THE very much in-form partnership of Karen McKee and her six-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Furstlove KPCM followed up their recent impressive success in the Preliminary championship at the Inter Regional Finals in Ballindenisk by recording a cross-grade double at Laurel View last Sunday.

Lucy Adams (List 3A), who shared the judging duties at this Dressage Ireland Northern Region show with Julie Green (British Dressage List 3), awarded the pair clear table-topping scores of 76% in the Preliminary BD4 and 72.29 in the Novice BD4. Obviously not prepared to sit on her laurels, McKee is among those attending the Dressage Ireland camp at Castle Irvine, Necarne this weekend.

Green’s overall winners of the other two Novice classes were Nicole Robinson and her nine-year-old warmblood gelding Tantoni Leonidas (70 in the eight-runner DI27A) and Maya Constable with her mother Kim’s 15-year-old Holstein mare Dolley Phantom (78.62 in the dedicated Junior class, in which there were just two other starters, one being Constable on Urneypark Big Cat).

The two judges agreed on their winners at Elementary level, Amy Tubman and Cindy Cunningham’s Comanche Arrow. In the five-runner Adams-judged DI52, Tubman and the 12-year-old Appaloosa gelding recorded a score of 65.83, while in the BD4, where six combinations competed in front of Green, they topped the table on 72.17.

There were just two starters in the Medium classes. Linda McIlwaine appeared in both with her ISH gelding Roundthorn Oreo, winning the Adams-judged DI67 with her seven-year-old son of Vittorio, but having to settle for second (63.91) in the Green-assessed BD4 behind Penny Murphy and her Irish Draught gelding Kontiki (68.75). With Charlotte Harding on board, the 12-year-old Killinick Bouncer grey has qualified for the older performance Irish Draught class at the upcoming Balmoral Show, where last May he finished second.

There were also only two starters in the Advanced Medium level classes judged by Adams, but here Caroline Herron won both on her eight-year-old ISH gelding Clantara Lord Louis, the pair scoring 61.67 in the BD6 and 65.50 in the FEI Junior Preliminary Test.

In the graded classes, Green awarded her highest score of the day (74.20) to Alexandra Ryan and her 10-year-old ISH mare Carnally Cobanna in the seven-strong Preliminary DI16.