WHILE two of them were home-based, it was good to see four combinations contest the two FEI Junior Tests at the Dressage Ireland Midland and Western Region show at Annaharvey Farm on Sunday.

Donie McNamara (List 1) judged both and awarded his highest score in both to Evie Kennedy with her mother Maeve’s Spanish-bred gelding Cordobes XXXVI (Jardon - Oleada IV, by Distinto II), who had also been on the mark in the sole FEI Junior class at Sika Equestrian on Saturday.

Category 3 rider Kennedy and the 23-year-old grey achieved a score of 67.58% in the Team Test and 67.94 in the Individual.

In both instances, Maeve Deverell posted the best score of the Category 2 competitors with her mother Aisling’s 13-year-old home-bred Irish Sport Horse gelding Annaharvey Dunowen, scoring 66.52 and 67.35 respectively.

Cassandra Morris celebrated her birthday by recording an uncontested double before McNamara in the Medium DI67 (66.36) and the FEI Para Grade V Intermediate Test A (67.86) on her 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Lots Of Joy (Negro - Ziriska C, by Krack C). Jane Moggan also posted an uncontested win (68.83) in front of the same judge in the Elementary DI53 on board her 14-year-old British Sport Horse gelding Flying Solo (Kannan - Brise De Maupertui, by Perval).

Four combinations performed the Novice DI39 test in a heavy shower in front of McNamara, who awarded his highest score of 68.62 to Niamh Macken on her 11-year-old Irish Draught gelding Diamond King Henry (King Alton - Wicklow Diamonds, by Rosheen Yeats). Sinead McGrath had to settle for second (66.72) in that class with Ballyj Max (Black Hero - Memories Of Emly, by Pilsudski), but she and the five-year-old home-bred gelding had earlier beaten their rivals (70 to 67.58) in the DI23.

That four-runner class was judged by David Lee (List 3), who had just two pairings to assess in the Elementary E52, awarding his higher score (62.36) to Katie Owens on the DI-unregistered Terbofens Queen Two (Quaterback’s Junior - Terbofens Charmante Princess, by Charm Of Nibeungen), a 10-year-old German Riding Pony.

Lee also had just four to judge in the Preliminary DI16. Again, he went for an unregistered horse when awarding his highest score to the Lydia Peisley-ridden 23-year-old bay gelding Big Buddy (63). It was a similar situation in the seven-strong DI4 in the short arena, where his overall winner on 69.4 was the Paula Tracy-partnered AJS Carrabawn Cruise (Carrabawn Cross - Drumneath Antwerp Cruise, by Atlantic Cruise), an eight-year-old ISH gelding who the rider also competes with Showjumping Ireland.