SALLY Corscadden’s Irish team lie 10th of 12 teams after dressage at the CCI4*-L FEI Nations Cup Eventing Final in Boekelo, The Netherlands, which is being run in the Olympic format with just three riders to a team.

Padraig McCarthy achieved the best team score aboard Diane Brunsden, Peter Cattell and Mark Todd’s Leonidas II. A new horse to McCarthy in the latter part of this season following the retirement of Todd, the 15-year-old gelding scored 31.3 and lies in 31st place individually.

Brian Morrison has two horses in the class and rides Global Event Horses’ nine-year-old gelding Global Orchid (ISH) for the team. The A Quidam M-sired gelding scored 34.3.

European bronze medallist Cathal Daniels once again demonstrated the horse power in his yard by being selected on the three-man team with Michelle Nelson and Kieran Connors’ eight-year-old Samgemjee gelding OLS King Aragon. They scored 35.6 to lie in 77th overnight.

Team total

That leaves Ireland on a team total of 101.2, with the leaderboard likely to change after today’s (Saturday) cross-country course. The German team of Sandra Auffarth, Michael Jung and Ingrid Klimke are out in the lead with a score of 78.1, ahead of USA (89.7) in second and Japan (90.2), currently lying third. Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland are chasing the final Olympic ticket.

Individually, Ireland have six other combinations competing. Joseph Murphy, team substitute, is best of the Irish in 17th place with the 11-year-old gelding Cesar V, owned by The Way Forward Syndicate, on a score of 29.90.

Auffarth leads the way on a score of 24.9 with Let’s Dance 73, ahead of Japan’s Yoshiaki Oiwa (25.6) and Britain’s Laura Collett with London 51 (26.0).