RACHEL Dowley and GFL Nava followed up their win in last year’s four-year-old championship by claiming the South East Region five-year-old title during Dressage Ireland’s National Championships in Mullingar last weekend.

Dowley and her tall, dark brown Dutch Warmblood mare by For Romance scored 77.6% in the eight-strong class which left them well clear of Sadhbh O’Toole and her Dutch Warmblood gelding Next Diamond (69.8) and the third-placed pairing of Iris Walshe and Nirvana RH (69.6).

“Nava was a star in her five-year-old test,” said Dowley who won this championship in 2018 on Insticator BS and, six years prior to that, with Cadens.

“It’s the most confident and rideable she’s felt in the competition arena all year and the weather conditions didn’t faze her in the slightest.

"The experience she gained competing internationally in the summer has really benefitted her and the focus now is on making her flying changes more secure over the winter.”

While Rachel was competing in Mullingar, her sister Sarah was doing so in Ballindenisk where she finished 13th of 25 in the CCI1*-Intro for five and six-year-olds on the Irish Sport Horse gelding Kilbunny Jockeyhall Augustus.

“My sister and I are lucky to have a lovely team of young horses to compete at the moment. GFL Flashdance (five-year-old) also won in Mullingar (a Preliminary Category 3 class) and ‘Gus’ exceeded expectations on his international debut in the Micheal Leonard at Ballindenisk. It’s a mammoth effort to have five horses at two major fixtures at the same time so thanks to everyone who helped us out last week.”

Competitive clash

Denise Kelly Rice and Joan Adrain have clashed on numerous occasions in six-year-old classes this season and did so again last weekend in the Para Equestrian Ireland-sponsored championship where Kelly Rice claimed the honours on Pamela Wilson’s Westfaphalian mare Forvanna. Kelly Rice and the Formidable bay achieved a score of 69.8% while Northern Region chair Adrain and Carolyn Mellor’s Dutch Warmblood gelding VSH Moviestar filled the reserve slot on 67.

There were just three starters in the Eastern Region four-year-old championship won by Saintfield’s Barbara Ellison and one of two black Dutch Warmblood mares she competed over the weekend, O’Lilly (68.8%). By Desperado, the champion is out of the Jazz mare Hope L who was out of a mare by Ferro.

The sole entry in the seven-year-old championship was withdrawn.