WEATHER-WISE, they didn’t have the best of starts at Knockagh View last Saturday for the latest show staged by the Northern Region of Dressage Ireland.

Entries were on the small side and, because of withdrawals, the largest number of starters in any class was seven and, on both occasions, it was unregistered horses who came to the fore.

In the Preliminary BD4 judged by Mark Robinson (List 6), Grace Hurrell comfortably topped the overall scores with the Irish Sport Horse mare Poppy Diamonds (73.64%), a nine-year-old bay by Mermus R. Lucinda Webb-Graham (List 4) judged the Novice BD4 where she awarded her highest score to Jacqui Lewis with the 15-year-old piebald gelding Dunore Fast And Furious (68.96) who his owner/rider describes as “a sweetheart”.

Webb-Graham also judged the other two Novice classes, the three-runner DI24A won by Ros Morgan with the unregistered Vos Surprise (72.17), a 12-year-old Anglo European Studbook-registered gelding by Voss, and the Junior DI24A where Molly Byrne recorded an uncontested victory on board Michael Boyd’s German riding pony Rostrevor Ard Ri (71).

Six combinations came before the same judge in the Preliminary DI15, where she awarded her highest score (73.21) to Debbie Cherry with the 10-year-old roan mare Kilmullen Pebbles. There was only one rider in the Webb-Graham-judged Junior Preliminary (DI7), Annie Morrow riding for her mother Kathy, who won on the ISH gelding Don Pablo (69.82), a seven-year-old grey by Orador XLII, and was second with Liberty’s Benjamin (69.11).

Joanne Jarden (List 1) judged the eight higher graded classes, awarding her highest score of 73.59 in the six-runner Medium BD4 to Joanne McSeveney on board Enrico, Louise Doheny’s 20-year-old Westphalian gelding by Ehrenrusch. There were just two starters in the other Medium class, the DI77, where the narrow winner was Sharon Getty on her ISH mare Taptoo (63.43), an 11-year-old bay by Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan.

There were six starters in the day’s sole Elementary class, the BD4, where Hollie Donnan topped the overall leaderboard with the Oldenburg mare Suzie Seagry (68), a Tolegro nine-year-old.

Rebecca McCauley won both Advanced Medium classes on Fabiana, first claiming the four-runner DI90 on a score of 68.68 before recording an uncontested victory on 66.18 in the BD5 with her 14-year-old Hanoverian mare by Fifty Cent.

There were higher level wins for three Dutch Warmblood geldings. Joan Adrain saw off one rival when landing the sole Advanced class, the DI100, on board Moviestar (68.86), her eight-year-old Johnson bay. Up from Co Kildare, Marguerite Kavanagh recorded an uncontested win in the Grand Prix with Danciano SR (67.39), her 17-year-old bay by Lanciano, and it was a similar story for Erin McCoy on board her mother Jane’s 19-year-old Johnson bay Bjornsun (69.41).

The Northern Region’s penultimate show of 2025 takes place next Saturday, November 29th, at Laurel View.