MORE than a few soggy festive jumpers had to be wrung out following Sunday’s Dressage Ireland Leinster Region Christmas show at CoilÓg where riders competed in the rain all day.

A quick glance at the results showed a programme which ran from class 1 to class 57 and, even if there were gaps in that numerical sequence, the organisers had to engage five judges, viz Dermot Cannon and Bernie Foley from List 1, Jillie Rogers (List 3), Alison Thorne (List 5) and Jane Averill (List 6) for what was a large entry. There were a lot of withdrawals.

In the regular Graded classes winning scores of 70% or more were recorded at all levels, notably in the Foley-judged four-runner FEI Grand Prix by Sorrell Klatzko and her tall Westphalian gelding Turbo (70.76%), a 12-year-old bay by Totilas - Falbala, by Florestan I. Cannon wasn’t as generous with his marks, but did award a score of 69.26 to Millie Cosgrave on Louise Doheny’s 14-year-old Warmblood mare San Rose (by Sir Donnerhall), the only starters in the FEI Children Team Test class.

Riding her 17-year-old chesnut gelding DBS Second Chance (71.57), Lorna O’Hare topped the overall scores in the Medium DI77 where five combinations came before Rogers. The latter also awarded winning scores of 70%+ to Kate Moore with the unregistered The Blue Diamond (70.54) in the Junior Elementary DI55 and to Kate Hutcheson on Ard Love (75.52) in the high-scoring Novice DI21.

Jane Averil’s winner of the Junior Preliminary DI8 was Lauren Blake riding the unregistered Little Miss Breeze (70.58) with Bonnie O’Neill claiming the overall honours in the Preliminary DI15 in the short arena on board Unbeatable Z (71.43). Averill judged two of the five Trailblazers’ classes as did Thorne but the highest score in this section, 72.90, was award by Cannon to the Novice winner Ben Baker on Small Print.

There were Freestyle classes from Trailblazers walk/trot level upwards with the highest score in this division being the uncontested 74 achieved by Heather Lemmon on Ladychapel Narnia in the FEI Para Grade 1 Grand Prix. That was judged by Cannon who awarded a score of 71.11 to Beth Earle on Three Girls And A Dolly, the sole combination in the Preliminary class.