WEXFORD SISTERS MAKE RDS HISTORY
TWO sisters from Adamstown won major competitions at the Dublin Horse show at the RDS on the same pony, who broke the record for winning in three competitions in one show.
Emma Byrne (17) used her Confirmation money in 2012 to help buy for the pony Glencroft Aruba, who is now nine-yearsold, on Done Deal.
Owned by their grandmother Mary Margaret Roche, the pony won the under 17 Connemara pony ridden competition in 2014, came second in 2015 and won again in 2016, before Emma handed the reins of Glencroft Aruba over to her younger sister Meabh (16) who won this year’s under 17 competition. Emma won the over 17 Connemara pony ridden classes competition.
The Byrne sisters from Chapel, Adamstown, are students at the Loreto secondary school in Wexford. They are granddaughters of Michael Roche of Assagart who holds the record for winning the Broodmare Supreme Champion at the RDS the most times, six.
Their mother Patrice, who is Bank of Ireland manager in New Ross, said: ‘We bought Aruba Glencroft the year after my father Michael passed. He would always come with me when I was buying. The girls have produced the pony with me, their father Ted and their grandfather and without any professional help. They broke the record as never before had two sisters won in the same classes on the same pony and then gone on to win the Reserve Supreme Champion event.’
The girls, who are members of Wexford Pony Club, are the fourth generation of the same family to win at the RDS.
Their uncle John, from Assagart, won the Breeders championship this year, so it was a family affair in the (human) winners’ enclosure.
For their prize the girls got to parade Glencroft Aruba before the Aga Khan. in the parade of champions.