DUBLIN-based EI100 Amateur rider Suzanne Garrett may not have evented since the middle of July but she is preparing well in advance for the 2019 season by competing, and winning, on Dressage Ireland’s Eastern Region circuit with her Connemara gelding Ballinaguilkey Oyster.

Dog groomer Suzanne and her husband Kenneth, who works in IT and sticks to dressage with Moonlight Shadow, were both in action on Sunday at Marlton. There, Suzanne won one Novice class and was second in another with Ballinaguilkey Oyster, a 2010 Mirah’s Oyster Bandit gelding she purchased two years ago from his Co Carlow breeder, Barbara Walshe. The combination have competed at Preliminary level at DI’s winter finals for the past two years, finishing reserve champions back in early April.