THE Leinster Region of Dressage Ireland held its first show of 2023 last Sunday at CoilÓg where among the five judges on duty was Richard Baldwin, a List 1 judge with British Dressage.

“As combinations need to achieve qualifying scores from two different judges and we have so few List 1 judges in this country, we have decided that we will use British judges more frequently this year,” said regional chair, Clare Fitzsimmons. “While this means we will have less money to spend on training, bringing in outside judges will help members in the long run.

“Although two of our six entries were withdrawn, it was still great at this time of the year to have four starters in the Grand Prix. We ran classes for three different Para grades, there was also a class for children on horses and five Trailerblazer classes. If members ask us to put on a particular competition, we will do our best to oblige them,” stated Fitzsimmons.

Baldwin’s winner of the Grand Prix was Sarah Mellor with her 13-year-old Hotline mare Hotshot (65.65%) who triumphed narrowly over Tara Oliver Donohoe riding Furst Romance (65.11).

With her Dutch Warmblood gelding Gloriant H, a 12-year-old Uphill chesnut, Sue Smallman topped Baldwin’s scores in both the Prix St George (68.68) and the Inter I (68.97) in which there were five starters apiece.

Nine combinations appeared before the visiting adjudicator in the sole Elementary class where he awarded his top score of 67.78% to Emma Kieran on board owner/breeder Lorli Higgins’s traditionally-bred Mystical Meg, a 13-year-old dun mare by the Connemara stallion Ashfield Romeo.

Baldwin also judged the Medium DI77 where Elaine Murphy saw off three rivals on her Vida Tansey-bred ISH mare QT An Tanaiste (65.29%), a nine-year-old chesnut by Quaterback, while he reserved his highest score of the day, 78.62, for Jodie Scully and Liz Gallagher’s Lassban Silhouette in the two-runner FEI children team test.

A member of the Bray Hunt Branch, Jodie and the 17-year-old son of The Artist have been selected for the team of five due to represent the Irish Pony Club at the dressage home international at the Royal Windsor Show in May.

Comfortable winners

The largest class to come before Bernie Foley (List 2) was the nine-strong Medium DI65 where Category 1 rider Maeve Deverell claimed the honours on board her mother Aisling’s ISH gelding Annaharvey Dunowen (66.41%), a 10-year-old Radolin dun who was bred by the rider’s grandfather, Henry Deverell.

In the Foley-judged four-runner Advanced Medium DI90, the comfortable winner was Rachel Carr with the former eventer Calliaghstown Silver Doolin (66.76), a 14-year-old Silver Banner mare who was traditionally bred by the late Grainne Sugars out of the Easy Lift mare, Easy Doolin.

One of the dual winning combinations on the day was Floyd Mills and the Oldenburg mare Mille Fleurs who scored at Preliminary level.

Mills and the tall six-year-old daughter of Millennium topped Lindsey Ilona Brady’s marks in the 14-strong DI8 (72.88%) and did likewise in the BD15 (77.80) where 23 combinations appeared before Bróna O’Mahony (List 4).

Ivor Harper (List 4) didn’t have too many classes to judge but was faced with 20 starters in the Novice DI24A where he awarded his top score of 70.17% to Heidi Slott Jorgensen and her home-bred ISH gelding Great Illusion, a brown 12-year-old by Sir Gale Lord.

Brona O’Mahony judged the second Novice class, the DI27A, and here Eloise McNeely topped the leaderboard with her 18-year-old bay mare, Glenmullen Zelda (65.34).

Two underage riders delighted to have the chance to compete before Baldwin and Foley in their FEI team and individual tests were Cillian Curran on Dancing Espri (Junior) and Maeve Deverell with Derravaragh Boy (pony).

The three Para riders who came under the scrutiny of Harper, Baldwin and Foley were Heather Lemmon on Praise The Sun (Grade II), Jessica McKenna with Davidoff 188 (Grade III) and Rosemary Gaffney riding Freedom (Grade IV).