SEAN Burgess won the small tour championship at last weekend’s Dressage Ireland national championships at Ballindenisk with Anita Kelly’s Imperioso WW.

In the Prix St George championship, British Dressage List 1 judges Mary-Anne Horn and Debbie Wardle awarded Burgess and the 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Charmeur a score of 66.765%. Here, Emily Kate Robinson on Edvaard and Sue Smallman on Gloriant H were both on 66.03 for second, with the Robinson getting the nod having the higher collective (13.5 to 13).

BD List 1 judges Gwyneth Lewis and Fiona Lace judged the Intermediate I championship where Burgess and Imperioso WW topped their combined scores on 68.825% ahead of Anne Marie Dunphy on LEB Hugo (68.16) and Belinda Brereton riding Galaxy Moone (68.09). There were eight starters in both championships.

One of the highest combined scores recorded over the weekend came in the Advanced championship where Tara Hayes saw off four rivals to win on her mother Fiona’s 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Ferrero K (222.875%).

Laragh Byrne had to work a bit harder to claim the Category 2 Medium title as she and Jan Heine’s 10-year-old palomino German Riding Pony Steendieks Dali Gold (227.25%) faced 10 rivals. Their strongest challenge came from Ger McNulty and his tall, 11-year-old British Warmblood gelding Dionysus II (216).

Reserve slot

Riding the eight-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare Sandora BS (211.875%), the aforementioned Hayes had to settle for the reserve slot in the Category 3 Advanced Medium championship where Vitaliy Halstyan claimed the honours on board Susan Archdeacon’s ISH gelding Coco Boy (213). This 15-year-old skewbald by Filice de Champeix was bred in Co Cork by Tim O’Keeffe out of a coloured mare with no recorded pedigree.

The 2024 Category 2 champion at this level is Gilly Crawford who, riding her own ISH mare Majestic Heartbreaker (211.875%) easily accounted for her sole rival, McNulty, and Dionysus II (203.123). The winning Womanizer eight-year-old, who was bred in Co Wicklow by Veronica Agnew, is also out of a mare with no recorded pedigree.

The new Novice Category 1 and 2 champions are, respectively, Georgia Cadogan and the eight-year-old ISH mare Stars Of Jupiter, a dun by Glenayre Mystical Bobby out of the thoroughbred mare Galathea, by Gildoran, and Sophia Mackey and the 21-year-old Scottish Warmblood gelding Warner V.U., a bay by Ludwig; and Ruth Hayes (Category 3) with Sue Chadwick.

The two Grassroots championships were won by Emma Dair on Castle Ellis Esmeralda (Preliminary), a six-year-old grey mare by Cornaroya Romeo, and Natasha Mitchell riding the ISH gelding Wolf Pack (Novice), a 12-year-old bay by Harlequin du Carel who, this time last year, was competing under Eventing Ireland rules with Maya Byrne, placing seventh of 23 in the EI100 (J) national championship and fifth of 39 in the CCI1*-Intro at Ballindenisk.