HAVING run a joint fixture with North Munster at Hillcrest last month, the South Munster Region of Dressage Ireland went solo again last Saturday when staging a low-key show at Skevanish, Co Cork, where the judges were Marie Hennessy (List 2) and Elena Satalkina (List 5).

Hennessy awarded her highest score of the day to Category 3 rider Vanessa O’Sullivan on Jolly Good Fellow RSH (71.11%) in the five-runner Elementary DI51. Registered as having been bred for driving, this nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Fantijn out of the Saffraan mare Better Day also won the Medium DI77 (66.57).

Only three started in that sole Medium class and in the Elementary BD57 which was won by Caroline Marwood on Hannah Rose’s KWPN-registered gelding Investigator P (69.46%), a 2013 Chesnut son of Diamant de Semilly.

Topping the marks in the two Hennessy-judged Novice classes were Sophia Mackey on the 20-year-old Scottish Warmblood gelding Wagner V.U. (71.03% in the DI26 in the short arena) and Deirdre Martin with her Irish Sport Horse mare Candrel Clover, a 17-year-old skewbald by Benbulbin (70.17 in the DI24A).

Hennessy and Satalkina judged the Trailblazers classes between them with the highest score in this section, 71.07%, being recorded in the two-runner Preliminary Junior class (short arena) by Sinead O’Regan riding the Connemara gelding Alana’s Rambler, a seven-year-old grey by Loughmor Rambler.

Satalkina assessed the four combinations forward in the DI Introductory Test B where she awarded her top score, 69.71%, to Vivienne Barry and the ISH mare Milchem Manilla, a seven-year-old grey by KMS Chicago out of Milchem Dreaming (by Ramon).

At Preliminary level, Satalkina’s registered winners were Amy Kennedy with her 18-year-old grey gelding Tall Tales (71.96% in the DI5A in the short arena) and Emma Dair with Castle Ellis Esmeralda, a five-year-old grey mare by the Irish Draught stallion Cornaroya Romeo (68.33 in the DI18).