Royal School, Armagh

K. Donnan, Year 11, has been selected to represent Ireland on pony games team at Bath & West Show, England.

The final of local interschool show jumping league on 12th December was won by the Royal School Equestrian Team. They just beat Monaghan Collegiate in a closely contested jump off.

Equestrian Report

  This has been another successful year for the school equestrian team with many notable individual and team performances. Iona Hamilton Stubber was a member of the junior Girls squad at the Scottish Pony Club Tetrathlon Championships and also qualified to compete at the Novice Pony Club Championships in Cheshire where she was placed 4th individually and 8th with the team. She also travelled to South Africa as a member of Neagh Pony Club team and competed in the Inter Branch Championships in Pietermaritzberg near Durban.

  Carla Troughton also competed in Pietermaritzberg, South Africa as well as qualifying for the Irish Pony Club Championship in Kilkenny in August and William Armstrong was a member of the Northern Ireland Pony Club Junior Boys' Team competing at the Scottish Tetrathlon Championships in August 2008. Robyn Catterall enjoyed a very successful season and was awarded the Diamond Shamrock in June, the highest graded award of the Irish Long Distance Riding Association. She also won the Irish Junior Championship in the Mournes in July as well as competing in Wales as a member of the Celtic Challenge Team and winning top junior rider. Robyn also won All Ireland trophies as Top Open, Top Race Rider, Top Mare, Top Arab, Top Junior Trophy and, with her sister, Top Family. The school fielded four teams for a competition in aid of raising funds for the hydrotherapy pool at the Children's Hospice. The first Intermediate team of William Armstrong, Maxl Walmsley-Pledl, Robyn Catterall and Kate Donnan finished fifth overall. The third team to jump, Lucy Gibson, Sophie Buller, Charlotte Gibson and Toby McAlpine produced superb clear rounds to qualify for a jump off against Belfast Royal Academy and Ulidia Integrated College which they won. Toby McAlpine on Peaceful Heaven won the individual Intermediate title with a very fast clear round and Charlotte Gibson on Wendy came fourth.

 In the Open class the team of William Armstrong, Toby McAlpine, Iona Hamilton Stubber and Lucy Donnan beat Friends School Lisburn in the jump off to celebrate another team win and William Armstrong made the day even more memorable by winning the Open Individual title with an impressively fast round.