THE results of the recent Halloween virtual dressage competition run by the Irish Pony Club were published earlier this week, with Kate Harvey, the organisation’s chair of dressage and combined training, commenting: “There were some great scores among them.

“We had no age restrictions on any of the classes, so members could compete at the level of dressage test at which they were happy.

“Our youngest competitor, who was joint-third in class 2 (Dressage Ireland Introductory Test A), with a score of 73.06%, was Shillelagh’s Mollie Byrne, who will be six on January 1st.

“A few members attempted the UK Pony Club Championships tests, so I am expecting a lot of interest in the competition for the IPC team, which we hope to send to the Home International competition at the Royal Windsor Horse show next year (May 15th to 18th).”

Carbery’s Sinead O’Regan recorded a double on her mother Claire’s Connemara gelding Alana’s Rambler, who she competes with Dressage Ireland.

In the Preliminary BE90, judged by Jane Whitaker (List 2), O’Regan and the eight-year-old Loughmore Rambler grey scored 77.75%, while in The Pony Club Novice Championship test, judged by Jillie Rogers (List 3), they achieved a mark of 76.04.

Whitaker had few combinations to assess at the higher levels, where her winners were Meath’s Maura Moore McCune with Blokland’s Hoeve’s Amor (72% in the BE Novice test), Tipperary’s Zoe Thompson riding Goldengrove Maydream (62.5 in The Pony Club Intermediate Championship test, section A), The Kingdom’s Yvonne Daly on Drumiller Diamante (66.77 in the Pony Club Intermediate Championship test, section B) and Carbery’s Madeline McSweeney with Balladeer Give A Guidam (64.21 in The Pony Club Open Championship test).

Jillie Rogers (List 3) awarded her highest score of the competition, 74.25%, to Tipperary’s Mary Kennedy, who landed the two-runner Preliminary BE100 on board the traditionally-bred Irish Sport Horse gelding Lough Eyes Lad, a 12-year-old grey by the Connemara stallion Tabragh.

Rogers viewed the videos of 13 combinations in the Dressage Ireland Introductory test A competition, where her winners, representing the Carlow Branch, were Iris Stewart and Paulbeg Calvados (74.17), a 17-year-old skewbald gelding by Woodbrook Cognac.

Maire Quinlan Pluck judged the other two classes, where her winners were Bray’s Abbey Cassidy riding Magic (73.8% in the South Munster Intro to Dressage test C) and Kildare’s Nia Webbon, who topped the leaderboard in the IPC pre-novice with the 22-year-old grey gelding Bobbyjo.

This latter combination enjoyed great success this year in Pony Club combined training, eventing and show jumping.