A LARGE contingent of Irish riders, coached by Dressage Ireland chairman Mark Ruddock and Fiona Hayes, competed at the Charles Owen/British Dressage youth home nations’ international at the Mount Ballan Equestrian Centre in Wales last weekend.

The Ireland Emerald squad of Amber Lane on Barkway State Affair (Preliminary), Maura McCune Moore with Blokland’s Hoeve’s Amor (Novice), Sadhbh O’Toole riding Next Diamond (Elementary) and Isla Coad on Klein Roderijs Gold Fee (Medium and FEI pony classes) finished a highly-creditable fifth of 33 teams.

Individually, Coad and Josephine Delahoyde’s nine-year-old dun Veenstras Grapjas mare finished fifth in the FEI pony class while O’Toole secured a place on the podium when she and her Dutch Warmblood gelding Next Diamond, a six-year-old Daily Diamond bay, placed second in the Elementary division.

Amber Lane and the 20-year-old Rotherwood Statesman gelding Barkway State Affair finished sixth overall at Preliminary level and Georgia Cadogan, a member of Team Shamrock, placed eighth in the Novice division with the Irish Sport Horse mare Stars Of Jupiter. Bred in Co Meath by Marnie Crerar, this eight-year-old dun is by the Connemara stallion Glenayre Mystical Bobby out of the non-winning British thoroughbred mare Galathea (by Gildoran).