THE North Munster Region of Dressage Ireland held a show on Sunday at the Roscrea Equestrian Centre where judges Vida Tansey and Jane Whitaker weren’t as busy as expected with a disappointing number of withdrawals throughout the day.

In the registered ranks, the two judges were agreed on their winning combination at Preliminary level, Natasha Mitchell and her Irish Sport Horse mare Wolf Bitz. In the DI5A, Whitaker awarded the pair a score of 68.21% while, in the BD15, Galway’s Tansey had them on 71.20.

While the 12-year-old Cavalier Two For Joy skewbald was bred in Co Louth by Sean Carter out of the Dutch Gold mare Moygrehan Daisy, it’s no surprise to learn that she was first produced on the Eventing Ireland scene by Kim O’Gorman who campaigned her for two seasons, 2017 and 2018. She had three outings under Camilla Speirs early in 2019 before Mitchell took over the ride and, since then, they have won and been placed at EI90 (Amateur) level.

A Novice double was recorded by Holly Boles and Donie McNamara’s home-bred ISH mare Commanche Moll who had just one rival pair, Eilis Kennedy and Joey Joseph, in both classes. In the Tansey-judged DI24A, Boles and her Waldo van Dungen 12-year-old scored 67.17%; in the Whitaker-assessed BD38, they achieved a score of 70.32.

Commanche Moll is the only produce registered on CapallOir out of the Commanche Run mare Chrisholm Trail who was sent off favourite when winning a bumper at Wexford in May 2018 under Patrick Mullins and when landing a maiden hurdle at Gowran Park the following month in the hands of Paul Townend, trained by Paul Nolan.

Bethany Mackey also completed a double with her Dutch Warmblood mare Kalahari. She and her seven-year-old Ferguson bay were awarded Whitaker’s top score of 71.25% in the Elementary DI55 while Tansey had them on 71.03 in the day’s only Medium class. Owen Smyth landed the Elementary BD57 with Dark Site (67.50), an 18-year-old black Hanoverian gelding by Don Frederico.