Brilliant GAIN Irish Pony Eventing Team win Bronze Medal at European Championships

  • 29 July 2017, 17:15

The GAIN Irish Pony (U16) Eventing team have won the team Bronze Medal, after a brilliant performance over all three phases of competition at the FEI European Championships for Ponies at Kaposvar in Hungary.

The Becky Cullen managed team of Zara Nelson (Millridge Buachaill Bui (ISH), Hannah Adams (Myshall Rodge (CP), and Isabelle Comerford (Colour Me Fancy (ISH) – who are all from Co Kildare, along with Laois’s Jennifer Kuehnle (Fernhill Timbacktoo), finished on a total of 170.20 after Dressage, Cross Country and today’s final Show Jumping phase. Ireland finished 15 penalties ahead of Netherlands in fourth, with Germany fifth, Italy sixth and Belgium seventh. France took home the Gold Medal on a score of 141.60, with Britain taking Silver on 152.40.
Zara Nelson finished best of the Irish individually in ninth place with the Irish Sport Horse Pony, Millridge Buachaill Bui.

The 2017 European Pony Eventing Bronze medal winners from Ireland (l-r) Jennifer Kuehnle, Zara Nelson, Isabelle Comerford and Hannah Adams (Photo: Helen Revington/Focus On Horses)

Irish Pony Eventing Team Manager Becky Cullen said:
“We are all delighted, our riders were brilliant. We were a bit off the pace after Dressage and to be honest I was delighted to see that the Cross Country was tough as that suited our team. I think our riders put in some of the best Cross Country rounds of any of the teams. Jennifer Kuehnle was unlucky. Her pony stood in a hole in the water and tripped. She was brilliant in the final jumping, supporting the other riders, giving advice and using her experience having won a medal before. They kept it together in the final jumping phase and were under pressure when down to just three riders and no discard score. I want to thank all the support team, the owners, parents, sponsors and the staff at Horse Sport Ireland who helped to make this happen. There was a superb atmosphere here with all the Irish teams from the different disciples supporting each other. It really was a combined effort from Team Ireland Equestrian.”

Horse Sport Ireland interim Chairman Jim Beecher added:
This is incredible achievement from this Irish Pony Eventing team to win a European Championship team medal. Eventing in particular requires a huge among of work and dedication from the riders and their parents. I want to congratulate Becky Cullen and her team and thank everyone involved for the huge effort and commitment that they put in to make this happen.”

Ireland’s Pony Eventing European team Bronze Medal win, comes on the back of a team Gold Medal for the GAIN Irish Pony Show Jumping team at the same venue in Hungary on Friday.

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