THE South Munster Region of Dressage Ireland held its first show of 2025 last Saturday at Ballindenisk, where the judging duties were divided between Vida Tansey (List 1), Paula Geiger (List 3) and Eileen Moloney (List 6).

Regional chair and show organiser, Ana Hughes, got her 2025 campaign off to the perfect start when landing the Geiger-judged Medium DI65 on board her bay Irish Sport Horse gelding Sligo Dark Knight (66.09%), a 16-year-old bay by Lancelot.

“He’s a very special horse and I have very high hopes for him as he progresses up through the levels,” commented a delighted Hughes of her winner, who was bred in Co Monaghan by Andrew O’Connell out of the Aldatus Z mare Doonaveeragh Jewel.

“He absolutely adores a challenge, which makes it very exciting as we get onto the more advanced work. He finds it all very easy. He will move up a level in the coming weeks, as we prepare for the DI winter finals in two months’ time up in Necarne (April 12th and 13th).”

Grainne Murphy, who finished second in that four-runner class on Flamenco CCLXXXV (65.94%), was the only starter in the Medium DI67, where she and her Pura Raza Española gelding, a nine-year-old son of Beethoven EM, were awarded a score of 65.91 by Vida Tansey.

The latter also judged the Elementary DI52, where her winner on 71.94% was Ali Fitzpatrick with the unregistered Kelly, a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare by Govenor, who she competes with Eventing Ireland. This combination doubled up when comfortably landing the Geiger-judged FEI Eventing 2* test on 74.55, the day’s highest score. There were four starters in both classes.

In the match for honours in the Tansey-assessed FEI Junior individual test, the winner was Evie Kennedy with Hilary Cavanagh’s Spanish-bred gelding Cordobes XXXVI (65.29%).

High score

The best-supported class on the day was the Geiger-judged Novice DI21, where Emma O’Flynn and her 12-year-old black cob mare Diane saw off seven rivals when achieving a score of 73.62%. Two combinations faced the same judge in the Novice DI23 in the short arena, where the winner was Ruth Hegarty with the unregistered Ringabella Reel (64.03), while topping Geiger’s overall leaderboard in the five-runner Preliminary DI8 was Aine Griffin riding her Selle Francais gelding Cocktail de Riverland (72.31), a 13-year-old chesnut by Vigo d’Arsouilles.

Winning scores of 70% or more were recorded in two of the five classes judged by Eileen Moloney. Clara Nyhan comfortably claimed the spoils in the three-runner Under 12s’ Trailblazers Introductory test on her mother Emily’s 17-year-old piebald mare Molly Dot Com (74.41), while Lara Rose O’Regan held off three rivals to win the Junior Trailblazers’ class with the 18-year-old dun mare My Barbie (70).

Sinead O’Regan narrowly failed to join that group when she topped Moloney’s scores in the Preliminary DI15 in the short arena with the Connemara gelding Alana’s Rambleer (69.29%), a nine-year-old grey by Loughmor Rambler.

At the higher levels, Vida Tansey wasn’t too busy. Three combinations appeared before her in the Advanced Medium DI90, which was won by Bethany Mackey on the Dutch Warmblood mare Kalahari (65%), her 10-year-old daughter of Ferguson, while Sue Smallman recorded an uncontested victory in the Prix St George with her Dutch Warmblood gelding Gloriant H (67.65), a 14-year-old chesnut by Uphill.

Riding Rosemary Gaffney’s 16-year-old Hanoverian mare Chantal, a black daughter of Christ, Clodagh Walsh likewise faced no opponents in the two Para Grade 1 classes, where she scored 68.75% (Grand Prix A) and 68.54 (Grand Prix B). Angela Lyons also recorded an uncontested success in the Para Grade 4 Grand Prix A test with her Hanoverian gelding Woodcroft Santa Cruz (67.64), a 17-year-old bay by Sandro Hit.

Test riding clinics

The aforementioned Sue Smallman will be holding test riding clinics on Sunday, April 6th at Hyde Equine for those heading to the DI national winter finals at Castle Irvine, Necarne. The 40 minute sessions will be broken into 20 minute lessons and 20 minutes’ test riding. Looking further ahead, the South Munster Region has announced that it will once again be running its summer mid-week afternoon/evening league starting on Thursday, May 1st.

More pertinently, the Region’s next show, which will be leg five of its Childéric winter league, is due to take place on Sunday, February 23rd, at Maryville Stables, with entries closing the Tuesday prior.