National awards for Grove Horse Trials
Grove Horse Trials, established in 2001 in running competitions for Eventing Ireland, has been honoured with two awards in the last ten days. First they were awarded the Presidents Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Sport’ and this weekend they were voted, via Horse Board Ireland, to win the award for ‘The Best National Event in 2010’, which is a great achievement as it usually goes to a Northern fixture.
The Ponsonby family consider the events here each year as a major team effort, mobilising around one-hundred local volunteers in the construction, safety features, ground preparation and actual running of the days’ events, and are very grateful of all this help.
In spite of the recession, over three-hundred horses and ponies competed at each of the major fixtures in July 2009 and 2010. A get-together to celebrate is on the drawing board!
