THE Leinster Region of Dressage Ireland held its first show of the year last Sunday at CoilÓg where a large number of competitors enjoyed a very successful day of non-stop action, thanks to the use of four arenas and six judges, while the on-site cafe provided not only sustenance but also shelter from the cold, windy conditions.

Rachel Carr, who represented Ireland at the last two European pony championships on Calelvador May Blossom, has moved onto horses and into Junior company this season. On Sunday, when making her second public appearance in affiliated company on the Irish Sport Horse mare Calliaghstown Silver Doolin, the Carlow rider topped the rankings in both Medium classes.

In the Dermot Cannon-judged DI77, the combination achieved a score of 70% while Michael Moore, standing in for the sidelined Liam Maloney as judge for the DI67, awarded the pair a winning mark of 71.67. Moore had also judged the pair at Spruce Lodge last month when they scored 67.03.

The traditionally bred Calliaghstown Silver Doolin is a 13-year-old grey by the ISH stallion Silver Banner out of the Easy Lift mare Easy Doolin and, as her name would suggest, she was bred by Grainne Sugars. While she has accumulated 262 DI points and was Medium Category 3 champion at last year’s DI national championships, Calliaghstown Silver Doolin was also evented for three seasons (2016-2018) by her previous rider, Gilly Crawford, winning twice at EI100 level before bowing out of that discipline following a ninth-place finish of 25 in an EI110 at Grove in September 2018.

Anne Marie Dunphy, who has been re-appointed Horse Sport Ireland’s youth dressage team manager, was pleased to see that two other young riders who have moved from ponies on to the Junior development squad also paid rewarding trips to the Byrne family’s Co Kildare equestrian centre on Sunday.

Connemara’s Cillian Curran, another dual European championships team member, scored 70.29 (FEI Junior individual test) and 64.80 (FEI Junior team test) on the Hanoverian mare Dancing Espri, a 10-year-old Denario grey who had previously been campaigned by three other members of the Curran family.

In the team test, Curran and Dancing Espri finished second to Co Clare’s Emily Keehan and the Dutch Warmblood gelding El Nino (69.39), a 13-year-old chesnut by Oscar on whom Keehan also won Sunday’s Advanced Medium BD85 (FEI Junior Preliminary) on 70.50. The other Advanced Medium class was won by senior rider Tara Hayes with the Dutch Warmblood gelding Ferrero K (71.32), a 12-year-old Apache gelding.

In the higher-graded classes the winners were Belinda Brereton and her 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Deco in the Prix St George (71.47) and the Inter II (67.21), Sean Burgess and Anita Kelly’s Imperioso WW, another Dutch Warmblood gelding, in the Inter I (67.94) and Sarah Mellor with her Oldenburg mare Let’s Dance in the Grand Prix (66.96).

Another dual winner on a very busy day was Niamh Nolan who, with her Irish Draught gelding Toberpatrick Tom Boy, an eight-year-old grey by Ballybrack Diamond, won both Elementary classes on 71.79 (DI55) and 69.68 (DI56A).

At Novice level, the honours in the DI24A went to Kevin Acres with Miriam Walsh’s Dutch Warmblood mare Hope Is Eternal (71), a 10-year-old daughter of Sheraton, and, in the DI27A, to Barry Higgins who recorded a runaway victory on the ISH gelding Creevagh Connection (73.62), a 15-year-old S Creevagh Ferro full-brother to Creevagh Silver de Haar (CCI4*-L).

Yeomanstown Stud-based Rolline O’Callaghan topped the scores in the Preliminary DI18 with the 12-year-old Smooth Operator gelding Splendid B (74.17) on whom she finished fourth in the EI100 national championship at the HSI national eventing championships at Lisgarvan House last September. O’Callaghan and Splendid B are heading to the HSI combined training at Wexford Equestrian on Sunday and will then compete at some more DI shows before the eventing season starts.

Split by Andrea Colfer and her part-Welsh gelding Haylemma Lady’s Blue Eyed Boy (72.92), the aforementioned Gilly Crawford finished third here on Majestic Heartbreaker (71.25), an ISH mare who was making her DI debut on Saturday.

On 69.31, Crawford and her Womanizer six-year-old shared the honours in the BD17A with Katie Kiely and the Connemara gelding Sillogue Sergei. This now 12-year-old son of Westside Mirah was first successfully campaigned under Eventing Ireland rules by Gemma Murphy, while the late Tiggy Hancock partnered the bay to two EI100 youth training wins from two starts last spring.

The highest score recorded in the well-supported Trailblazers’ section came in the Junior Preliminary class where Cadhla Curran topped the standings on 73.57 with the family’s well-known Connemara gelding, Southeast Starlight.

The next Leinster Region show, on Sunday, February 20th, also takes place at CoilÓg, as does the region’s winter league final on Sunday, March 6. Petra Larkin and Lorna O’Hare, joint-secretaries and organisers of the show last Sunday, were delighted with the support they received and hope that continues in the weeks ahead.