THE Preliminary final was split into five categories with the highest score being recorded in the South Munster Region Category 2 championship by Mark Robinson riding Debbie Burns’s Hanoverian gelding Master Caledonia (142.605%).

This left them comfortably clear of Martina McKinley and the thoroughbred Will Scarlet (134.063) but Robinson and the Metall nine-year-old didn’t rest on their laurels as they also won (139.022) the South Eastern Region Novice Category 2 championship ahead of Kate Kerr Horan and her Anglo European mare, Serafina T (136.963).

“I’m absolutely delighted with these results,” said BHS Stage 5 performance coach Robinson who took over the ride on Burns’s dual champion last year. “Master Caledonia, who won three of his four classes over the weekend, is a special horse and I can’t believe how much we have achieved in a short space of time. It was amazing having the Winter Finals in the North of Ireland at Castle Irvine as it’s such a beautiful venue with fabulous facilities.”

Back to the Preliminary championships where Drynam Riding Club member Stacy Forsyth won the Freedom Saddlery Category 1 championship with the six-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Texas Surf, a skewbald gelding by Grange Merlin Surf. Only two combinations contested the Category 3 championship where the honours went to the Northern Region chair Joan Adrain riding Carolyn Mellor’s Dutch Warmblood gelding VSH Moviestar, a five-year-old son of Johnson.

Both Junior Preliminary finals attracted three starters apiece. The Category 1 champions were judged to be Killinick Pony Club member Anna Radford and the 11-year-old British Sport Horse mare Greylands Razzle Dazzle while Aoife Harrington, a member of the Leinster Region of Dressage Ireland, claimed the Category 2 title on the ISH mare Sweeps Betty Boo, a 10-year-old bay by Samgemjee.

Kelly Rice impresses

At Novice level, Newry’s Denise Kelly Rice powered to an impressive victory in the Northern Region Category 1 championship on Pamela Combs Wilson’s striking Westphalian mare Forvanna, a five-year-old by Formidable. The Midland and Western Region sponsored the Category 3 championship where the winner was Kirsty Jackson on her ISH gelding Roundthorn Karma, a seven-year-old by Johnson.

At Junior Novice level, the Leinster Region’s Lucy Maughan won the Category 1 title on the 15-year-old gelding Valley View Sammy and international pony rider Ellen McDonald comprehensively landed the Category 2 championship on the 14-year-old 133cms skewbald mare Greenfield Apache with whom she also topped the judges’ scores in the Junior Elementary Category 2 championship.

It was an excellent weekend for the young Northern Region member as she added to her haul of victories when winning the FEI pony championship and the North Munster Region Medium Category 2 championship on the 12-year-old Dutch Riding Pony Dante Alighieri.

Last year’s European pony championships team member, Cillian Curran, claimed the FEI Junior title on the 10-year-old Hanoverian mare Dancing Espri on whom he took over the ride late last year from his sister, Catriona.