CORK’s Amber Lane has been very busy this month, first being on the squad who represented Ireland at the Youth dressage Nations Cup competition in Wales, then competing over jumps at the Dublin Horse Show and back on the level, riding at last weekend’s inaugural Dressage Ireland Youth Championships at CoilÓg where she won at both Preliminary and Novice level.
At Dublin, where her mother Rachel and grandmother Susan Walters competed before her, Lane won the working hunter starter stakes on Marjorie Hardiman’s 16-year-old home-bred skewbald mare Creganna Dancer. In Wales, where she was one of DI’s Emerald foursome who finished fifth in the 33-strong team competition and was sixth individually at Preliminary level, Lane partnered Barkway State Affair as she did at CoilÓg.
In the 16-runner Premier Performance Junior Preliminary Category 1 championship there, Lane and the 20-year-old Rotherwood Statesman gelding recorded a combined score of 192.5% while their nearest challengers, Amelia Wheeler and Midnight Minty were on 188.375. Zara Walsh finished third with Malakai (186.625). In the 13-strong Equieire Junior Novice Category 1 championship, Lane and Barkway State Affair claimed the title on a combined score of 201.5. It took a closer look at the sheets to decide who finished second and third as both Georgia Cadogan on Stars Of Jupiter and Abbey Ferris with How Ya Sammy were on 199.375, Cadogan getting the nod with the higher collective mark (62.375 to 62.125).
Maeve Deverell and Derravarragh Boy won the Junior Medium championship and the FEI pony rider championship at the Dressage Ireland Youth Championships at CoilÓg \ Louise O'Brien Photography
Category 2
It was close, but not quite as close, between the first two in the five-runner Premier Performance Junior Preliminary Category 2 championship where, on a combined score of 183.125%, Co Wexford’s Oscar O’Connor got the better of Ellen Carroll (183). O’Connor was on board his own and his mother Susan’s Oldenburg gelding Funkstar, a five-year-old by Foundation out of a Sir Donnerhall mare, while Carroll rode her six-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Nervada.
Cadhla Curran saw off 11 rivals to claim the Glas Equine Junior Novice Category 2 championship on her mother Carmel’s German riding pony HS (201.375%). A liver chesnut gelding by Valdez HS, the seven-year-old is out of the Derbino mare Seven Mountain Dusty. Here, Evie Kennedy finished a close-up second on Blackwoodland Breeze (201.125) ahead of Leah Cox riding Limestone Spartacus (199.625).
Kennedy, who is trained by Vitaliy Halstyan and landed the working hunter pony championship at Dublin on the 143cms class winner Little Dromin Phoenix, also partnered the Connemara gelding Blackwoodland Breeze in the weekend’s Premier Performance Junior Elementary Category 2 championship. Disappointingly for the 14-year-old Co Tipperary rider, she and the similarly-aged Glencarrig Prince grey had to again settle for second (218.375), this time behind Clifden’s Sadhbh O’Toole and her six-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Next Diamond (220.25), another Freestyle winner.
There was certainly a variety of mounts in this 10-runner championship as Niamh Winter finished third on board Josephine Delahoyde’s nine-year-old 138cms piebald mare, Marlton Rose (215.625).
Deverell Double
While her parents, Aisling and Sam, were working behind the scenes at CoilÓg over the weekend, Maeve Deverell was ‘front of house’ where she landed a double. The first leg was recorded easily enough as she and Aisling’s 12-year-old roan gelding Derravarragh Boy were the only combination in the Grace O’Rourke Vet Physio Junior Medium championship where they scored 221.375.
The 15-year-old Co Westmeath competitor had to work a bit harder to bring up her double in the Horse First FEI pony rider championship as there were five starters. Here, Deverell posted the two-day fixture’s highest combined score (235.5%) on Louise Doheny’s Belgian Warmblood mare Qarma Van Blommerschot, a 12-year-old brown daughter of Nia Domos Bolero. Kate Murphy finished second on another of the Freestyle winners Top Hero 2 (232.625).
The Under 25s’ regional team competition was won by the Leinster quartet of Ellen Mooney who competed at Preliminary and Novice level with the Connemara gelding Christopher Columbus, a six-year-old bay by Kippure Columbus, Maura Moore-McCune (Preliminary) riding the 18-year-old Welsh gelding Crofs Clover, Abbey Ferris (Novice) with the Connemara gelding How Ya Sammy, an eight-year-old bay by Woodfield Sammy, and Georgia Cadogan (Novice) who partnered the Irish Sport Horse mare Stars Of Jupiter, an eight-year-old dun by the Connemara stallion, Glenayre Mystical Bobby.
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