MOST riders appear to have given themselves a break following the Premier Performance Dressage Ireland national winter finals as there was a small entry for last Saturday’s Midland and Western Region show at Louise and Sophia Doheny’s Slieve Bloom Stud.

Withdrawals on the day further reduced the number of tests judged by Michael Moore (List 2A) who surprisingly faced his largest field, six, in the Prix St George. This was won by Co Kildare’s Tara Hayes who scored 69.41% on her mother Fiona’s Dutch Warmblood gelding Ferrero K.

Hayes also partnered the Apache 15-year-old to see off their sole rivals in the Inter I, where they scored 71.18%, while she recorded an uncontested victory in the FEI Young Riders’ Preliminary test with Fiona’s home-bred Irish Sport Horse mare Sandora BS (69.22), a nine-year-old daughter of Spielberg.

Sophia Doheny, who finished second in the Prix St George on Peru’s Casablanca C (69.12%), landed the two-runner FEI Junior team test with her mother Louise’s Dutch Warmblood gelding Gucci du Feuillard (68.33), a 14-year-old bay by Romanov Blue Hors. Second there on 67.88, Evie Kennedy and Hilary Cavanagh’s Pura Raza Espanol gelding Cordobes XXXVI, a 22-year-old Jardon grey, recorded an uncontested 67.06 in the Individual test.

Two combinations started in both FEI Pony Rider tests, splitting the honours between them. In the Individual test, Mai Monahan fared the better (65.78% to 64.73) on her mother Penny’s Connemara gelding Carrickfad Cloud Break, a 12-year-old grey by Castle Gigolo, while in the Team test, Cadhla Curran recorded the higher score (68.57 to 66.57) with her mother Carmel’s German Riding Pony HS, an eight-year-old son of Valdez HS.

On a solo run in the FEI Children’s class, Millie Cosgrave posted the day’s highest score (71.25%) on board her mother Sarah Mellor’s 18-year-old Oldenburg mare Let’s Dance (by Sir Donnerhall). The busy Abbey Ferris landed the day’s five-runner Preliminary class with her mother Mary’s unregistered Connaght Curlew (67.88), an eight-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare by Easy Living.

Due to withdrawals, there were just two starters in the Elementary class won by Myriam Bunter on her ex-racehorse Star Of Rubykan (64.29%), a 12-year-old Arakan gelding, and in the Medium class which was comfortably won by Taylor Deane riding her Dutch Warmblood gelding Insticator B.S. (65.94), a 12-year-old bay son of Florencio.

There should have been five starters in the day’s Novice class but two withdrawals resulted in a starting line-up of three. Unfortunately, two of those who commenced the DI27A had to retire leaving Kate Moore to claim the honours on Bridie Maughan’s 14-year-old grey mare The Blue Diamond (65.86%).

One of those retirements came when a horse kicked out and shattered one of the arena mirrors.

“The shattered glass was very spooky for a lot of horses unfortunately,” commented Louise. “On the other hand, the international riders competing welcomed the opportunity to be able to work their horses through a situation like this and our judge, Michael Moore, was very understanding and gave really helpful advice to the riders. We plan to have many more shows over the coming months. We really enjoy hosting them and usually have to close the entries early to keep it manageable. We had a busy weekend here at the stud with plenty of stallion coverings,” concluded Doheny.