WITH the autumn season well underway, competitors descended on Watergrasshill for the second international of the year hosted by the Fell family at Ballindenisk. It feels like events at this end of the season are dealing with harsher conditions each year, and Ballindenisk had it’s fair share on Sunday when some classes were abandoned, but overall, there was nothing but compliments for the courses and conditions for horses and riders.

The NutriScience CCI4*-L class had a smaller number of entries, but it had an international feel to it with six Britain-based competitors lining up in front of the ground jury of Joanne Jarden (IRL), Felicisimo Aguado Arroyo (ESP) and Annabel Scrimgeour (GBR). Izzy Taylor and Happy Days started their week off strongly with 30.0 penalties in the dressage phase, a consistent test with some eights sprinkled in meant that they sat top of the leaderboard after the phase had completed. The 12-year-old gelding by Cevin Z has had a relatively light campaign this season, but showed his class in between the white boards.