WITH record entries last Saturday at the Eastern Region Dressage Show, held at Marlton Stud, all four judges were kept busy with tests being ridden at all levels.
List 1 judge from the UK, Pam Bushall, was joined by Mairin Cassidy, Bernie Foley and Lynne Cassidy. There were large numbers of young riders taking part which shows the growing popularity of dressage in Ireland.
The Mini Trailblazers class, which is for riders under 10 years of age, was won by Kate Murphy riding Sahara Gold, while the junior class for under 16s was won by Ciara O’Connor riding Brandon Zimbabwe.
The highest score of the day went to Deirdre Byrne, the category 3 winner of the Preliminary BD19 class with a whooping 78.64% on her young horse Indigo-Perrado, a very exciting prospect for the future. Deirdre also took the honours in the DIM77 medium class with San Royale.
HIGHLIGHT
The highlight of the day for many took place just before lunch. Despite the drizzling rain, a crowd gathered around Arena 1 as Kevin Acres (21) made a lifelong dream come true, riding his very first Grand Prix on his trainer Sandra Blake Farrell’s Saint Emilion 2, who will shortly be 24 years old. It was a great moment for Kevin who became the youngest Irish rider to compete at this level, both nationally and internationally.
Sandra Blake Farrell, who has been training Kevin for five years now, commented: “My first time meeting Kevin was in a lesson on board his own horse, a 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse called Little Miss Daydream (Ruby). He was as keen then as he is today. Ruby is a horse that was bred perfectly for jumping with her Clover Hill lines, although Kevin’s passion for dressage kept her feet closer to the ground. Kevin and Ruby went on to win the Silver Spurs in 2015 in the junior section along with winning the Under 25 National Championship in 2015.”
Acres started competing in 2015 between Medium and Advanced Medium and from there, advanced up to Grand Prix movements. He enjoyed great success on his trainer’s German-bred gelding Saint Emilion 2 (Emil) and her Polish mare Biala Perla (Pearl).
His successes included winning many regional shows and also overseas in the UK competing in the Hickstead Dressage Masters in 2015.
Kevin won two National Winter Championships in 2017 taking the Medium with Biala Perla and the Advanced Medium with Saint Emilion. Another major success was becoming the National Prix Saint George Champions in 2018.
The next outing for Acres and Emil will be at the National Winter Finals in April. Although they qualified for the Grand Prix, they will take it a little easier and do the Inter 1 and the Inter 2.
All going well, Sandra has said they might see if Emil is up to doing one last Nationals in September. A retirement from competitions will be the plan for him then after.
“This one in a million horse owes us nothing so we are very happy to give him the retirement he very much deserves,” she said.