HORSE Sport Ireland’s High Performance Dressage Director Anne Marie Dunphy made the most of a relatively rare opportunity to compete by winning the small tour championship with her 10-year-old Woodlander Rockstar Irish Sport Horse gelding LEB Hugo at the two-day South East region Nutri Science Classic show in Spruce Lodge, County Wicklow, last weekend.

Reflecting on her win, Anne Marie said, “Hugo was so good. The Classic is one of my favourite shows. With my management and coaching commitments, I have not had much time to ride and compete him this year.

Thanks to my student Rachel Carr for keeping him in work while I was away at the underage European championships in Germany and France. We had not competed since March and he rocked up to score 67.06% in his first Inter I and 69.19% in only his third Prix St-Georges for the win.

“The show organisers had to contend with very adverse weather on Saturday morning, many thanks to Ivan Dowley for making sure all the arenas were secure. We are so fortunate that the surfaces are excellent at Spruce Lodge. The weather improved for the rest of the weekend with everyone having a great time. Sincere thanks to the South East region committee and the volunteers for all their work, we are indebted to our generous title sponsor NutriScience. It was great to have Maria Eilberg and Dane Rawlins over as our visiting judges.”

Unopposed

Irish international rider Kevin Acres was unopposed in the big tour Grand Prix scoring 70.54% with 12-year-old KWPN gelding Ganesh.

Dressage coach Rachel Dowley and her 10-year-old KWPN gelding Insticator B.S. won the Advanced championship. South Munster region member Jennifer Rea repeated the double she scored at the Botanica Championships in CoilÓg Equestrian in June winning both the Advanced Medium category two championship and the Medium category two championship with her eight-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Fermoyle Charles.

Grainne Murphy and her Pura Raza Española (PRE) gelding Hogareno SB were the winners of the Advanced Medium category three championship. Finn O’Gara of OG Sporthorses and Karen Bennett’s nine-year-old KWPN gelding Jinger, were another combination to deliver a repeat success of their Botanica championship victory at CoilÓg claiming top honours in the Medium category 3 championship.