THE Northern Region of Dressage Ireland held their summer finals in very wet and windy conditions last Saturday at The Meadows where they also presented their Healy’s Haylage summer league prizes.

Category 3 rider Lisa Dundee recorded the highest percentage score of the day (71.43%) on her own Irish Sport Horse mare Most Dignified (Dignified van’t Zorgvliet - Kateys Gem, by Ricardo Z) in the Preliminary warm-up class judged by Jane Whitaker (List 1).

Dundee and her six-year-old bay, who is a full-sister to the now US-based Very Dignified (CCI4*-L), went on to win Sunday’s nine-runner Novice championship class where Whitaker awarded the pair 67.50%. Category 2 rider Martina McKinley finished second with her unraced thoroughbred gelding Will Scarlet (66.25). There was a divide for third when Craig Hills on Lougherne Cosmo and Louise Cleland on Rumour Has It both achieved 64.58 and had the same collective score (39).

McKinley also finished second with Will Scarlet in the Novice league where the honours went to Category 1 rider Alexandra Ryan who topped the points tally with her 10-year-old Connemara gelding Ambition (Drumbad Fletcher Moss - Bobby’s Girl, by Bobby Joe). Barbara Ellison finished third in the league with O’Lilly.

On 69.33%, Dundee also won the Elementary championship judged by Joanne Jarden (List 1) with Patricia Connon’s seven-year-old home-bred ISH mare RoundThorn Nice N Easy (Formidable - Unlimited Roundthorn, by 00 Seven). Here, where five of the 12 entries failed to meet their engagement, Joan Adrain finished second on Mathieu (67.17) with Lisa Ferguson placing third on Larkin (66.33).

Riding the Connon-bred ISH gelding Roundthorn Oreo (Vittorio - Amour Roundthorn, by Sandreo), Linda McIlwaine won the Elementary league ahead of Ferguson and Adrain and she and the bay topped off a great day by recording an uncontested victory in the six-year-old class.

Regional chairperson Adrain ran out the comfortable winner (68.59%) of Sunday’s Whitaker-judged Medium championship on her eight-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Mathieu (Fabuleus - Charlotte, by Waldemar). Lucy Adams placed second on Esdals King W.A. (66.09), while Caroline Herron was third on Clantara Lord Louis (65.94).

Although only fourth (65.47%) in that championship class, Dundee and RoundThorn Nice N Easy claimed the honours in the Medium league where Adrain was second and Herron third.

Preliminary

There were just five starters in Sunday’s Preliminary championship where Jarden’s leaderboard was topped by Category 2 rider Debbie Cherry and her cob Kilmullen Peebles (69%), a 10-year-old roan mare. Slotting into the reserve slot was Louise Cleland with Rumour Has It (67), while Orlaith O’Hagan was third on Jai-Li (65.75).

Amy Clarke could only finish fourth (65.50) on her nine-year-old Connemara gelding Rachra Supreme (Ballybeg JJ – Banagher Captain, by Sweetwall Captain Courageous) but she and the grey won the Preliminary league. Here, Cherry finished second ahead of Joanne Rickard riding My C Blue Star.

Just three combinations appeared before Whitaker in the Advanced Medium championship where she awarded her highest score (66.82%) to Lucy Adams and her Dutch-bred New Forest pony Esdals King W.A. (Reekamp’s Eclips - Elshofs Lindy, by Wicked Courtjester).

Although they didn’t compete on Sunday, the Advanced Medium league winner was Mark Robinson with Debbie Burns’s 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding Master Caledonia (Metall - Donner Midnight, by Don Schufro). The Open league was won by Karen Murray and her 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding VSH Gangster (Zambuka - Pialinda E, by Kennedy), who recorded uncontested wins on Sunday in the Prix St George and Inter I.

The highest score (71%) in the Trailblazers’ section, which was judged by Coreen Abernethy (List 4), was awarded to Tommy Wakfer who won the five-runner Preliminary class on board his mother Sarah’s 12-year-old British riding pony gelding Carmens Novello (Chiddock Stop Watch – Wilderness Carmen, by Strinesdale Matador).