FOLLOWING two weather-enforced cancellations, the finals of the Childeric autumn/winter league, run by the North and South Munster Regions of Dressage Ireland, were held last Saturday at Ballindenisk, where the weather gods still weren’t entirely on side.

“It was very wet, but at least it was mild,” show organiser, and competitor, Ana Hughes told the Irish Horse World. “During the league, South Munster held three shows, while North Munster ran two. You had to compete in dedicated Childeric classes at two legs and the final to qualify for league prizes.”

While there was a very satisfactory entry of just over 100, nine of the 18 classes advertised to run under the Childeric banner – from Trailblazer up to Prix St George level – failed to attract any entries, while the weather appeared to have put off competitors in a further two. A Bank Holiday weekend away may have lured some from the final.

League winners

Four league winners were named by day’s end – Bernadette Newham (Medium) and the three Mackey sisters, Bethany (Advanced Medium), Melanie (Novice and Elementary) and Sophia (Preliminary).

On board Grainne Murphy’s Lusitano gelding Jejum AR, Newham won the three-runner Childeric Medium final (BD69), judged by Joanne Jarden (List 1), on 65.45%, narrowly ahead of Gavin Smiddy and his Irish Sport Horse gelding DSH Showtime (65.3).

In the Jarden-judged Advanced Medium final (BD91), Newham and the 10-year-old Jacare II bay had to settle for second (63.85) behind their sole rivals, Bethany Mackey and her Dutch Warmblood mare Kalahari (66.28), a nine-year-old Ferguson bay.

Melanie Mackey topped the overall leaderboard of Elena Satalkina (List 5) in the Childeric Novice final (DI27A) on her KWPN-registered mare Memilia (70.17%) but, on 66.41, she and her seven-year-old Hennessy bay were just slightly off the pace in the Elementary final (BD59), won by Caroline Marwood and Hannah Rose’s 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Investigator P (66.88). Marwood and the chesnut daughter of Diamant de Semilly also won the non-league Elementary DI55 on 69.82.

Second (69.14%) to Melanie and Memilia in the Novice final, Sophia Mackey and her Scottish Warmblood gelding Wagner V.U., a 21-year-old bay by Ludwig, had earlier recorded a comprehensive victory in the Childeric Preliminary final, where Satalkina awarded the combination a score of 73.46.

Emma O’Flynn slotted into second here with her black mare Diane (69.23), an 11-year-old cob.

Melanie Mackey won the Childeric Novice final at Ballindenisk on Memilia \ Justin Black/ Horse Sport Images

Trailblazers

Shelly Lombard (List 6) was to judge the first four Childeric Trailblazers finals, but only two riders appeared on the day, Lily McLaughlin, who scored 64.72% in the mini final on her mother Susan’s 14-year-old Welsh mare Dinky Daisey and Eimear Mahony, who scored 68.16 in the Junior Preliminary final, where she rode Helen Cadogan’s Connemara gelding Ballyard Silver Dun, a nine-year-old grey by Capparoe Lad.

Non-league classes

In other non-league classes, Lombard’s winner of the 13-strong Preliminary DI6 was Caroline Marwood riding the unregistered Silver (72.5%), while Eilish McCarthy topped the same judge’s scores in the Preliminary BD7 in the short arena on board her Traditional ISH gelding Sail On Diamond, a 20-year-old Glidawn Diamond bay.

At Novice level, Satalkina’s winner of the 16-runner DI27A was Jessica Coveney with the unregistered Bishopshall Joe (69.14%), while her winner of the short arena BD34, in which just three Alice Copithorne-ridden entries out of nine met their engagements, was the unregistered Kipling (68.96).

Copithorne recorded an uncontested win in the Advanced Medium with her four-star eventer Fort Arthur Little Dolly (60.26), a 10-year-old mare by Westcoast Cavalier.

Owen Smyth and his 20-year-old Hanoverian gelding Dark Site won the eight-strong, Jarden-judged Elementary BD59 on 68.12%; before the same judge, Clíona Ní Liatháin saw off her sole opponent when scoring 68.48 on her 11-year-old ISH mare MJI Lady Alceis, with whom she also topped Jarden’s scores on 68.92 in the three-runner Medium BD75.

Sue Smallman and her Dutch Warmblood gelding Gloriant H, a 13-year-old chesnut by Uphill, recorded uncontested victories in the Inter I (70.44%) and the Prix St George (72.94).

There were wins also for Sarah Jane Sinnott and Shanbo Rory (67.62%) in the Intro class, for Stephanie Fleming with Waitwith Finola (68.33 in the Trailblazer Mini class), for Maria Fleming Hand on board Whiteleaze Secret Temptation (68.16 in the Trailblazer Under 12s class) and for Jaime Mangan with Glentrague Melody (62.11 in the Trailblazer Junior class).