Equestrian 2009-'10
March 2010
Four Rockwell students competed in the National Hunter Trials which took place on the 15th March. They were Tristan Fogarty, Eoin O’Sullivan, Sinead Kennedy and Hannah Phillips. Eoin O’Sullivan finished in 6th position.
November
Five Rockwell students participated in the schools’ competition at Warrington, Kilkenny, on Sunday 22nd November. They were: Sorcha Sweeney, Saidbh Sweeney, Vicky Barton, Paul Meagher and Sinead Kennedy. Sinead finished in third place in the Junior Competition.
October
The Rockwell team of Kevin Bartley, Robert O’Donnell, Paul Kennedy and Lauren Bartley competed in the Clonshire Schools’ Competition during the mid-term break (Saturday 31st October). Having won the corresponding competition last year, the team was hopeful of successfully defending their title this year. In the end, however, they had to settle for a very creditable second placing. Well done!
Summer&Autumn
The equestrian club has been particularly busy recently. Following on from our Irish Championship success in May, six horse and rider combinations travelled to contest the British Schools' Senior Championship in Hickstead on August 5th. This was a great experience for our college competitors and the experience was made all the more enjoyable by the hospitality extended to them by the Bunn Family and Breen Equestrian during their stay. Rockwell finished 11th of 63 teams in these championships. The riders involved were Ethan Aherne, Paul Kennedy, Podge Bolger, Robert O’Donnell, Lauren Bartley and Kevin Bartley.
A series of training sessions took place in early September with leading show jumper and trainer Francis Connors in Killusty House Stud. This programme was made possible by a training grant of 1500 euro from Horse Sport Ireland as part of the winning prize in the Irish Championships. In all, 14 riders took part in this training.
Our first competitive outing of the 2009/2010 season proved a successful one when winning the Newbridge College hosted Interschool League Show in Coilog, Co Kildare. Rockwell emerged victorious from a 16 team jump off to claim the winning prize. Well done to the team of Podge Bolger, Lauren and Kevin Bartley, Paul Kennedy and Jack Bolger.
Our second outing of the season saw us travel to Ballinamona Equestrian on the outskirts of Waterford. We again made it to the jump off, but finished outside the ribbons on this occasion. The team on the day was Podge and Jack Bolger, Sorcha and Saidhbh Sweeney.
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