Necarne Castle hosted the 2024 Pony Club Tetrathlon Senior International last weekend as 140 participants, from the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia and New Zealand all travelled to Fermanagh for the event.

The streets of Irvinestown saw the 'Ceremony of Colours' parade last Thursday at 3pm to signal the start of the competition.

Fermanagh native, and Head of Northern Ireland Pony Club Tetrathlon, Heather Williams was delighted with how the weekend went: “It was brilliant. The weather held really kindly for us, especially on the cross-country day.

"All went so smoothly, and I think we have introduced a lot of new people (to the tetrathlon), from this part of Northern Ireland, who said they would love to come back again because they had a day on the lake and they just loved Necarne, and they just thought it was an amazing place.

"We had a load of spectators certainly on the cross-country day, on the Saturday, because the weather was so nice as well, so, I’m not sure how many went through the gates, but we had a load of local people there watching and the competitors were 140 in all competing over a three-day event, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. All throughout the three days and then they stayed the Sunday night.”

Over 250 people attended Mahon’s Hotel on Sunday evening for a gala dinner as locals took a keen interest in the tetrathlon.

Williams added she’s hoping it will have inspired the next generation around Fermanagh and the rest of the country: “It's amazing because this is a senior competition and we had a lot of juniors from local pony clubs and from local riding centres there to watch and to see, I guess what they are aspiring to do because very rarely would they see an international tetrathlon.

"It only comes every two years, so, in two year’s time it would be in Australia, two years after that America.

"To actually have it in Northern Ireland for local kids to see they could be a part of an international team to see and competing at that level was phenomenal.

"They have all left, certainly the ones I’ve spoken to, with aspirations to carry on, because you can carry on a tetrathlon until you are 25, so, a lot of them are now really keen to keep going in the sport.”

(Image: Trevor Armstrong)

The three days saw two competitions take place in the regionals and the nationals with five disciplines overall.

Heather’s daughter, Sophia, finished second in her regionals and third in her international appearance. Meanwhile, Patrick Williams, Heather’s son, finished third in the regionals and attained second place in the internationals.

Sophia captained her side to a third-place finish in the team internationals while Patrick captained his side to second place.

(Image: Trevor Armstrong)