Silver for Ireland at Pony Championships

Ireland pony show jumping manager Tom Slattery hailed the fighting spirit of his team after a spectacular comeback yesterday saw them lift silver at the European Championships in Millstreet, Co Cork.

The Irish quartet of Michael Pender (Doon Laddie), Grace McHugh (Cassandra van het Roelhof), Sean Monaghan (Attyrory Rebel) and Susan Fitzpatrick (Rock Dee Jay) shared the lead with France going into yesterday’s deciding nations cup contest, but had slipped to fourth place after the first round. Three clears in the second round, however, forced Britain and Germany into a jump-off for bronze in favour of the latter, with the French full of panache and so far out of sight in front, they were almost a forgotten entity.

Slattery conceded his team were not at their best in the first round, but said, matter-of-factly, “We had a chat at half-time.