IT is safe to say that Kildare’s Judy Reynolds has almost single handily turned dressage into the Cinderella equestrian sport in Ireland in recent years, and on Tuesday, she stepped up to the plate and secured a historic team place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games for the country.

It would be unfair, however, to hand all the credit to Reynolds as she was backed up by three brilliant riders in two-time Olympian Anna Merveldt, another Olympian Heike Holstein and Kate Dwyer.

The ‘girls in green’, as they have been referred to all week, secured the second of three Olympic qualification places on offer at the European Championships in Rotterdam when finishing on a total score of 213.540 in seventh place.

Irish-based athletes Kate Dwyer, aboard her mother Maureen’s Snowdon Faberge, and Heike Holstein with her home-bred Sambuca, got Ireland started on Monday with scores of 66.180% and 69.472%, respectively.

Italy-based Merveldt was first to go on Tuesday morning and scored 67.717% aboard Giovanna Mazza’s 10-year-old Esporim, a horse who is new to the rider and this level.

Ireland were just outside the Olympic qualifying places when Reynolds entered the arena with Vancouver K. Under huge pressure, she delivered a stunning performance to set a new Irish record of 76.35%, guaranteeing the Olympic place.

In the zone

On Tuesday, some 24 hours later, Reynolds spoke about the pressure she had put on herself. “The pressure comes from yourself really. I was feeling it more so on Monday, and then a little bit yesterday (Tuesday) morning but then having talked to Patrick (Heavey, her husband) about it, we said we have got to just do our own normal routine.

“So yesterday morning I rode early at 6am, went back to the hotel and had breakfast, had a rest, got ready and came back. I took myself out of the situation and nobody was allowed to tell me what I had to do – in terms of score wise, as in what was required.

“I had a look myself, I don’t mind knowing myself but I didn’t want everyone else telling me, so we had managed it that way. When I came back to ride, I was feeling much better about it and I was in the right frame of mind again. I was in the zone and it was just about doing the best we could do and in doing that it would hopefully be enough.”

Reynolds had only ridden on a team once before in her life, at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, alongside Merveldt, Roland Tong and James Connor. “Obviously that was a very different situation in that it was JP’s first championship, he was more up and coming and was still well capable of throwing a curve ball! There was no pressure on me. It was quite a different dynamic.

“And then it was different being here, being the final rider, and having to produce the performance,” she explained.

Judy is used to being an individual at these shows, and another change in dynamic was that her husband Patrick wasn’t on the headset in the warm up. “Here in Rotterdam we have Johann Hinnemann with us, who I have trained with for many years, so when he is here then he is on the headset. But I will stop at some points in between and check a couple of things with Patrick!” she quipped.”

Hard graft

She was still reeling from the previous day’s performance when we sat down in Rotterdam, but had Thursday’s Grand Prix Special on her mind, and even skipped the late night celebrations on Monday to get her rest.

“Obviously I am extremely happy with yesterday’s performance. I am so happy with JP and just delighted that we have actually managed to qualify the team – something that was a bit of a pipe dream a couple of years ago.

“I’d be the first to say that two years ago, I didn’t think we would be able to do it, but we have really pulled together and it’s just truly amazing, but today it is back to work.”

And work is something Reynolds and Patrick do a lot of. Asked if the couple will take a well-earned holiday after all the success, she said: “Well that was Patrick’s first question yesterday seeing as our last holiday was many years ago!

“We do actually, very unusually for us, have three days off next week! I am looking forward to that. We might take holidays a bit later in the year, but I am eager to get back to my other horses as well. We have eight horses currently. I like to keep my home yard a little bit smaller because I like to be able to ride everything myself, I don’t like to have a big year where you don’t have an overview on everything.

“We do most of the work ourselves, we do have a girl with us at the moment but we do the vast majority ourselves. Libby [Dudman, JP’s groom] is freelance but she is a huge part of the team. I would be lost without her.”