THE Eastern Region of Dressage Ireland held its first show of 2025 last Saturday at its usual venue of Marlton Stud, Wicklow, where the judging duties were split between Jane Whitaker (List 2), Bernie Webb (List 3a) and Lindsey Ilona Brady (List 4).

On a busy day, there weren’t many scores in the 70s, but Brady awarded Iris Walshe 70.83% for her Preliminary DI18 test with Olaf van Lange Weeren, a six-year-old brown son of Hennesy out of Therese van Lange Weeren (by Jetset-D) who was making his debut under DI rules. Hannah Lynam won the Webb-judged Novice DI21 with the Hanoverian mare Dark Diamond (71.38%), a five-year-old dark bay daughter of Donnersmarck.

Whitaker, who had some diverse classes to judge, reserved her highest marks for two Trailblazers, viz Mali Preston riding the 19-year-old Welsh gelding Bronllys Brigand (70.88% in the Mini Intro B) and Emily Grimes with ‘Bambi’ (72.14 in the Preliminary).

Among the higher graded classes, the winners were Georgina Cadogan with Josephine Delahoyde’s well-known Dutch-bred Welsh mare Klein Roderijs Gold Fee (66.09 in the Medium DI65); Siofra Pratt with her Irish Sport Horse mare Ballarin My Grace (66.97 in the Medium DI67); Helen Dunne riding the Wüttemberger gelding Felino (64.56 in the Advanced Medium DI90); and Jennifer Egan on the Dutch Warmblood gelding Gabriël-Tetti (62.94 in the FEI Prix St George).

Kate Murphy recorded an FEI pony rider double on the Westphalian gelding Top Hero 2 (66.08 in the Webb-judged individual test and 68.57 in the Whitaker-assessed test team), while the in-form Evie Kennedy posted an uncontested FEI Junior double with the Spanish gelding Cordobes XXXVI (65.15 in the Webb-judged individual test and 65.15 in the Whitaker-judged team test).

Georgia Cadogan and Klein Roderijs Gold Fee at Marlton on February 8th \ Louise O'Brien

Midland and Western Region

Danielle Carey (List 3a) was the sole judge on duty at Sunday’s Midland and Western Region show at Ower Equestrian, where she awarded only one score in the 70s and that was to Irish Horse World deputy editor Lesley Hunter-Nolan, who recorded an uncontested victory in the Intro A on her Connemara gelding Gleann Rua Robin (79.17%), a five-year-old grey by Lough Fadda Rudi.

A couple of combinations only just failed to hit the 70% mark on the day, namely Clodagh O’Toole and the 10-year-old piebald mare Keadies Kaleigh, who scored 69.83 in the Novice DI27A; Melanie King and her Connemara gelding Gortacleeva John, a 10-year-old grey son of I Love You Melody (69.22 in the Medium DI65); and Cadhla Curran on board the German riding pony HS, an eight-year-old by Valdez HS (69.57 in the FEI pony rider team test).