THE Eastern Region of Dressage Ireland staged just its second show of the year last Saturday at Marlton where there was a very good entry and the majority of the higher graded classes had at least two starters.

Finn O’Gara, who runs his OG Sporthorses schooling, livery and sales yard out of Boswell, had a rewarding day in front of Bernie Foley. The 21-year-old doubled up in the Novice BD23 (78.75%) and Elementary BD40 (77.26) on Eileen Hannaford’s seven-year-old Hanoverian mare Delores (by Dressage Royal) and landed the Preliminary BD15 on another seven-year-old, Karen Bennett’s Mestizo (69.40), an Andalusian stallion by Urco.

Iris Walshe won the Brona O’Mahony-judged Preliminary BD19 with Leroy VZ (77.92), Susan Black recorded a comfortable victory in the Novice BD22, where Dermot Cannon awarded her a score of 72.24 for her work on the 12-year-old gelding Dubarry Bay, while in the Cannon-judged Elementary BD43 Aine Ryan headed the leaderboard with Leejoy (69.66).

Tara Hayes had over five percentage points in hand at the conclusion of the Cannon-assessed Medium BD61 which she won with her Dutch Warmblood gelding Ferrero K (68.45), an 11-year-old by Apache. Foley’s winner of the second Medium class, the BD69, was the home-based pairing of Barbara Delahoyde and the eight-year-old Marlton Scout (67.42).

Two combinations came before Dermot Cannon in the Grand Prix where, despite having home advantage, Josephine Delahoyde and Let’s Go had to settle for second (62.72%) behind Sorrell Klatzko and her Totilas eight-year-old Turbo (66.52) who was having his second start at this level.

Co Waterford’s Emily Kate Robinson recorded two Advanced wins on Edvaard, a 12-year-old by Christ. She and her Dutch Warmblood gelding were the only starters in the BD102, where they scored 64.12, but saw off one rival combination to claim the BD105 (62.19).

There were uncontested successes for Marlton-based Molly Mooney and the Hanoverian gelding Saale Hit (61.47) in the confined Junior FEI individual class and, in the confined FEI four-year-old class, for the Michael Boyd-ridden Burrenhill Jaguar (67).

An Irish Sport Horse by Antaeus, this bay was bred in Co Down by Francis Murtagh out of the 1999 mare Old Flames who evented from the start of 2005 to the end of the 2015 season. She was mainly campaigned in Sportsman/amateur classes but also competed at one-star international level, first under longtime owner Terry Smith and, afterwards, in the hands of then Junior riders Jim Newsam and Robert Suffern.

In the Trailblazers’ division judged by Mairin Cassidy, there were wins for Patrick Murphy and the 18-year-old chesnut mare Sahara Gold (71.30) in the Mini Introductory, for Anna Radford and the Welsh Section B mare Moelgarnedd Daioni (75.52), a nine-year-old by Hilin Etifedd, in the Junior Preliminary and for Aine Keogh and the Connemara Cluainín Greyson Black (71.43), an eight-year-old by Greyson, in the Junior Novice.