Comdt John Ledingham wins 2015 Coach of the Year Award

  • 8 December 2015, 17:39

The Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) Coaching Awards ceremony was held yesterday (Monday 7th December) at the Keadeen Hotel, Newbridge Co. Kildare. HSI Level 1 Apprentice, Level 2 and Level 3 coaches who had achieved their qualifications throughout 2015 were presented with their certificates as well as the 2015 Coach of the Year awarded.

The HSI Coaching Programme provides competition based coaching qualifications for coaches wishing to work with riders from grass roots to the highest levels of competition in dressage, show jumping and eventing. It is currently run across 4 levels from the one day Introduction to Coaching course to the 9 day discipline specific Level 3 National coach course.

The event was compered by Liam Moggan of Coaching Ireland and Tipperary hurling Coach Paudie O’Neill was on hand to present the certificates and inspire coaches in attendance with anecdotes from his vast and varied coaching and team management career. 53 coaches achieved their Level 1 Apprentice coach accreditation in 2015 as well as 2 Level 2 coaches and 4 Level 3 Show Jumping Coaches.

Comdt. John Ledingham was presented with the 2015 Coach of the Year award. Comdt. Ledingham is Chef d’Equipe to the Children on Horses, Junior and Young Rider Show Jumping teams, who took home Individual Gold, Team Silver and Team Bronze medals respectively at the 2015 European Championships. He also managed the Irish Sport Horse Studbook Team at the World Breeding Jumping Championships for Young Horses at Lanaken, Belgium in 2015, where they took home the silver and bronze medals in the 7 Year Old Finals.

Speaking after the presentations Comdt. Ledingham said;

“I would like to congratulate the riders on their medal winning performances in 2015. It was an amazing journey encompassing parents, riders, grooms and of course the home coaches who made the success possible. I am delighted to accept the 2015 Coach of the Year award on all your behalf.”

 HSI Director of Breeding and Programmes Alison Corbally spoke after the ceremony;

“Congratulations to all coaches who achieved their qualifications in 2015 for their hard work and determination throughout the process which has led them here today. Thanks to HSI for their ongoing support of the Coaching Programme; the system has proven its effectiveness by producing 59 additional coaches in 2015 for the various levels within the industry. It is fantastic to see how far the coaching programme has developed since its inception in 1998 when the first course took place, to running the first multi discipline Level 3 coach course in 2015 with 28 participants. The impact made by this system has been especially evident in the last number of years with the significant increase in the number of medals won at European and World Championship level by Irish underage teams trained predominantly by HSI accredited coaches.”

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