BY MICHAEL O’LEARY
This coming Sunday, the Ballyfoyle Agricultural Show takes place with a whole host of events for all the family to enjoy. Not surprisingly, their will be plenty of competitions for horses throughout the day including Showjumping, Ponies, Riding Classes and Young Horses among other events, and the action starts from 9am.
The featured highlight of the showjumping schedule will be the €3000 Grand Prix, while along with the horse events their are competitions in a wide variety of areas including Cattle Pedigree, Pets – Dogs and Cats, Sporting Contests, Macra Na Feirme and, Tug of War among many other events.
Another event on Sunday that should prove very popular is The Sportsman Showjumping Classes which is open to everyone, and that is particularly geared towards unregistered riders/horses and everyone goes home with a rosette.
Huge amount of preparation in advance has gone into preparing the course by the designers Alyson Freeman, Joseph Rafter, John O’Boyle and Pat Drennan for all the competitions that will happen all day long from early morning.
First established as The Ballyfoyle Gymkhana in 1994 and for so many years was primarily a Showjumping event, but on the 25th anniversary of it’s first running of The Gymkhana in 2019, the event was relaunched and expanded as The Ballyfoyle Agricultural Show.
Sunday should bring about some of Irelands leading Showjumpers and Pony Riders with The Grand Prix part of The Nationwide Summer League Tour, while The Pony Competitions are part of The Showjumping Ireland Pony League for 4-5 year-olds and 6-7 year-olds.
The Callanan Cup and The Con Hogan Memorial Trophy are up for grabs on Sunday and previously they have been won by International Riders who have competed for Ireland, so their should be a high standard of competition in Ballyfoyle.
Their are 74 classes on offer across ridden horses and ponies, working hunter and performance, so their is a great variety in the various different disciplines across 5 Rings.
In Ring 1 in The Ridden Hunter Categories, there is a Hunter Championship for Classes 1-5 that includes a Qualifier for The Red Mills Champion of Champions Ridden Hunter Final, while their is also The Ridden Horse Championship for Classes 6-11.
The Ridden Horse Championship for Classes 6-11 is also a Qualifier for The Red Mills Champion of Champions Ridden Horse Final.
The Ridden Ponies take centre stage in Ring 2 where events include The Show Hunter Pony Championship and Show Pony Championship along with The Connemara Championship.
The working hunter Classes take centre stage in Ring 3 where they have The Pony and Hunter Championships, Performance Classes take centre stage in Ring 4, while in Ring 5 is where The Broodmare and Youngstock Championships will happen.
Also what should prove very popular on Sunday especially for the youngsters is The Local Lead Rein in which their are categories for Under-4s, Under-6s and Under-8s.
Their is also a Fancy Dress Competition that is open to Children aged 8 and under, while The Overall Champion will win The Billy Byrne Memorial Trophy.
The Local Lead Rein will start at 1pm followed by The Dog Show at 3pm.
Since relaunching in 2019, The Ballyfoyle Agricultural Show has expanded greatly with a wide variety of events and it’s now similar to lot of similar type shows that are run throughout the country during the summer shows.
For further details, check out The Ballyfoyle Agricultural Show Page on Facebook or email ballyfoyleshow@gmail.com
