ORGANISIER Simone Hession was delighted that last weekend’s Wild Atlantic Dressage Festival at the Ard Chuain Equestrian Centre was such a success, but she diverted praise away from herself to her very supportive team, the brilliant venue and the fabulous weather.

“It was a really good weekend and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves,” said Hession. “It means a lot to people on this side of the country – even non-riders – that they have the opportunity to watch some of our top dressage riders, such as Kevin Acres and Anne Marie Dunphy in action.

“I hardly had to ask for volunteers, as people kept coming up to me offering their help; you need about 30 to run a show like this. We held a draw for a piece of Galway Crystal between the volunteers and this was won by Sarah Quade. On Saturday night, we held a raffle and between what we took in then and donations since, we have raised €1,000 for the North West Hospice.

“We had 21 sponsors, who were all personal friends or horsey people in the area, Catherine Meenaghan did a brilliant job with our social media, Aisling Deverell had her team on hand for photographs, Sean Winstanley provided the live-streaming, which he had even improved since last year with extra information appearing on screen, and Sierna Finneran did a great job with the commentary.

“As her husband Kevin McGuinness was judging at Royal Windsor, Jane Whitaker couldn’t travel down to the Festival, as she has done in the past as she had to look after their horses, but she did all the times for me and uploaded the results online. We were delighted to welcome British Dressage List 1 judges Mary-Anne Horn and Kirsty Mepham to Ard Chuain, along with Dressage Ireland’s Dermot Cannon (List 1), Vida Tansey (List 1) and Danielle Carey (List 3).

“I was very happy with the number of entries, 204, and then we had the usual number of withdrawals. The entry total didn’t include any of our own horses, as I decided not to ride at the weekend. I was under too much pressure last year when I did and I can focus on our own horses later in the year. The Festival was such a success, and so many people said they want to come back, that I’ll have to do it again!”