LAST weekend’s Wild Atlantic Dressage Festival at the Reape family’s Ard Chuain Equestrian Centre proved a huge success and, from the general feedback, it would appear that next year’s will be even better.

“I was looking forward to Monday but then, on Sunday, someone pointed out that Monday was the first day of next year!” said organiser Simone Hession who may have been tired but sounded as enthusiastic as she did in the lead-up to the weekend. “I’m really delighted with the progress the Festival is making and there were a lot of positive elements to this year’s show.

“Firstly, I was approached some months ago by Killian Gaffney who asked if we would be interested in having EquiTrace as a title sponsor which was just fantastic. Secondly, the live-streaming proved very popular and we had people tuning in from all around the world such as Sarah Mellor’s mother in Australia and, closer to home, Niamh McEvoy’s father who’s wheelchair-bound but could watch her test live from home.

“Thirdly, we had a Horse Sport Ireland CPD points-earning dressage shadowing exercise conducted by Vida Tansey on Saturday. Themed ‘From the judge’s perspective’ and focusing on Novice and Elementary tests, this attracted 14 judges, coaches and riders. Finally, I was particularly delighted to offer a freestyle class as this was something riders asked for when we ran the first Festival in 2019.

Volunteers

“I’ve an army of volunteers to thank and our wonderful sponsors. Thanks too to the Reape family for looking after us so well and Ard Chuain has been booked again for the May Bank Holiday next year. Already much of the on-site stabling has been booked which is great to hear and it was encouraging to note that many of those who came on their feet last year were competing this time around and many of those who came as spectators over the weekend said they’ll be here to compete next year!

“Over the weekend, I had a lot of help from Jane Whitaker and Sharon Waters but I must pay special tribute to Catherine Meenaghan who did an outstanding job as my right-hand woman in the lead-up to the Festival – and over it. This was especially so as regards to social media as she made sense of what I told her and very clearly got the message out to people. I think overall we’ve achieved our goal of showcasing dressage from grassroots to Grand Prix at a national level. The excellent weather we had made the weekend complete.”

The judging panel for the two days comprised Joanne Graham and Jane McGarel-Groves, who are both on List 1 with British Dressage, along with the home-based quartet of Dermot Cannon (List 1), Vida Tansey (List 1), Bernie Foley (List 2) and Jane Whitaker (List 3a).