As Irish families from the bottom of the South to the top of the North and the furthest points both East and West of the country packed up on Wednesday to descend on Co. Kildare for the Holmestead Pony and Young Rider's Championships they made sure they had packed the sunscreen and plenty of cold drinks as it seemed this "best ever Summer" was just never ending!

Sadly this was not to be the case and the rains started in Co. Kildare on Wednesday night and they let up throughout Thursday which saw some classes needing to be cancelled and Friday was not a great deal better causing quite some difficulties for the competitors as the ground became more like a skating rink than a jumping arena - studs of varying sizes were in evidence and much needed!

The Organisers of this show are to be congratulated for holding onto their good humour as each day opened - they had an enormous task to organise with all the 690 available boxes at Goff's being filled plus the some 400 horses coming in daily. Goff's was definitely alive with amosphere and people!

The show had classes for everyone from the Under 10's to the Under 21's and some of the top Young Riders in the country were present judging by the "green coats, complete with flags" all around the place. The quality of the ponies and horses was excellent as was the riding of the competitors.

With five rings running for the entire show there was plenty for everyone to see and thankfully by Saturday the rains had dried up and the the deckchairs, sunscreen and rugs for warmth were pulled out from the bags and cars and the sunshine also brought out plenty of spectators which all added to the atmosphere.

Coming from Australia we are used to seeing hard grounds for jumping on but we were surprised to see how hard the grounds were at Goff's even after the deluge of rain on Thursday and Friday so no doubt the competitors were strangely pleased that it had rained as I suspect the ground would have been perhaps unsuitable for many of the horses/ponies jumping in the bigger classes especially.

The grounds themselves were so big and getting from one place to another proved taxing for some and there were many modes of transport being seen around the place..................... all forms of "horsepower" were to be seen!

And the story in pictures and words continues in the following pages.

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