THE South East Region of Dressage Ireland held their first show of 2025 in wet conditions last Saturday at Barnadown, where the judging duties were split between Donie McNamara (List 1) and Bernie Webb (List 3a).
The former awarded the day’s only two scores to bridge the 70% barrier with the higher of these, 70.38, being achieved by Josephine Delahoyde riding Lynn Cadogan’s five-year-old Westphalian gelding Mercury For Gold, a tall, chesnut son of For Gold in the Preliminary DI6. In front of the same judge, Delahoyde recorded an uncontested success in the FEI Intermediate II on her mother Barbara’s 15-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Barroso (65.74).
Oleana Cowan, one of the many event riders in action on the day, also recorded a cross-level double in front of McNamara, but she did so on the same mount, the British Sport Horse mare, RCA Royal Mist.
Evie Kennedy, pictured riding Cordobes XXXVI to win the FEI Junior Team test at Annaharvey on Sunday, also won the two FEI Junior classes at Barnadown on Saturday \ Aisling Deverell Photogrpahy
In the six-starter Novice DI24A, Cowan and the 13-year-old Royaldik bay scored 68.83 while, in the Elementary DI52, they claimed the match for honours on 70.14. Cowan and RCA Royal Mist were members of Ireland’s silver medal-winning team at last year’s European Junior eventing championships in Strzegom, Poland.
A more senior international event rider to strike at Barnadown was Michael O’Toole, who recorded an uncontested victory in the Bernie Webb-judged Medium DI67, where he scored 65.76% on the Irish Sport Horse gelding Black Obama (by Diarado).
Competitive
In the more competitive non-restricted classes judged by Webb, her winners were Helen Carr with the ISH mare Sally Bollywood (67.92% in the Preliminary DI18), Finn O’Gara with Phillipa Teggin’s Irish Draught mare Toberpatrick Peaches And Cream (69.83 in the Novice DI21) and event rider Antonia Ward with the Welsh pony mare Red Hot Butterscotch (68.57 in the Elementary DI55).
Kate Murphy was the sole starter in the day’s only FEI pony class, the McNamara-judged team test, where she scored 67.71% with her 2024 European pony dressage championships mount Top Hero 2; McNamara also judged both FEI Para Grade IV classes where the only entry, Rosemary Gaffney, scored 64.86 (Grand Prix A) and 65.54 (Grand Prix B) with her new ride for this season, the Dutch Warmblood mare Norabel.
RCA Royal Mist and Oleana Cowan in action at Barnadown \ Louise O'Brien Photography
The busy Evie Kennedy was the only starter in the FEI Junior classes with Hilary Cavanagh’s Spanish gelding Cordobes XXXVI, achieving a score of 68.24% in the Webb-judged individual test, while McNamara awarded the combination 66.82 in the team test.
The winners of the earlier dedicated Junior classes were Tristan Kelly with Tinnecarrig Milo (67.5% in the Preliminary DI6), Kirstyn Reel on Lisdara Amour (65.83 in the DI18), Amelia Cobbe with DMS That Jazz (67.93 in the Novice DI21), Alex Potter riding Icco (65.83) and Cael Shanahan on Santana (69.46 in the Elementary DI55).