THE North Munster Region of Dressage Ireland held the final of its winter league last Sunday at the Clonshire Equestrian Centre outside Adare, where Ethan Boles won the Preliminary division when bringing up a hat trick in the DI18 on Bliss.

Six combinations appeared before Paula Geiger (List 3), four of whom were in contention for league honours. Boles had a one-point lead going into Sunday over Noírin Taylor and secured the title when winning again on Donie McNamara’s Dutch Warmblood mare Bliss (69.58%), a 19-year-old bay by Upperclass, while Taylor had to settle for second on her 22-year-old cob mare Attyrory Dixie (68.96).

Holly Boles also did the double at Novice level, winning Sunday’s league class, the DI21, and the league itself, on Tara Dalton’s Get In The Van (68.10%), a once-raced 17-year-old thoroughbred gelding by Darsi. Helena O’Doherty, who had been lying second in the league with Diamand Anfrody, was an absentee and so lost out on the runner-up spot to Megan O’Gorman and Ballykealy Clover Chin, who did compete and scored 63.28.

O’Gorman and her Irish Sport Horse gelding, a 10-year-old bay son of Querlybet Hero, caused a bit of an upset in the Elementary league where, in finishing third in Sunday’s four-runner class on 62.64%, they claimed the seasonal honours while Boles and Get In The Van, who scored 62.50 for fourth, had to settle for the runner-up spot. Sunday’s class, which was judged by Dermot Cannon (List 1) was won by Susan Humphreys on board her ISH gelding One Station Diamond (67.08), a 14-year-old Le One bay.

Ethan Boles on Bliss at Clonshire last weekend \ Justin Black Horse Sport Images

There were only two riders in contention for the Medium title and both went into the final on 10 points, following a win and a second-place finish apiece between legs one and two. Therefore, it all came down to Geiger’s judging of the three-runner class, where her winner on 66.09% was the non-qualified Grainne Murphy with her nine-year-old Pura Raza Española gelding Flamenco CCLXXXV (by Beethoven EM).

Amazingly, both Ann Glynn on her ISH mare Shanaclough Seattle, a 13-year-old daughter of Waldo van Dungen, and show organiser Tara Dalton with her year older Ukrainian Warmblood gelding Burgomistr, scored 59.06%. However, thanks to her higher collective score (44 to 43.5), Glynn narrowly won the league.

Dalton was also in contention with Burgomistr in the Advanced Medium league, but didn’t contest the final, leaving the marginal leader heading into Sunday, Bethany Mackay, to win both the Cannon-judged class (68.82%) and the league with her Dutch Warmblood mare Kalahari, a 10-year-old bay by Ferguson.

Ann Glynn on Shanaclough Seattle at Clonshire last weekend \ Justin Black Horse Sport Images

There were a few winning scores of 70% or over at the show, starting with the seven-strong Preliminary 5A in the short arena, where Meabh O’Brien topped Geiger’s overall leaderboard with the unregistered Lucy Baby (71.96), a seven-year-old chesnut mare with no recorded pedigree. Ten combinations contested the Cannon-judged Preliminary DI8, where the highest score (71.15) was recorded by Tracey Quinn on board her unregistered 10-year-old black mare Rosnakill Black Beauty Girl.

At Novice level, Zoe Thompson won the Geiger-judged DI24A on the 133cm Welsh Section B mare Goldengrove Maydream (70.33%); the same judge’s winner of the two-runner Elementary DI51 was Ana Hughes with her 12-year-old bay gelding Ballycahane Billy (73.33).