WITH the autumn season well underway, competitors descended on Watergrasshill for the second international of the year hosted by the Fell family at Ballindenisk. It feels like events at this end of the season are dealing with harsher conditions each year, and Ballindenisk had it’s fair share on Sunday when some classes were abandoned, but overall, there was nothing but compliments for the courses and conditions for horses and riders.

The NutriScience CCI4*-L class had a smaller number of entries, but it had an international feel to it with six Britain-based competitors lining up in front of the ground jury of Joanne Jarden (IRL), Felicisimo Aguado Arroyo (ESP) and Annabel Scrimgeour (GBR). Izzy Taylor and Happy Days started their week off strongly with 30.0 penalties in the dressage phase, a consistent test with some eights sprinkled in meant that they sat top of the leaderboard after the phase had completed. The 12-year-old gelding by Cevin Z has had a relatively light campaign this season, but showed his class in between the white boards.

Ireland’s Declan Cullen held the next two spots on the leaderboard with Ultimate Quality on 33.0 penalties and Seavaghan Ash on 33.2 penalties. An early refusal at fence 8B on the former, and a late refusal at fence 17B on the latter meant Cullen put up his hand to save both horses for another day.

Another combination in the running after dressage, Bella Ines Kerr and DHI Trend Setter, also fell foul to an early refusal, with their day ending at fence four.

The cross-country course proved hugely influential across the class, with five combinations retiring on course. Course designer Peter Fell said that they had tweaked it since the last international. “We made some changes and built what was quite an intense course with some tough lines on it, I wanted competitors who jumped around to learn a lot about their horse and for them to be ready to step up to five-star this year or next year,” Fell commented.

Good test

This sentiment was echoed by eventual winner Ben Way, who jumped around with just 4.4 time penalties to add to his dressage score of 37.4 penalties. “I had debated going to Boekelo for the horse’s four-star long, as I thought that Ballindenisk would be a slightly easier test, but by god we were wrong - I think the track very much matched the likes of Boekelo and was as good a test as we are used to seeing at this level. It was a good mix of big square fences, but also included a lot of brush fences with sort of blind turns, so I had to work, but he kept on answering and came home really happy.”

Dressage leader Taylor maintained her lead going into show jumping, even with the addition of 10 time penalties but a fence on the ground in the arena on Sunday morning meant she had to settle for second place. Kate Rocher-Smith and Dassett Select would have been pleased with their week’s work after jumping a quick clear round the cross-country, the fastest of the class only adding 2.8 time penalties, and adding 4.8 penalties in the show jumping arena to finish third.

The highest placed Irish rider was Michael O’Toole and First Obama in fifth place. They were able to put an early 20 penalties on the cross-country track to the back of their mind and complete the class on their second attempt at this level.

Way’s mount, Gun Law, a 10-year-old gelding owned by Nicki Lay, was bought as a three-year-old at the Go For Gold Goresbridge Sale and has been with Ben ever since.

“The Lay’s are longstanding owners of mine and are real horse people, and this horse came to me to be broken and we’ve worked our way up through the levels. This is actually my first international win!” said Way, who combines eventing with his full-time job in property sales. “We just really enjoyed our time here, the Irish events are lovely and relaxed and we will definitely be spreading the word about our trip to Ballindenisk!”

By Melanie Young