THE South East Region of Dressage Ireland ran their penultimate show of the year in beautiful autumnal weather last Sunday at Ballyrogan Stud which will also be the venue for their final fixture of 2025 on Saturday, October 25th.

Only two judges, Jane Whitaker (List 1) and Jean Halpenny (List 3) were required for duty as there were no entries for a large number of the advertised classes, which ran from Intro Trailblazers up to Grand Prix. Two SER committee members topped the overall scoreboards in both Preliminary classes.

Rita Naughton did so in the 13-runner Whitaker-judged DI5A on the unregistered Caramelo Indie (69.46%), a six-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare by Sligo Candy Boy. Amy-Jo Peskens repeated the feat on the day’s highest open score (69.62) in the Halpenny-assessed DIP6 on her Leisure Horse Ireland-registered KASH Zowie’s Stardust.

Peskens and her five-year-old bay mare by Maplevalley Master Class also topped the Category 2 scores on 67.41 in the Novice DI21 but here Halpenny’s overall winner was Sophie Orr riding the Connemara mare Tirnaskea Starstruck (68.62), a 10-year-old grey by Kays Moonlight. Whitaker’s winner of the Novice DI27A under Melanie Hammel was the unregistered Taylor Dandy (68.10), a 16-year-old bay gelding with no recorded pedigree.

The judges were agreed on their Elementary winner, Iris Walshe riding Olaf Van Lange Weeren. In the Halpenny-assessed, four-runner DI52, Walshe and her Dutch Warmblood gelding scored 68.33 while Whitaker awarded the Category 3 rider and her tall Hennessy six-year-old a score of 68.93 in the DI55 in which there were five starters.

Champion

Six Junior classes were advertised, but only the two at Preliminary level received any entries. Both were won (on 71.25 (DI5A) and on 70.58 (DI6)) by young Newcastle Lyons Pony Club member Lucy Ferris on board her mother Mary’s Connemara gelding Woodfield Sammy, a bay nine-year-old with whom she is the reigning EI90 (P) national champion.

Zara Glennon Cully recorded an uncontested victory in the Halpenny-judged Medium DI61 with her ISH gelding Sika Moores Clover (66.72), an eight-year-old bay by Moore’s Clover, as did young Evie Kennedy on Hilary Kavanagh’s Spanish-bred gelding Cordobes XXXVI (64.24) in the Whitaker-judged Advanced Medium class (64.24).

Before the same judge, Kennedy and the 22-year-old son of Jardon next won the Advanced DI100, their score of 64.14 being enough to see off their sole rivals, Barbara Ellison and her Dutch Warmblood mare Moonlight. Ellison and the eight-year-old black daughter of Glocks Toto Jr were the only starters in the second Advanced class where they scored 61.72.

Uncontested victories were also recorded before Whitaker in the Intermediate I by Jennifer Egan and her Dutch Warmblood gelding Gabriël-Tetti (63.68), a 14-year-old Florencio bay, and in the Grand Prix by David Feeney and Stephen Byrne’s nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding CLS Bram (65.22).

Halpenny judged the three Trailblazers’ classes where her winner of both the Intro A (67.22) and the Under 12s’ competition (68.80) was Clodagh Cross riding her mother Tracey’s 16-year-old bay gelding Rathfarnham Bust A Move. Amelia Santos recorded an uncontested win in the Preliminary class on board Emo (64.40).

Back to the non-restricted Preliminary section where Gabriella Farries, who only recently joined Dressage Ireland, topped the Category 1 scores in both classes (69.11 in the DI5A and 69.23 in the DI6) on board her ISH gelding Inis Freedom, a six-year-old chesnut by Young Carrabawn.