Ireland’s youth show jumpers enjoyed another spectacular week adding to the success of the summer with a Junior team silver medal in the Nations Cup Series Final in Lier, Belgium as well as magnificent individual class wins for Junior European Champion Emily Moloney, and Ted Fagan in Ponies.
The Junior team of Moloney, Abbie Oakey, Annie Boland, James Derwin and Isabel O’Brien were narrowly beaten in what was a hugely competitive competition, finishing on a perfect zero score over three faultless rounds of jumping, alongside Sweden.
The two nations could not be separated and the Irish stars were only just pipped by the Swedes in a team jump-off, with USA in third, as the top 12 teams competed from the series.
HSI Youth Show Jumping High Performance Manager Denis Flannelly said: “I am immensely proud of this team.
“The four legs of the youth Nations Cup series that we attended earlier in the season – Sentower (BEL) Compiegne (FRA), Zuiwolde (NED) and Hagen (GER) – and performed so well in, qualified us for this final.
“We reached the podium in all four, winning twice, finishing second in one and third in another.”
Flannelly felt strongly about giving more athlete/horse combinations the opportunity to gain the necessary valuable experience and to help widen and strengthen Ireland’s base of combinations in contention for European selection.
He added: “The selection panel and I made a conscious decision that our main target this year would be the FEI European Championships. Quite often, however, if you try to win everything, you may not win the ones you want to, or you may end up winning nothing.
“We ended up with a very strong panel of riders but, unfortunately, we could only bring five to Riesenbeck.
“Those five riders were successful in bringing home Team Gold at the FEI European Championships and the athletes who just missed out were given the opportunity to have themselves in contention to compete at the final of the Nations Cup Series here in Lier. It was always my intention to bring a different squad of five to Lier, be that different horses or riders. It’s all about widening the talent base.
“Apart from Emily who on this occasion brought a younger horse to develop ahead of 2026, there was no prior Junior European Championship experience on this squad.
“Abbie and Annie were selected to join this squad having both been on the periphery of selection for the Europeans in Riesenbeck and on their current form.
“Emily, Abbie, Annie, Isabel and James competed formidably all week and showed how bright a future they all have. It was wonderful to see Abbie delivering clear rounds every day. Due to the format of this championship, we had the opportunity to select various horse and rider combinations on different days. Results from all five members of the squad contributed to this amazing result.
“For me this championship was all about development for 2026. To share the podium with Sweden, who we fought with in the jump-off, and the USA, with Germany, Italy and The Netherlands in fourth, fifth and sixth place respectively is incredibly rewarding for the work that has gone into the programme this year.
“One of the many goals of our Youth Show Jumping Programme is to provide a pathway for our young athletes to develop into senior athletes – some of which will jump on senior Nations Cup teams for Ireland, some will continue to championship level, be that European and World and of course, the pinnacle of our sport, The Olympics.
“I’d like to extend my gratitude to Liz Brennan who assists me in running this Youth High Performance Programme, to Sally Anne Tobin who chairs the selection panel, to Denis Lynch my co-selector and to all the team at Horse Sport Ireland. I’d also like to emphasise that we’re part of the big picture of Sport Ireland. Their support is so necessary to make days like this happen and a season like this come to fruition.
“I’d also wish to extend my gratitude to all those who sent messages of good luck and support during the week and of course their congratulatory messages since been crowned silver medallists at this championship.
“Finally, I’d like to thank the athletes, their families, their teams around them and not forgetting of course, their wonderful horses.
“The team spirit in the camp being so positive is never to be underestimated when you attend a championship like this. One for all and all for one! This cultural development we embrace within Horse Sport Ireland.
“The Junior athletes that have been involved in the High Performance Programme of 2025 have had a fairytale season. European Team Gold, Team Silver medal winners in the Final of the Youth Nations Cup Series, not to mention all the other wins and podium finishes throughout the season.”
In goal setting and targeting, Flannelly added that he wrote the dream script, but so many moving parts must fall into place for the plan to become reality.
He concluded: “This championship was about development…… development for 2026 and look what happened – proud beyond words!”
