Its hard to imagine a better place than last weekend in Camphire . The stunning setting with the Mature trees, which incidentally includes the largest oak tree in Ireland!! The Blackwater River running by and the backdrop of the Beautiful Camphire house its-self. Top this off with two days of sunshine and this really is my idea of Paradise!!
Some of Irelands most talented horses competed over the two days with some very exciting finishes to the international classes.
The Ennis sisters were in great form and I have to say given their recent sad loss they gave it their all as usual, forever the professionals.
Sarah steered the Porshe mare Sugar Brown Babe into the winners enclosure in the hotly contested CIC 2 star, she did give one of the show jumps a good rattle but no prizes for guessing who was holding it in its place. We miss you Orla but know you were there with us.
Sarah was on fire also taking 3rd with Stellor Rebound and 5th with The Underdog.
The other two Ennis sisters fought it out for the top spot in the CIC 5/6 year old class. Nicola rolled a pole in the show jumping which left the door open for Niamh to slot into the winners enclosure leaving Nicola down the order in 5th.
Our own Fernhill Ultimate really came into his own at this event and slotted in to 2nd place finishing on his dressage score of 46. This is the first time Fraser has asked him to gallop as he knew time penalties in this class would prove expensive, he rose to the occasion but was not keen to pull up at the end of the track, Fraser looked set to have a second tour of the solid fences but managed to explain the rules to Ultimate just before the boundary ropes of the collecting ring!!
Two more Fernhill residents also contested the CIC 5/6 year old class and we were delighted with their performance. Sea Top Boy was clear both XC and in the show jumping, time penalties xc were expected with him as he is just moving up to this level. Our new addition Spirit In The Sky who I had recently spotted show jumping in the Mill Street Boomerang class was thrown in at the deep end and came out of the weekend a very happy and better educated chap. He has a little miss understanding with Fraser at Fence 5 which resulted in 20 penalties but by the finish they really looked like they had been together more that the couple of days they had to prepare. All our young horses posted clear rounds in the show jumping which excited us a lot, this phase is so important and it was good to see them fresh and jumping well after the mornings xc test.
Thanks and congratulations must go to the Team at Camphire headed up by ” The Brady Boys” as they are now affectionatly called.
Posts Tagged ‘Camphire’
Camphire International
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011Camphire International
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Camphire held its first international event last weekend. The beautiful setting on the banks of the Blackwater is an ideal venue for such an event and with the backdrop of Camphire house it really is a stunning setting.
We were blessed with the weather and had glorious sunshine all weekend.
Friday saw a full day of dressage, Fernhill M2S did his test in the two star arena and tho his score of 60 penalties might not sound great he performed as well as he could at this stage and was much more grown up than on previous outings. A few green moments prevented a better mark but he is improving all the time and we were happy.
Mr Jones was early in the one star arena and on hindsight we probably did not work him enough before his test. we did not take into account the atmosphere here compared to the one days he had attended to date. He was still stunning and scored 48 penalties but could quite easily have been 5 marks better. He is new to the eventing game and we will know for next time.
We stabled with the Beechers in Tallow just a couple of miles down the road, they had the place looking spick and span and a great welcome awaited us from Timmy Paul and Tadgh as usual. Its always a pleasure to stay at Loughnatousa, the facilities are second to none.
Timmy kept us entertained with his stories over dinner in the Bride View Bar and a great evening was had by all.
Another day of dressage on Saturday saw good scores posted by Fernhill Go-Go on his international debut and Xifon both in the one star.
The Horseware League Final for 4 and 5 year olds took place on Saturday and we had Deidre Lannigans Sea Top Boy qualified. He did a respectable dressage and jumped clear both show jumping and xc to finish 7th. Thanks to Tom Mcguniess of Horseware for creating this series its a great chance to see the top up and coming young horses perform.
We were all invited to drinks and canapes in Camphire house on the Saturday evening and it was a great opportunity to catch up with friends old and new from the eventing world.
Sundays cross country started with the Two star competitors and we were delighted when Fernhill M2S jumped around clear with just a handful of time penalties. The course caused its fair share of problems with some of the more experienced combinations having the odd glance off.
All three of our one star horses stormed around the cross country clear with only Xifon getting a quarter of a time penalty. `this left them all in the top 15 in this section going into the show jumping phase in the afternoon. Again they all jumped super clear rounds. Mr Jones finished in 3rd place tho he head the dame score as the 2nd placed competitor he was slightly faster xc, Go-Go was 4th and Xifon 12th. We were delighted with these results and all horses finished sound and happy.
M2S jumped a lovely clear in the two star show jumping and finished 14th.
All in all a very good weekend, all credit to Sophie for doing such a fantastic job with all the horses, five horses and five double clears, it does not get better than that!!!!
