THE South East Region of Dressage Ireland held its Summer Festival last weekend at Spruce Lodge in Co Wicklow where the fixture attracted competitors from across the island and a title sponsor in NutriScience, the award-winning nutraceutical company based in Waterford.

It was disappointing that the Grand Prix Special, which had looked so competitive at the entry stage, saw only Rachel Dowley and Cadens come before Dermot Cannon on Saturday but the Carrick-On-Suir rider, who is member of the host region, was thrilled with her score of 68.35%.

“Babe was just brilliant!” said Dowley of her 13-year-old Hochadel gelding who she is aiming at the three-star international show at Keysoe in October. “I had a good result too with Just A Ball B.S., who (very comfortably) won the Elementary championship.

“It was a really good show with a great atmosphere and felt like a surrogate national championships.”

In defeat, Dowley was fulsome in her praise of Carolyn Mellor’s VSH Gouverneur M who, on a score of 66.63%, finished ahead of Cadens (65.54) in the Niall Smyth Equestrian Grand Prix on Sunday when, again, Cannon was the judge. “He is a really exciting horse and looks a real international prospect for the future,” said Dowley of the nine-year-old Glock’s Voice gelding.

Mellor, who runs the Vision Sport Horses yard near Comber, won the Big Tour with VSH Gouverneur M although, on Saturday, the tall, brown Dutch Warmblood finished second (66.91%) in the Vida Tansey-judged Intermediare II to his stable-companion, VSH Beaulero (67.13), Mellor’s 14-year-old son of Sandreo.

Another Northern Region member who spent a rewarding two days at Spruce Lodge was Gransha Equestrian’s Courtney Stuart who won the Preliminary and Novice championships on Favorino, her five-year-old stallion by Follow Me out of a Hannoverian mare, and the Advanced title with HH Empire, an eight-year-old black stallion by Bretton Woods.

Tara Oliver headed back down to Limerick on Sunday as the winner of the Medium championship with the British-bred Senators Rhonaldo, a gelding by Rhondeo, while Co Tipperary native Rosemary Gaffney claimed the Advanced Medium title with Chantal 2, her 11-year-old black Hannoverian mare by Christ.

Oliver and Senators Rhonaldo also won Sunday’s six-year-old class while JAG Equestrian-based Sorrell Klatzko topped the scores in the four-year-old class with her home-bred Irish Sport Horse mare Don Juans Doll, a chesnut by Don Juan de Hus out of Desert Doll (by Desert Moon), and in the five-year-old class with Andrea O’Brien’s Khalfani AS, a chesnut gelding by Sezuan. These age classes were all judged indoors by Derval Diamond.

Co Tipperary’s Shauna Fitzgibbon, non-travelling reserve for the Irish European pony championship team, comprehensively won both pony classes over the weekend with the 14-year-old Damocles LL, a son of Chinnor Democrat.

Also from Co Tipperary talented Junior rider Sive Kearney, who was on the Irish pony team at the 2017 European championships, won the Small Tour with the tall 15-year-old Ruben Cortes gelding Rob Roy.

On Saturday, 16-year-old Kearney topped Vida Tansey’s marks in the Prix St Georges on a score of 66.62% ahead of Sorrell Klatzko on Turbo (66.54) and Courtney Stuart on HH Empire (66.18).

In Sunday’s Intermediare I, judged by Dermot Cannon, Kearney and Rob Roy won on 65.81, with the Northern Region’s Lisa Dundee finishing second on Déjà vu Roundthorn (63.97) and Klatzko placing third on Turbo (63.53).

Kearney also competed in the Shanaclune Dentistry-sponsored freestyle section on Sunday when she and Rob Roy won the Intermediate I on 68%.

After the two days’ action, Sive and her mother Ciara Egan arrived home in Clogheen around midnight which, Egan revealed, gave her just enough time to get uniforms sorted for the first day back at school on Monday.

Freestyle classes

While the majority of classes were contested in the outdoor arenas, the freestyle classes were held indoors where the best-supported class was the Medium won by Rosemary Gaffney and Chantal 2.

Saturday’s Collette Ward Interiors-sponsored Trailblazers’ section was also staged indoors and here there were podium-topping performances from Mia Perry on the 19-year-old skewbald mare Mulveys Marble (mini), Anna Hudson Carlstrom on the six-year-old grey gelding Borris Graphite (Junior) and Maeve Magee Katz who, unopposed, won both senior classes on the traditionally-bred ISH mare Ladys Independence, a 13-year-old bay by Rock Hopper.

“It was a great weekend of high-class dressage and NutriScience were very proud to support this Festival and the wider dressage community in Ireland,” said Faith Morris, marketing manager of the company which offered a prize-fund worth €1,500.

All competitors, and their restricted number of supporters, were agreed that it was a very enjoyable and successful Summer Festival, despite social-distancing pressures.