Five teams of riders will thunder along the sand this Saturday as Donaghadee’s best-loved summer festival tradition, the Horse Relay, returns to the town’s beach.
A free, family event, the Horse Relay has grown into one of the biggest fixtures on the Ards and North Down calendar, and one that carries a deeply personal story at its heart.
Organised by Donaghadee Community Development Association (DCDA) in partnership with Gransha Equestrian Centre, the event is sponsored by Pier 36. Teams of riders race their horses along the foreshore and over a course of natural fences, passing the baton from rider to rider in a fast-paced sprint that finishes with a dash through the shallow surf before the run back along the sand.
Spectators watch from the sea wall and footpath, with the beach itself reserved for competitors and officials for safety reasons. Access to watch the spectacle is completely free, however, and thousands are expected to line the shore.
Thanks to the continued generous support of Pier 36’s Denis Waterworth, the event is now in its 12th year and is firmly established as one of the standout moments in a summer programme that sees the DCDA and its volunteers, sponsors and local groups deliver more than 100 events across Donaghadee between June and September.
This year’s festival has leaned into a transatlantic theme, marking Donaghadee’s contribution to the 250th anniversary of American independence with events including an Ireland Flag Football League fixture and an all-American barbecue. For many locals, though, it is the horses on the beach that remain the unmissable centrepiece.
At the heart of it all is Gransha Equestrian Centre, the Bangor-based riding school founded by Adrienne Stuart in 1985, and long regarded as one of Co. Down’s premier equestrian venues. Adrienne has been involved in bringing the Horse Relay to Donaghadee’s beach from the start, turning what began as a basic idea into a slick, much-loved fixture.
“It’s a bit of a family ritual,” she said. “The first two years were trial and error, trying to get things to work and figuring out how it worked. And then I think we kind of cracked it.”
But behind the organisation, the jumps and the cheering crowds lies a story that makes this year’s event, like every year’s, an emotional one for Adrienne.
Ten years ago, her father, Wilby McKee, well known across the town as ‘the Donaghadee carpet man’, spent the day of the Horse Relay doing exactly what he loved: walking the town, greeting old friends and catching up with familiar faces along the shore. He went home that evening, in Adrienne’s words, ‘absolutely buzzing’, unable to wait to tell his wife and brother how good the day had been.
That same evening, he passed away.
“It’s an emotional thing for me,” Adrienne said. “To know that was one of his favourite days of his life – but it was also his last day.”
Despite the sadness, she describes the memory as something that has come to define why the relay matters so much to her family. Every year, she says, people who were there that day still come up to her, shake her hand and tell her that her dad would be proud – that ‘your dad’s looking down’.
Her father never had a formal role in setting up the event itself, but he and her mother supported Adrienne from the very beginning of her career, giving her, as she puts it, her real education.
She left home at 17 with £25 from her father in her pocket and never looked back, building Gransha from nothing into the 42-acre centre it is today, with her parents offering business advice from the sidelines for years afterwards.
This year, Adrienne will again be at the beach with one of Gransha’s own – Twizzle, a three-year-old bred at the centre who is still just finding her feet in competition.
Entries for this year’s relay were coordinated through the Gransha Equestrian app, with teams of four riders, each aged 12 or over, competing individually over the course before handing off to their next teammate. The fastest combined time and fewest penalties will take the win.
The £1,000 prize money has traditionally been on offer for the top three teams, alongside recognition for the best turned-out team, adding a competitive edge to what is, first and foremost, a community celebration.
For DCDA chairman Denis Waterworth, as sponsor of the event and the prize, the relay remains one of the clearest expressions of what the Summer Festival is about.
“It really is spectacular to see the teams on the beach. The competition is thrilling and the crowds really spur the riders on with their cheering and support. The entire festival this year again has been wonderful, and the energy, warmth and pride of the people of Donaghadee and beyond had made all the hard work put in by our volunteers so worth it,” he said.
For Adrienne Stuart, though, the day will always carry something more than sport.
“That’s all part of it,” she says of the emotion that returns every year. A decade on, the Horse Relay remains, in equal measure, a celebration of community, of horsemanship and of a father who spent his last day exactly where he wanted to be.
The Horse Relay takes place from 6pm this Saturday on Donaghadee beach. The event is free and open to all, with spectator viewing from the sea wall and footpath.
Spectators are asked to watch from behind the sea wall and footpath, as the beach itself is reserved for riders and event officials for safety reasons.
As with previous years, some road and pedestrian access restrictions are likely to be in place around the beach and harbour area while the event is running. Check DCDA’s and Ards and North Down Borough Council’s social media channels in the days beforehand for any last-minute changes to timings or access.
Everyone is welcome, and no ticket or booking is required to watch. Organisers simply ask spectators to stay behind the barriers and follow stewards’ instructions.
