IRELAND’s Roland Tong and Rybrook Ambience placed third in the Superflex Grand Prix Kür (Freestyle to Music) at Hartpury CDI***, last Saturday.

The Irish national champion impressed the international ground jury to produce a personal best score of 73.325% with his ‘Peter Pan’ themed freestyle. The president of the ground jury, Germany’s Peter Holler, scored the freestyle at 74.625%. A remarkable performance by a combination that only made their international big tour debut at Hartpury three-star last year.

British Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin scored 90.625% with Valegro in the Superflex Grand Prix Kür with another British rider Henriette Andersen and Warlocks Charm in second place on 73.875%.

In addition, Ireland’s Courtney Stuart and Fanfarron 8 produced an international personal best performance when scoring 68.263% to place fifth in the Intermédiaire 1 class at the venue, a qualifier for the Intermédiaire 1 Freestyle to Music class last Sunday. Another Irish combination, Carolyn Mellor and VSH Zugaro, also qualified in 11th place, achieving a score of 66.526%.

Courtney Stuart said “I’m delighted, the test was quite polished from beginning to end, which makes us competitive. A big thanks to my trainer Anne Marie Dunphy; without her I wouldn’t have achieved this result.”

Carolyn Mellor said “I was really pleased to qualify for the freestyle in our first international, it certainly is a bonus and it has been a great experience coming here to compete. Onwards and upwards for the future.”

The Intermédiaire 1 class was won by Britain’s Michael Eilberg and Woodlander Farouche on 76.631%. Another British combination Thomas Goode (Sam Geddes) scored 73.421% for second place from 26 starters.