continues to improve. At Vale View Indi was a close 2nd behind Emma Kent on Gentle, and Trevor was 3rd. The Grade IV was a very tough competition and was won by Vanessa Knight from Vale View who has not competed in paras for some time - well done Vanessa!
At Myerscough, I was the only one entered in the Grade III qualifier. I ended up equal 1st on Trev and Indi but the judges were very tough and my best score is still 67.69% from the qualifier at Hartpury.
See Competition page for results.
Hartpury CPEDI3* 16 - 18th July
We traveled down to Hartpury on Monday 14th and arrived safely. Breda and Adeline, our Chef d'Equipe, were already there, as was Gerry Savage our new squad member who had stayed at Hartpury following the RDA Nationals over the weekend.
On Tuesday, the trot up went well and all the Irish horses passed, although Indi had to be trotted twice as one of the vets wasn't looking and missed it!
There are about 35 GB riders here and just 9 from other countries so we are going to have to work hard to make sure the Brits don't dominate all the placings. Visit the Hartpury website for more information.
Wednesday 16th - Team Test
Indi warmed up really well and I rode second and felt I had done a good test. There were 8 riders in Grade III so I was delighted to come 2nd, just 3 marks behind GB rider, Emma Kent. This was followed by Gerry achieving 2nd place in Grade Ia and Breda coming 3rd in Grade Ib.
We couldn't have hoped to do any better on Day 1 and we were surprised but excited to see we were very close behind Team GB in the team competition.
I hope we can all keep up to this standard for the next couple of days. I'm looking forward to a display from the GB Paralympic squad who are coming to ride their kurs for us - should be interesting and I might pick up a few ideas.
Thursday 17th - Championship Test
Things got even better for me and Indi today. He did a good test but stumbled going into the rein back so at least one judge gave me a 4. Luckily, this was balanced by a couple of 9s so I was delighted to finish on the same mark as yesterday's winner, Emma. Knowing my luck lately, I though Emma might win on collectives, but it turned out we had identical collectives, which meant we were equal 1st! It was fantastic to hear the Irish National anthem being played in the prize giving.
Indi and Kathryn win at Hartpury 2008
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sparrow
Gerry had to ride the Grade Ia Championship Test for the first time and found it quite tough so she was 5th today. Breda scored an excellent 68.095% but GB riders Lucy Barclay and Natalie Povey took 1st and 2nd places so she was 3rd again.
In the team event the Irish Team came second, only about 9 points behind Team GB which was a great achievement.
Results are being posted daily.
Friday 18th - Kur
I'm looking forward to riding my kur on Friday. I've changed the ending and included as much difficulty as possible to try and gain extra marks so I hope it all goes to plan!
Well, it went pretty well - just one minor hiccup near the end so I was really pleased to come 2nd with 72.963% - my highest ever score at an international. Gerry and Breda were both 3rd.
It's been a really good week but now I have no more internationals until 2009 - European Championship year.