HORSE Sport Ireland’s high performance dressage director, Anne Marie Dunphy, concentrated on her own performance at last weekend’s Dressage Ireland national championships at Ballindenisk where she competed two horses.

She was particularly delighted with her Dutch Warmblood mare Pedigree OK as the black daughter of Le Formidable won the Category 3 Preliminary championship on a combined score of 197.5%, comfortably beating her nearest rival, the Sonya McCormack-partnered Oakfield Jappeloup (187.125).

Pedigree OK also won the DI national four-year-old championship in which the nine starters were judged by Marie Hennessy (DI List 2) and Debbie Wardle (British Dressage List 1). Here Dunphy and her mare recorded the weekend’s highest percentage score (83.2) as they beat Courtney Akkari and her Hanoverian gelding Bernabeo (82.2) and Ross O’Hare on Jack Lynch’s Dutch Warmblood stallion Pompidou AF (81.02).

On studying her results, Dunphy was delighted to see that Pedigree OK, who is out of Lets Go (by Ferguson out of a Tango mare) received a ‘9’ for perspective (detailing potential as a young dressage horse). “I bought this mare in Holland at the end of last year; she’d only been backed three weeks at that time,” revealed Dunphy. “She’s still quite green as she had only been to three shows before coming here. I might do the autumn development series but I don’t want to do too much with her. I think she is good enough to go abroad and that’s something we’ll think about next year. I have high hopes for her.”

The Ballymoney Beach quartet of Dunphy, Zara Glennon Cully, Lilly Larkin and Claire Farrell won the regional team competition for the South East Region.

Five-year-olds

Ruth Hayes comfortably won the DI five-year-old championship on Sue Chadwick’s Westphalian mare Foxy Lady R (81.6%), a liver chestnut daughter of For Gold who also won the Novice Category 3 championship, while Denise Kelly Rice recorded an uncontested victory in the DI seven-year-old championship with another Westphalian mare, Pamela Wilson’s Formidable bay, Forvanna (75.2).

Four Studbook Finals for young horses were also staged at the championships but only one, that for four-year-olds, which was judged by Jo Graham (BD List 1) and Dermot Cannon (DI List 1), was competitive. Here, the placings of the DI championship was reversed with Dunphy and Pedigree OK having to settle for second (77.08%) behind Courtney Akkari and Bernabeo (79.4), a chesnut gelding by Benicio out of Strawberry (by Sir Donnerhall).