THE Judges’ Committee of Dressage Ireland ran an exam show last Sunday at Killossery Lodge Stud where tutor, examiner and British Dressage List 1 judge Jane Peberdy assessed those combinations forward in four of the day’s classes - as well as exam candidates.

Topping her overall leaderboards were Marlton’s Josephine Delahoyde with her 11-year-old Dutch-bred Welsh mare Klein Roderjis, a palomino daughter of Veenstra’s Grapjas, in the eight-runner Novice 39 (68.79% and a collective of 62.5) and Summerhill-based Ger McNulty with the tall, British Warmblood gelding Dionysus II, a 13-year-old son of Desert Moon, in the eight-runner Medium 73 (67.83%).

After her sister Ava had been narrowly beaten to overall victory at Novice level on Christopher Columbus due to a lower collective mark, Ellen Mooney recorded a win for the Co Kildare family, when awarded Peberdy’s highest score (66.52) in the Advanced Medium/FEI Junior Team Test, where she rode their mother Heli’s Mariposa, a nine-year-old black Dutch Warmblood mare by Ferdeaux.

There were 11 starters in that class, but only one in the FEI Junior Individual test, Cael Shanahan, who, on board Suzanne Kendrick’s eight-year-old Anglo European Studbook-registered gelding, Santana, was awarded a score of 68.09 by Peberdy.

It was a very successful weekend at Killossery Lodge Stud for Connolly’s Red Mills equine nutritionist Nicole Goyer and her Gemma Scott-bred Irish Sport Horse mare Peninsula Paradis (Rebel Ballad - ISHD Coole Red, by OBOS Quality 004).

At the Connolly’s Red Mills/Association of Irish Riding Clubs’ North East Region national dressage championships qualifier on Saturday, Goyer and the seven-year-old bay won their RCP3 class while, on Sunday, they topped the scores (73) awarded in the 10-strong Preliminary by examiner judge, Donie McNamara (Dressage Ireland List 1).

Only two combinations contested the Elementary 53, where Bernie Webb (DI List 2) awarded her higher score (69.33) to Floyd Mills and his tall Oldenburg mare Mille Fleurs, a bay daughter of Millennium.

On Tuesday, it was announced that, following the exam show at Killossery Lodge Stud two days earlier, Barbara McMurray and Rita Naughton had moved onto Dressage Ireland’s List 6 and that Mark Robinson and Lisa McLaughlin had been upgraded to List 5. The judges’ committee were very appreciative of the efforts of Lynne Cassidy and Jane Whitaker in organising this show.