THE judging duties at Louise and Sophia Doheny’s Slieve Bloom Stud on Friday last were divided between Michael Moore (List 2A) and Maire Hennessy (List 2) with the latter awarding the show’s highest score, 73.46%, in the best supported class, the Preliminary DI8.

Hennessy’s overall winner was List 4 judge Jean Halpenny on her Irish Sport Horse mare Shawslodge Cossino Bay, who only started competing with Dressage Ireland when this Co Offaly venue started hosting shows last month. The bay daughter of Lionwood Kinsales Lad, who saw off 10 rivals, is out of the Cassino mare Cossino Rose, a full-sister to Kashino (CSI4*).

Sophia Doheny partnered two of the three entries in the Moore-judged Junior team test, winning on the Dutch Warmblood gelding Batiqar (72.58%), an eight-year-old by Obelisk, with whom she hopes to be selected for the European championships, and finishing second with a new ride, the appaloosa gelding Peru’s Casablanca C (66.21), a 12-year-old son of Axiona’s Casanova C.

Also in front of Moore, Slieve Bloom-based Italian rider Valentina Villecco and Angel Dust D were the only starters in the FEI Young Rider team test class, where they scored 66.91%, while Co Sligo’s Simone Hession recorded an uncontested victory in the Inter I with her 18-year-old Irish Draught gelding Beezies Double Diamond (64.41), by Gentle Diamond.

Sophia Doheny riding Batiqar, winners of FEI Junior class at Slieve Bloom \ Aisling Deverell Photography

Two combinations completed doubles. Co Galway’s Padraig Flanagan recorded his at Medium (68.91%) and Advanced Medium (65.76) levels with Vida Tansey’s home-bred ISH gelding Qeannaire An Tanaiste, an 11-year-old chesnut by Quaterback. Flanagan faced five rivals in the Medium class, but just one in the Advanced Medium from which there were two withdrawals.

Co Wicklow’s Isla Coad partnered Josephine Delahoyde’s Dutch-bred Welsh mare Klein Roderijs Gold Fee to see off their solitary rivals in the FEI pony individual test, where Hennessy awarded them a score of 69.46%, and, on 70, three challengers in the Moore-judged team test.

Moore also assessed the seven combinations forward in the Novice DI27A, where his winner was Charlotte Campbell on the Connemara-cross gelding Cill Dara’s Golden Boy (68.10%), a seven-year-old dun by Gwennic De Goariva, and the five pairings in the Elementary DI56A, where Lilly Larkin claimed the honours on board her new ride Don Bronte (69.52), an 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by her father Bryan.