March of many Disciplines

After the success of our show last week, this weekend proved also to be busy for our riders. Best of all the were able to enjoy it without wind and rain!

Laura Kavanagh and Aoife Harrington travelled to Annaharvey to take part in the hunter trials with their ponies Bobby and Milkway. They had great fun enjoying their ponies in the sun and Aoife now has the cross country bug and is looking forward to more.

Emma, Rebecca and Lorna travelled to Killossery to take part in Dressage Ireland. Emma and Ruben and Rebecca and Honey took part in the preliminary class. Emma and Ruben are working hard on developing as a team together with some great marks showing potential. It is hard to believe that Rebecca, a full time BHS student with Dunbyrne, and her horse Honey have competed in just three dressage shows ever! Their partnership shone through this weekend as they earned impressive scores of 67% and 69% taking home fifth and second place.

Lorna and Sammy (DBS Second Chance) competed in the elementary classes. They had a great day taking home first and third place in their classes.

We are always delighted to see our riders out enjoying their sport and look forward to see what the next few weeks bring.

Jumping into 2019

It was the first show of 2019 yesterday for a number of our riders and some of the DBS horses. We are located just ten minutes from Coilog which gives us easy access to a great competition venue. Coilog are currently running an unregistered combined training league which is a brilliant opportunity to get horses back into competition mode with a choice of levels.

Rory competed in the dressage with our beautiful bay home bred mare Chanel. This was this mare’s first competition and also her first ever offsite outing but she has a very sensible and mature attitude and took it all in her stride scoring over 68%. She is definitely one to watch.

Rory also competed with bay gelding Oisin in the 90cm combined training. They led from the dressage phase and delivered a smooth clear round to take the overall win.

Lorna and Sammy (DBS Second Chance) had their first outing of the year in the metre combined training. They had a solid dressage test and a clear round in the showjumping phase earned them second place.

Sisters Niamh and Sinead Davitt made their debut outing with their bay mare Star. Both girls were delighted with their double clears in the 80cm showjumping class. Star (Killelton Starlight) was a surprise Christmas present and she definitely lives up to her name!

Our team and clients have a busy schedule ahead of them in the coming weeks as they get into the 2019 season and make the most of the longer evenings. We love coaching our clients and helping them to set and achieve goals. We also take pride in producing and showcasing our own DBS horses. We look forward to doing plenty more of both this Spring.

Supporting Spring Success

With the beast from the east and the son of the beast finally moving on it has been a relief for us and our clients that we can all come out of hiding from riding, get back in the saddle and make up for lost time over the past few weeks.

The first week of April saw a hectic schedule with some very promising results. We have a dynamic group of riders here at the moment performing across a variety of disciplines under different governing bodies.  

Stine Anderson has been working hard through the Winter to prepare Alva Gunne's show horse Dutchess for the Northern Ireland Festival. The pair competed this weekend winning the 90cm Working Hunter which was a great result and ideal preparation for heading to Cavan for this festival next week. 

Mia Browne and Hannah Groves headed to Annaharvery for their first ever hunter trials at the weekend. These two DBS Tail Blazers are keen Pony Club members and wanted some hunter trial experience to compliment their minimus training. They flew around the pre-novice pairs with their ponies Belle and Brogan. 

Sisters Orla and Aoife Harrington were at Cavan this weekend for the Dressage Ireland Winter Finals. Aoife and Cosmic took fourth place in the Junior Trailblazers preliminary championship while Orla and Semperit were 9th in the Elementary Category 2 championship.

With private lessons, DBS Tail Blazers and Pony Club coaching scheduled for this week we are delighted to see so much enthusiasm for training and learning from our riders here at Dunbyrne and look forward to seeing what the Spring and Summer competition season will bring.  

Riding Club will be the main focus for Dunbyrne Equestrian next weekend when we host our leg of the West Leinster Region Linda Moore league on Sunday the 15th April. 

Performing with Pony Club

At Dunbyrne Equestrian we are very lucky to have two great clubs affiliated to the Irish Pony Clubs on our doorstep. A number of our tail blazers and livery clients are members of the Kildare Hunt pony club and enjoy regular outings to rallies and competitions. Keelagh Quinlan and sister Caitlin, Aoife and Orla Harrington are regulars on the pony club circuit. These riders have been attending regular training this Spring in both dressage and showjumping and are ready for action in the competition season!

A number of our Tail Blazers had never experienced pony club before. We encouraged all of these junior riders and their parents to look at joining a club for 2018. We believe that Irish Pony Club provides a brilliant opportunity to compete and enjoy horse riding with like minded children and to form lasting friendships. Irish Pony Club also instill a great culture of learning into members from improving their riding to learning stable management and taking Pony Club tests. 

On Saturday the 3rd February after a Tail Blazers turnout clinic and several hours of beautifying their ponies ten of our Tail Blazers headed to their first ever Newcastle Lyons pony club rally at JAG Equestrian. Laura Kavanagh, Tabitha Walsh, Niamh Davitt and Sinead Davitt headed to their C test rally while Hannah Groves, Sive Murphy, Ella Callan, Molly Dunne, Mia Browne and Zara Logan all headed to their first newcomers rally. The riders were looked after on the day by DC Grainne Alexander and coaches Phillip Gaffney and Anne O'Connor. All riders fared very well on the day receiving high praise for their turnout and standard of riding. 

We are delighted to see our Dunbyrne Tail Blazers representing the yard through the Irish Pony Club in both the Kildare Hunt and Newcastle Lyons clubs and look forward to seeing them enjoy many outings throughout 2018

BHS Stage 1 Stable Management Evening Course

We posted earlier today about our opportunity for a full time pupil to come on board as part of our team to train to be a BHS Instructor. While we take students on to study for their BHS exams on a full time basis, we recognise the need for part time courses for others who may be working full time in another industry or have other commitments. 

What we are proposing to run is an eight week course which would train students up to be at the appropriate level to apply for and take their BHS Stage 1 stable management exam. This course would take place at Dunbyrne Equestrian (provisionally on a Thursday evening from 6.30 – 7.45pm but we will take feedback from interested parties on what might work). The course would cover the BHS Stage One stable management syllabus. The cost of the course would be €120 per person payable at the start of the course. (please note that this does not include exam fees for the BHS Stage One – attendees would be responsible for booking and paying for their own exams). However this price would depend on us securing enough interest to run the course. Please let us know if you would be interested in signing up for this course. 

Given how everyone’s schedule tends to be busy during the summer we hoped to commence the course at the beginning of September when routines tend to settle in. If there is interest we can also provide opportunities once the course is up and running for attendees to take part in relevant tasks at the yard on the weekend to practice and gain experience.

The course above covers the stable management syllabus of the BHS Stage One but if you would also like to take riding exams with the BHS we have an onsite AIRE approved riding school where you can attend lessons if you would like to brush up on your riding. For both the stable management and riding exams we will be able to host mock exams (for an additional fee) if there is enough interest after the end of the course. If the stage one course is successful we can build from this and work towards courses for Stage 2, stage 3 and the PTT exams.

If anyone prefers to study for any BHS exams on a one to one basis rather than a group, we can of course provide this. One to one tuition with our BHSI costs €50 per hour onsite.