NEWS: Ledingham wins HSI coaching award

For the second consecutive year, Comdt. John Ledingham won the Performance Coach of the Year at the Horse Sport Ireland Coaching Awards ceremony last week at Palmerstown House in Co Kildare.

Ledingham, chef d’equipe to the Young Riders who took team gold at the European Championships in Millstreet this year, is also chef d’equipe to the Irish Sport Horse (ISH) Studbook Team who won three medals at the FEI World Jumping Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken, Belgium, in 2016.

A delighted Ledingham said: “I love what I do, teaching, mentoring, coaching.

“The reward of preparing and executing a plan is winning and this award is the result of a very successful year for Irish young horses at Lanaken, pentathletes at the Rio Olympics and the young riders at the European Championships at Millstreet. Congratulations to the athletes, home coaches, families and sponsors and all who made these outstanding achievements happen.”

The Development category of the Coach of the Year 2016 award went to dressage expert Anne Marie Dunphy who works with all young riders under the age of 25.

A HSI Level 2 coach, Anne Marie has done outstanding work with the Pony High Performance Dressage squad, who have, for the first time, fielded an Irish dressage team for the European Championships three years in a row.

“As a coach involved at all levels of the sport, to see the progression of our motivated and talented athletes from regional training all the way though to High Performance international participation is very rewarding. The development of our youth riders is the future of the sport and I’m very honoured to have received this award,” said Dunphy.

Also on the night, which was compared by Liam Moggan of Coaching Ireland and well-known sports psychologist, Brendan Hackett, HSI Level 1 Apprentice, Level 2 and Level 3 coaches, who had achieved their qualifications throughout 2015, were presented with their certificates.

Kilkenny international show jumper Marion Hughes and Sally Corscadden received their Level 3 coaching certificates.