THERE were four judges on duty last Sunday at Garranmore Equestrian, Pallasgreen where the North Munster Region of Dressage Ireland staged their second show of 2023.

Assessing those in the higher graded classes, Vida Tansey (List 1) wasn’t particularly busy but was obviously impressed by Kevin Acres and Ganesh in the Grand Prix as she awarded the combination her day’s highest score of 71.52%, leaving them well clear of the only other finishers, Tara Oliver Donohoe and Furst Romance (66.85).

This was a second successive victory for Acres and Con McCarthy’s Dutch Warmblood gelding who had made a winning seasonal debut at Spruce Lodge seven days earlier. The 12-year-old Jazz bay was bred in The Netherlands by Prins Visser out of the T.C.N. Partout mare Partouch who competed at international Small Tour level herself.

With such a large entry among the lower grades, Elena Satalkina (List 6) was a late addition to the day’s panel of judges. Seven combinations appeared before her in the short arena for the Preliminary DI5A where her winner was Category 1 rider Tracey Quinn on Rosnakill Black Beauty Girl (69.11%).

Quinn and her eight-year-old black mare also performed in the long arena but here they had to settle for third (68.04%) behind Claire Farrell on the former Willie Mullins-trained French-bred bay Renneti (69.64) and Ethan Hogan Eyre riding Goldengrove Merlyn (69.29). This was a first DI start of the season for Farrell and the 14-year-old Irish Wells gelding who, having seen off nine rivals here, went on to win the Ann Glynn-judged 11-runner Novice DI21 on a score of 69.14%.

Win for Humphreys

Another dual-winning combination on the day was Susan Humphreys and her Irish Sport Horse gelding One Station Diamond, a nine-year-old bay by Le One. They topped the leaderboard in the five-runner Preliminary DI6, where Glynn (List 3) awarded them a score of 67.50%, before seeing off their sole rivals in the Preliminary BD19 where Michael Moore (List 2) had them on 69.38.

Eliza Neumann recorded two wins at Medium level with the now 20-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Wervelwind. They narrowly landed the Moore-judged, six-strong DI65 on 66.56% ahead of Fionnan Kiernan O’Brien on Lohengrin (66.09) and, having been awarded 66.21 by Ann Glynn, claimed the BD69 where Bethany Mackey and Kalahari (65.91) provided the only opposition.

Glynn also judged the 11-runner Elementary BD43 where she reserved her top marks for Virginie Bibes and her Dutch Warmblood gelding Kontador (68.28%). An eight-year-old chesnut by Googel, the winner is out of the Flyinge Electro mare Fana.

Moore’s other winners on the day were Cindy Wagner and her Irish Draught gelding Paddington Himself (65.96%), a six-year-old grey by Grandpas Diamond, in the Novice BD39; Millie Dawn McBride and her ISH mare Little Miss Day Dream (69.53), an 18-year-old daughter of Clover Dubh, in the Elementary BD59; and Tabitha Millar Hagerty with the former five-star eventer Westeria Lane (62.27), an 18-year-old ISH gelding by Rantis Diamond, in the Advanced Medium.