THE sole Dressage Ireland-affiliated fixture to run in opposition to the Dublin Horse Show last weekend was staged by the Northern Region on Saturday at Danescroft where the judging duties were undertaken by Dermot Cannon (List 1), Coreen Abernethy (List 4) and Yvonne Chisholm (List 4).

Lisa Dundee recorded an Elementary double on RoundThorn Nice N Easy, the seven-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare home-bred in Co Antrim by owner Patricia Connon. In the DI51, where 13 of the 18 entries appeared before Abernethy, Dundee and the brown daughter of Formidable scored 70.74% while in the eight-runner Cannon-assessed DI56A, they achieved a mark of 68.71.

The biggest field Cannon faced after that was in the FEI 4* eventing test where all four horses were partnered by Joseph Murphy. The winner on 68.33% was the syndicate-owned Calmaro, a 14-year-old grey gelding by Carpalano, one of two horses Murphy has entered at Burghley (September 4th to 7th) and one of two with whom he has been long listed for the European eventing championships at Blenheim Palace (September 17th to 21st).

Caroline Herron recorded a cross-grade double in front of Cannon on her home-bred ISH gelding Clantara Lord Louis. The first of these was uncontested in the Medium DI67 (64.25%), while Herron and her Hoeks Ludo W seven-year-old scored 62.94 in the Advanced Medium class (FEI Junior individual test) where their sole rivals retired. In the other Advanced Medium class (FEI Junior team test), Mark Robinson was similarly left to do a solo run on Debbie Burns’s Master Caledonia (66.06), a 12-year-old black Hanoverian gelding by Metall.

Also in front of Cannon, there were uncontested wins for Roma Oakes on her 15-year-old Anglo European Studbook-registered gelding Radar (64.53% in the Medium DI65), for Barbara Ellison with her eight-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Moonlight (56.14 in the Advanced), for Eilish Smith on her 12-year-old sport horse mare Sheepcote Jamboree (65.15 in the Prix St George), for Yvette Truesdale riding Linda Telford’s 16-year-old ISH mare Homegrown Ajax (61.47 in the Inter 1) and for Laragh O’Grady with her own 14-year-old ISH gelding Mullentine Emerald Wolfe Tone (62.17 in the Grand Prix).

Cosgrave bounces back

Following her disappointing late withdrawal with Let’s Dance from the European dressage for children championships at Le Mans, Co Meath’s Millie Cosgrave travelled north on Saturday to contest the two Cannon-judged FEI children on horses tests on her mother Sarah Mellor’s home-bred Hotshot, scoring 68.30% (team test) and 67.22 (individual test) on the 15-year-old Hotline mare.

Riding Louise Doheny’s 14-year-old warmblood mare San Rose, a dark bay daughter of Sir Donnerhall, Cosgrave won both dedicated Junior classes, the Coreen Abernethy-judged two-runner Novice DI21 (69.48%) and the Yvonne Chisholm-judged Preliminary DI8 (70.58) in which there were four starters.

Ten combinations contested the Preliminary DI18 in front of Abernethy whose overall leaderboard was headed by Caitriona Cody riding the German sport horse mare Lougherne Contessa (68.13%), an 11-year-old bay daughter of Cassini I. There were 11 starters in the Abernethy-judged Novice DI24A where the highest score was achieved by Jane Allen-Collins on her ISH mare Lougherne Atlanta (69.50), a nine-year-old Antaeus bay.

Seven combinations appeared before Chisholm in the Preliminary DI8 where she awarded her top score of 72.31% to Amy Clarke on board her Connemara gelding Rachra Supreme, a nine-year-old grey by Ballybeg JJ.

Chisholm started her day assessing the three combinations forward in the DI Intro B, where her winner on 70% was Chantelle Tanner riding the 17-year-old Barnaby Flight mare Curtos Star while she also judged the three Trailblazer classes won by Anna Ryan on Bobby (66.11 in the Under 10s), Emily Melvin with Ballygarris Robe (65.40 in the Under 12s) and Ebony Picken with Dalways Perseus (71.20 in the Junior Preliminary).

The next show in the Northern Region is the final of the Healys Haylage summer league which takes place on Sunday, September 7th at The Meadows.