THE very busy Barnadown was venue last weekend for the Dressage Ireland South East Region’s annual NutriScience Classic, where there were 274 entries in total over the two days, and over €5,000 was awarded in prize money.
“The Classic was the brainchild of Gerd and Wouter Liekens back in 2012,” said the Region’s chairperson Lynne Cassidy, “and its success and popularity has increased year on year since then. At our new venue in Barnadown, this edition was no exception and our longstanding partnership with Nutriscience Equine makes running premier shows like this possible.”
Higher grades
In the higher graded championships, the highest Category 3 score (137.33%) was recorded at Advanced Medium level by our own Rachel Dowley on board her eight-year-old Hanoverian gelding GFL Flashdance.
Dowley also placed third (134.15) on GFL Nava, narrowly losing out on a one-two finish as Kevin Acres claimed the runner-up spot with Con McCarthy’s Nybola Turfhorst (134.34); second and third are both eight-year-old Dutch Warmblood mares. The category 2 Advanced Medium championship was won by Taylor Deane on Insticator BS (130.27), a 13-year-old KWPN-registered gelding who was previously campaigned by Dowley.
Lucy McCarthy was the comfortable winner of the small tour championship with her father Con’s Lloyd W (133.89), another 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, while, on a combined score of 130.52, Category 3 rider Gilly Crawford had little trouble in landing the Advanced title on her Sport Horse mare Majestic Heartbreaker (Womanizer – Flojo, by Mr Majestic), a 10-year-old bay bred by Veronica Agnew.
Before heading over to Aachen where she will attend the FEI world dressage championships in her role as Horse Sport Ireland’s dressage high performance manager, Category 3 competitor Anne Marie Dunphy recorded the highest overall score (135.33) in the Medium championship at Barnadown on her six-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Pedigree OK.
Lucy McCarthy and Lloyd W won the Nutriscience small tour championship at the SER Nutriscience Classic \ Louise O'Brien Photography
Oscar O’Connor finished second overall when topping the Category 2 scores (133.54) at medium with the Oldenburg mare Funkstar who he owns in partnership with his mother Susan.
However, the Co Wexford rider and the seven-year-old chesnut proved unbeatable at Elementary level where they posted the comfortable overall top score of 146.69.
In finishing second (139.48) in the Category 2 championship, Clare Farrell won the Treo Eile-sponsored prize for the top-placed thoroughbred on the 17-year-old French-bred Irish Wells gelding Renneti. Hannah Fielding claimed the Category 2 Elementary championship having scored 138.64 on board her eight-year-old Hanoverian mare DWS Firelight.
Uncontested victory
Category 2 rider Karen Burke recorded an uncontested victory in the Para Grade V championship with her seven-year-old Westphalian gelding Secret Desire hw (137%).
The overall winner at Preliminary level was Category 2 rider Karen McKee who scored an impressive 149.59 on her six-year-old Karen Millar-bred ISH gelding Furstlove KPCM (Furstenball – Lovely Lady VDM, by Governor). Second overall, and winner of the Category 3 title on 144.85 was Gerald Bloomer with his five-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Ready To Shine AVO.
Topping the Category 1 table on 141.63 was Faith Jackson on her own Kilquinn Pride (Grange Bouncer – Amber Gold, by Ruffo), a 17-year-old Traditional ISH gelding bred by Aoibheann Bartley. Here, Megan Stokes was awarded the Treo Eile thoroughbred prize when placing second among the Category 1 riders on the 10-year-old Garswood gelding Woods (137.56).
On 140.53, McKee topped the Category 2 scores with Furstlove KPCM in the Novice championship which was won by Category 1 rider Bee Sykes with the 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding Con Caballito (143.81).
There were three dedicated Junior championships which were won by Amelia Jones on the 14-year-old mare Banner Seoidin (135.78 at Preliminary level), by Amy Fox with the seven-year-old mare Little Miss Mocha (125.28 at Novice level) and by Emma Barry with the 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Hadrian C de Jeu (130.07).
On Sunday, the Trailblazer titles were won by Laura Hayes on the 17-year-old skewbald gelding Mr Jolly Jumper (66.18 in the Under 10s’ championship), by Felicity Jones with Banner Seoidin (63.60 in the Under 12s) and by Amelia Santos with the Treo Eile award winning Dapple Delight, a nine-year-old Zededee gelding (67.90 in the Novice (12 to 16)).
DAFM young horse classes
In the DAFM young horse classes, there were wins for Dale Roberts who scored 75.4 with Lana Cheney’s home-bred ISH gelding Designed For Me (Morricone I – Designed For You, by Destano) in the FEI competition for four-year-olds; for Gerald Bloomer who scored 71.6 with Ready To Shine AVO in the DI national test for five-year-olds; for Anne Marie Dunphy who achieved a score of 77.6 with Pedigree OK in the DI national test for six-year-olds; and for Rachel Dowley who scored 71.6 on GFL Flashdance in the DI national test for seven-year-olds.
On Monday, the overall winners of the non-championship classes were Melanie Hammel on her 17-year-old bay gelding Taylor Dandy (71.43 in the Preliminary 5A); for Aisling Quinn with her home-bred six-year-old ISH gelding Extraordinary Times (Jack The Robin – Try Time Diva, by Try Time (68.28 in the Novice 21; for John Gavin with his 10-year-old ISH gelding Holywell Spark (Cobra – Oneforthenotebook, by Contador) (68.33 in the Elementary 51); and for Hannah Lynam on the six-year-old Hanoverian mare Dark Diamond (67.97 in the Medium 65).