THE South Munster Region of Dressage Ireland held a show last Sunday at Maryville Stables where the judges were Marie Hennessy (List 2), Paula Geiger (List 3) and Shota Niikura (List 6).
Geiger judged the day’s best supported class, the Preliminary 5A, where Alison Geary saw off nine rivals when scoring 70% on the unregistered ‘Beau’.
Other overall winning scores of 70% or more were recorded by Peter O’Hara on Limited Edition (80.28) in the Niikura-judged, three-runner Trailblazers Intro A and by Caroline Lynch with Rebel Bandit (70.8) in the Hennessy-assessed Preliminary 16, in which there were four starters.
Lynch was to complete a double in front of Hennessy in the DI national four-year-old test where the Irish Draught gelding Rebel Bandit (72) a son of Rebel Mountain, was beaten into second by his stable-companion Slieve Boy (76), a Connemara gelding by Classiebawn Hughs Promise.
Ana Hughes also recorded a double on two different horses in front of Geiger, landing the five-runner Elementary 55 with the 13-year-old bay gelding Ballycahane Billy (69.36) and the four-strong, Medium 77 with the 17-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Sligo Dark Knight (69).
Grainne Murphy also partnered two winners, seeing off three rivals in the Novice 24A on board the five-year-old Portuguese Sport Horse gelding Ravi (66.67) before recording an uncontested victory in the Advanced Medium 95 on her 10-year-old Pura Raza Espanola gelding Flamenco CCLXXXV (65.97).
Both of those classes were judged by Hennessy as were the two Para Grade IV classes, where the sole starter was Rosemary Gaffney on her eight-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Norabel, and the two Para Grade 1 classes where Clodagh Walsh recorded uncontested victories on Gaffney’s 17-year-old Hanoverian mare Chantal.
In the two AIRC classes judged by Niikura, Emma Mangan achieved the score of 70% on board Glentrague Melody in the Preliminary 7 while, in the Preliminary 15, Margaret Manning held off her sole challenger when awarded a score of 70.19 for her test on Apachi.