Tag Archives: horse

THE Clare event of the nationwide Pass Wide & Slow Awareness Ride/Drive will be held in Ennis this September with horses and ponies being brought through the town to highlight road safety issues. The event is being hosted at the Ennis Showgrounds on Sunday, September 18 at 2pm with those taking part embarking on a 6km circular route around Ennis. One of the Clare organisers Máire Gleeson explains, “This year we are going to be walking and driving the horses and ponies around Ennis town, we have the support of An Garda, Clare Civil Defence and the Clare County Council. “This Awareness Ride/Drive is being held to highlight the road safety issues horse and pony riders, carriage drivers and motorists experience while out on the roads. “As equestrians we use the roads to transfer the horses from the stables to their paddocks and back again. We also use the roads to train and exercise the horses/ponies. Some have little to …

WELL-KNOWN West Clare horse breeder, Tommy Fitzpatrick will be glued to his television screen as the Olympics unfold in Rio this weekend. Tommy, from Henry Street in Kilrush, will be keeping his fingers crossed for a fairytale ending, as a horse that passed through his hands, The Duke of Cavan, will be going for glory in eventing for Japan. Tommy sold the bay gelding, by Courage out of the dam Dysert Girl, as a yearling to Vincie Meaney of Cranny. Meaney, in turn, broke in the horse and sold him on as a four year-old at the Cavan Horse Sales to Natalie Stevens from Lelant, near St Ives, in England. Now a 10-year-old, amongst his achievements was winning the Two Star Tattersall event in Ireland; he then jumped a double clear in the Three Star event at Blenheim. His success eventually led to him being sold in 2015 to the Japanese equestrian squad, which is based in Germany. Owner, Yoshiaki …

“THE worst form of cruelty” was how a local woman described the treatment of three horses which are said to have starved to death in Ballinruan. Its understood that two of the horses she was referring to died some time ago, while the third one died relatively recently. The woman said, “It was shocking, it would have taken them a few months to die and they would have been in agony. They hadn’t had a pick to eat and it’s happening every winter; someone keeps putting the horses in the same place. “They obviously weren’t getting a scrap of hay and they would have had a horrible death. The cold weather probably just finished them off.” She said it has been a big topic of discussion in the area lately. “A lot of people are talking about it and they are disgusted by it.” The woman also said that a foal was one of the dead animals. “One of the …