FOUR riders recorded doubles at last Saturday’s North Munster Region show in Garranemore Equestrian, Tallula Hughes doing so at Preliminary level on the 18-year-old skewbald gelding Lightning McQueen.

In the nine-runner DI8, judged by Dermot Cannon (List 1), the pair scored 69.42% while in the seven-starter DI18, judged by Ann Glynn (List 3a), Hughes and her mother Tara’s Welsh-cross cob topped the overall leaderboard on 67.71.

Caroline Marwood posted a cross-Grade double with her eight-year-old bay gelding Kylard Bruce, scoring 67.93% in the Glynn-judged Novice DI21 and 66.11 in the Cannon-assessed Elementary DI51.

Lucy Cusack actually partnered three winners but recorded an Advanced Medium double on her Dutch Warmblood gelding Kirktown, she and the Uptown 10-year-old being awarded a mark of 63.38% by Glynn in the DI90 and 62.27 by Cannon in the FEI Junior team test.

Cusack was the only starter in the Cannon-judged Advanced class where she and her Dutch Warmblood mare Gavelle Ter Kwincke were awarded a score of 60%. In the two-runner Prix St George which was also judged by Cannon, Cusack and her 14-year-old Ravel bay had to settle for second (61.76) behind Killian Gaffney and his Holstein gelding Coretto (63.82).

Gaffney and his 15-year-old black son of Chepetto then brought up a double in the Cannon-judged Intermediate I where they recorded an uncontested victory on 62.35. Having won the 22-runner veteran horse class at the previous weekend’s Association of Irish Riding Clubs’ Festival at the Mullingar Equestrian Centre, Owen Smyth and his Hanoverian gelding Dark Site, a 21-year-old son of Don Frederico, had little trouble in holding off three rivals here in the Medium DI65 where Glynn awarded them a score of 64.06.

In the Graded competitions, the highest score of the day (71.43%) was achieved by Jennifer Haverty on her traditionally-bred Iceford Diamond, a 16-year-old Gentle Diamond gelding, in the Preliminary DI5a in the short arena. There were six runners in that class which was judged by Elena Satalkina (List 5) who only had to assess one combination in the Trailblazers’ section where she awarded Vincent O’Hara a score of 71.79 for his test on Melissa O’Donnell’s 21-year-old ISH gelding Flintstone B (by Kings Master).