THREE Dressage Ireland-affiliated shows were held last Sunday, running from Ballyclare in Co Antrim, through Tullamore in Co Offaly and down to Bandon in Co Cork.

Northern Region chair Joan Adrain was double-jobbing at Laurel View, as she competed in both Novice classes on her Dutch Warmblood gelding Mathieu and also assessed those forward in the second of the Preliminary classes, the DI18.

Here, the List 6 judge awarded her highest score (67.50%) to Alexandra Ryan and her Connemara gelding Ambition. On 75.56, Ryan and the eight-year-old Drumbad Fletcher Moss dun had earlier topped the leaderboard of Corey Mawhinney (List 6) in the Preliminary BD12. There were 15 starters in both classes.

Novice

At Novice level, 11 combinations appeared before Coreen Abernethy (List 4) in the BD24, where Kerry Taylor came out on top with her eye-catching seven-year-old grey gelding Ballylinney Max (70.22%), but only five in the DI27A, judged by Rosi Gomes (List 3a) and won by Eve Adair riding the 13-year-old piebald mare Dot (67.93), a 158cm daughter of Pieter.

There were three starters in the Abernethy-assessed Junior Novice class, won by Lucy Donnan with the Connemara gelding Killoughter Nugget (68.97), an 18-year-old grey by Ashfield Romeo. Donnan was the only starter in the Abernethy-judged Junior Preliminary, where she scored 62.29 on board another grey Connemara gelding Killaughey Super Sonic (62.29), a seven-year-old son of Coosheen Storm Boy.

Lisa Dundee topped the leaderboard in both six-runner Elementary classes with Patricia Connon’s home-bred Irish Sport Horse mare RoundThorn Nice N Easy, a six-year-old daughter of Formidable. They scored 71.38% in the Abernethy-judged BD45 and 73.44 in the Gomes-assessed BD59.

Gomes judged both Medium classes, where her winners were junior rider Ellen McDonald with her father Jim’s 16-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Donna Karen JDJ (78.03%) in the BD69 and Denise Kelly Rice with Pamela Wilson’s seven-year-old Westphalian mare Forvanna (75.91) in the BD76.