IN conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Horse Sport Ireland once again sponsored an autumn development series which Dressage Ireland ran as a four-round league with its final at Greenogue Equestrian on Sunday, November 20th.

The series was restricted to Irish-bred/Irish-born four-, five-, six- and seven-year-old horses as documented on their passports or registered in a DAFM-approved studbook. To qualify for the finals, a minimum of two appearances were required at the qualifiers with minimum scores of 63%. As ever, some qualifiers were better attended than others with more entries in the younger classes.

On finals day, British Dressage List 1 judges Sara-Jane Lanning and Mark Ruddock were most impressed by their six-year-old winner, the Tara Hayes-ridden Irish Sport Horse mare Sandora BS who achieved a score of 86.20%.

Owned by the rider’s mother Fiona and bred by her father Will, the bay, who won the two qualifiers she contested at Marlton and CoilÓg, is by the Westfalian stallion Spielberg out of the unraced Zagreb mare Silver Grouse, the dam of two winners on the track.

Carol Gee’s ISH gelding Fernhill Count On Me (by Chacoa) won the five-year-old final under Fraser Duffy; Sinead McGrath partnered the home-bred ISH gelding Ballyj Ed (by Black Hero) to claim the four-year-old title; and Niamh Tottenham won the seven-year-old final with the ISH mare Fortmoy Queen Bee (by Watermill Swatch). All three of these horses have proven themselves as jumpers as well.