THE first qualifying round of this year’s dressage autumn development series, sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland in conjunction with the Department for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, was hosted by the Midlands and Western Region of Dressage Ireland last Sunday at the Ower Equestrian Centre in Co Galway.

Bernie Webb (List 4) judged the four qualifiers and had a dual winner in Killian Gaffney. True, the Category 2 rider wasn’t hard pressed to score in the six-year-old class as his Irish Sport Horse gelding My Bishophill Rolex (62.41%), a Cougar bay, was the sole entry. However, in the five-year-old division, Gaffney and the ISH gelding Gleneden Justified (66.21), a bay son of Dignified van’t Zorgvliet, had to see off the challenge of three other combinations.

Category 3 rider Sinead McGrath, who finished second in that five-year-old class on the traditionally bred Ballyj Ed (64.48%), had earlier landed the four-year-old qualifier on that ISH gelding’s full-brother, Ballyj Casper (66.38). The pair, who are by the Irish Draught stallion Black Hero, were bred at their Ballyjennings Stables near Ballinrobe by McGrath’s husband Fintan out of the non-winning point-to-point mare Memories Of Emly (by Pilsudski).

Co Meath’s Caroline Lynch placed second here on her ISH gelding DS Bouncer 007 (64.83%) but comfortably the highest score (74.48) was recorded by Jason Doerflinger with the ISH gelding DS Are You Murchu, a grey son of DS Are You With Me who is not registered with Dressage Ireland.

Qualifier

There were three entries in that qualifier and in the one for seven and eight-year-olds where the winner’s sash went to Category 3 rider Lucy Cusack and her Dutch Warmblood gelding Kirktown (67.41%). This tall bay by Uptown is out of the Ravel mare Gavelle Ter Kwincke.

At least two appearances are required at the qualifiers to attend the final at CoilÓg on Sunday, November 5th, with minimum scores of 63% being recorded at each. While Sunday’s qualifier was open to ponies, the next, which is scheduled to take place at The Meadows on Sunday, October 8th, is for horses only.

Webb also judged the FEI Pony classes at Sunday’s show where Aoife Nee, who has next year’s European championships in her sights, was the sole entry with Carmel Curran’s German riding pony Maracuja AG, a six-year-old by Movie Star, on whom she scored 67.71% (team test) and 63.38 (individual test).

Also on duty were List 4 judges Connie Noone and Danielle Carey. The latter assessed those forward in the mini or newcomer class (DI Introductory Test B) where her winner was Max Laird on board Milford Fair Bronze (70.59%). Last month, Laird and his father Gary’s 13-year-old Welsh gelding by Milford Fanfare won the very competitive first ridden class at the Dublin Horse Show.

There were some high scores in the two Preliminary classes, both of which were won by Category 2 rider Sadhbh O’Toole and her Dutch Warmblood gelding Next Diamond. In the Noone-judged DI18, Clifden-based O’Toole and her Daily Diamond five-year-old topped the leaderboard on 74.17% while Carey awarded them a score of 73.60 in the BD15.