ONLY one judge, Ann Glynn (List 3A), was required for last Sunday’s Dressage Ireland Midland and Western Region show at the Clifden Pony Sales Arena where a low entry was further impacted by a number of withdrawals.

In the graded classes, the highest number of starters, five, contested the Preliminary DI6 where Glynn’s overall winner was Alana Cazabon riding the unregistered Loughmore Sambo (68.65%), a seven-year-old Connemara gelding by Brocklodge Buster.

Sinead McGrath won the second Preliminary competition, the three-runner DI18, with Ballyj Max (69.58) and then partnered that traditionally home-bred four-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Black Hero to see off three rivals in the Novice DI21 on 67.59. There were just three starters in the Novice DI24A where Sinead Heffernan posted the highest score with Ballyj Max’s six-year-old full-brother Bally J Casper (66.83).

Cadhla Curran narrowly claimed the overall honours in the three-runner Elementary DI52 on her mother Carmel’s six-year-old Cosmo Royale gelding Cosmo Rubin (68.75) and then recorded an uncontested FEI Pony Test double with the German-bred HS, an eight-year-old gelding by Valdez HS. Shirley Mullins likewise faced no opponents in the two Medium classes where she rode her Irish Draught mare Gortfree Revel, a liver chesnut daughter of Gortfree Hero.

There were solo victories too for Patricia Frost with Ballyj Spirit in the Elementary 56A (65.32), for Melanie King with Gortacleeva John in the second Advanced Medium class, the FEI Junior individual test (62.65), and for Sadhbh O’Toole with her Dutch Warmblood gelding Next Diamond (74) in the DI class for seven-year-olds. King and Gortacleeva John had to settle for second in the two-runner Advanced Medium DI90 behind Siobhan Cazabon on board the unregistered CB Let It Be (63.24), an 18-year-old ISH gelding by Ramiro B.

Only two of the five advertised Trailblazer classes attracted entries, the Preliminary DI6 where Alannah Joyce saw off four rivals to win with the Connemara gelding Branchfield Dandy (68.46), a 16-year-old grey by Glenayre Silver Fox, and the four-runner Intro B where Alannah Heanue came out on top with another Connemara gelding, the 27-year-old Ferdia grey Blackwood Dancer (67.65).