THE Irish para dressage team have finished on the podium taking third in the CPEDI3* team competition at CHI Al Shaqab in Doha, Qatar. Ireland finished on a team total of 382.212 with Belgium taking victory on 418.738 and The Netherlands second on 407.930. The final individual Freestyle competition takes place today (Saturday) and will be live-streamed at 7.30am Irish time on www.alshaqab.com

Grade III athlete Kate Kerr-Horan was best of the Irish on day one, slotting into second place in the division with Broomfield Farm’s eight-year-old mare Serafina T, on a score of 68.18%. A couple of minor mistakes in Friday’s test saw the Equine Business graduate drop marks and finish on 66.53%, for fourth .

Speaking to The Irish Field about the facilities in Al Shaqab, Kerr-Horan said: “I could never have imagined it could be like this. Coming out I was wondering what it would be like, but I couldn’t have imagined this.”

British-based Michael Murphy was happy to improve on his first score of 59.50% in Thursday’s Grade I test, when unfortunately he went over the time allowed before starting his test and was deducted two points from all three judges. He came back fighting on Friday morning with the lovely chesnut gelding Rogan, owned by Sue Murphy, and scored 64.94% to finish fourth.

Rosemary Jean Gaffney’s mount Bink, a 13-year-old gelding owned by Susan Smallman and Crea English, found the atmosphere at the huge arena intense and struggled to settle into his test on Thursday. The experienced Gaffney recovered well to do some nice extended trot and canter work, ending on a score of 59.95%.

They also improved on that score on Friday, and while the grey did still see some ghosts at the far end of the arena, an improved score of 60.16% was awarded by the judges, to once again finish sixth.

Gaffney chose to bring Bink to the show after her experienced mare Warona needed time to recover from a stone bruise. “Unfortunately Bink enjoyed the party a little bit too much when he came out here. He kept seeing ghosts and made it quite difficult for me. He has huge potential and he is very talented, but he is a cheeky monkey,” Gaffney said.

Kate Kerr-Horan and Serafina T placed second in their CPEDI3* Grade III para dressage test at the CHI Al Shaqab in Doha. Photo Al Shaqab

Riding at the highest level, Grade V, Tamsin Addison, who is also British-based, also put in two good tests with her own eight-year-old Fahrenheit. The big bay gelding broke into canter on one occasion but finished strong to score 61.07% yesterday.

PROUD

Chef d’equipe Dara Kearney and team trainer Donie McNamara are extremely proud of their team, who are coping extremely well in the intense Qatari heat.

“The atmosphere here is huge and it is the riders’ first time experiencing it, and the first international since last July.

“There have been a few blips but all the riders coped very well with the conditions and I am very proud of them,” Kearney said.

While the competition takes place indoors, the athletes have to warm up outside, and that is taking its toll. “Riders warm up outside, and these are para riders, the intensity of the heat outside, it does take its toll energy wise, whether we want to believe it or not. I think they have handled it remarkably well,” said McNamara.