JANE Whitaker (List 1) travelled up from north Co Dublin to Portmore Equestrian last Saturday to judge at the Dressage Ireland Northern Region show, along with Lucinda Webb-Graham, who had completed her tour of duty at this year’s Baileys Horse Feeds flexi eventing series at The Meadows a week earlier.
Whitaker, who judged from Grand Prix to Under 10 Trailblazers level, faced her biggest field of 10 in the Preliminary DI16, where her overall leaderboard was headed on 69.60% by Karen McKee and her slowly-produced Irish Sport Horse gelding Furstlove KPCM (Furstenball - Lovely Lady VDM, by Governor). The six-year-old was bred locally by Karen Millar.
Eight combinations appeared before the same judge in the Elementary BD4, where she awarded her highest score (68.17) to Ellen McKeown riding her seven-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Michelangelo (Daily Diamond - Gerlinda, by Zivago). Half that number of starters performed the Medium BD4 test before Whitaker, who was most impressed by the work of Mary Devine and her 14-year-old black gelding Kingsman (66.88) while, at the same level, Joan Adrian was the sole starter in the DI73 with her KWPN-registered nine-year-old gelding Mathieu (Fabuleus - Charlotte, by Waldemar).
It was a similar story for Whitaker at Advanced Medium level, where there were four runners in the DI95 where the highest score (67.22) was recorded by Joanne McSeveney on Richard Finlay’s 21-year-old Westphalian gelding Enrico (Ehrentusch - Burgfee, by Silvio I). The sole competitor in the second class at this level, the FEI Junior Individual test, was Caroline Herron who scored 62.79 with Clantara Lord Louis (Hoeks Ludo W - Strandhill Misty, by Gentle Diamond), the nine-year-old ISH gelding she bred jointly with Lorraine Jackson.
Nicole Peoples recorded an uncontested double before Whitaker in the FEI Junior classes with Karen McKeown’s Dutch Warmblood gelding VSH Gangster (Zambuka - Pialinda E, by Kennedy), scoring 66.21 on the 15-year-old bay in the Team Test and 64.85 in the Individual.
Junior double
Riding for her mother Kathy, Annie Morrow, who was the only starter, won both Lucinda Webb-Graham-judged restricted Junior classes, scoring 68.04 in the Preliminary DI15 on the nine-year-old ISH gelding Don Pablo (Orador XLII - Ekateringburg, by Creevagh Grey Rebel) and 63.87 in the Novice DI23 on the grey’s stable-companion eight-year-old part-bred Welsh gelding Liberty’s Benjamin. Mentioned above, Karen McKee topped Webb-Graham’s scores in the 12-runner Preliminary DI15 with Furstlove KPCM (74.46).
The same judge assessed those forward in the two non-restricted Novice classes. In the five-runner BD4, her overall leaderboard was headed on 69.79 by Jacky Reid and the 14-year-old Connemara gelding Tooreen Hugo (Matchmakers Lad - Tooreen Bell, by Dooneen Just Joey). There were just two starters in the DI39, where Reid and the 14-year-old dun had to settle for second (66.38) behind Alice Salters and the 12-year-old ISH mare Drumiller Design (Cardento - Never, by Ballinvella), who scored 74.31.
Two combinations, Linda McIlwaine riding Roundthorn Oreo and Lisa Ferguson on Larkin, recorded a score of 64.83 in the Elementary DI53, where Ferguson gets the nod as she had the higher collective score (60.5 to 59.5) with her 17-year-old skewbald gelding.
There were just three starters in that class before Webb-Graham as there were in the Trailblazers Junior (12-16) Preliminary won by Tommy Wakfer on Carmens Novello (64.60). Ebony Picken recorded an uncontested win in front of the same judge in the Junior Novice with Dalways Perseus (61.13), while Maeve McGinn saw off one rival when winning the Whitaker-judged Under 10 class on Ruby (69.44).