TWO riders claimed a pair of cross Grade titles apiece at last week’s Dressage Ireland national championships in Ballindenisk.

Category 1 competitor Rita Naughton did so at Preliminary and Novice levels on her tall, eight-year-old Oldenburg mare Action’s Bond Girl W (Action Blue - Baluba, by Balou du Rouet) and Category 2 rider Joanne Logue repeated the feat at Novice and Elementary levels on board her seven-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare Little Lottie (Cormint - Diamond Chin Jenkins, by Diamond Chin).

Katie McKeon, who finished second to Logue in the Novice championship on Galtee Honey (Kinvara Boy - Bean Uachtair, by Lishmar Shadow), partnered the same five-year-old Connemara mare to win the Preliminary Category 2 title. Siofra Pratt, who finished third to Logue at Elementary level on Ballarin My Grace, was another to head for home with two titles in the bag.

She and her traditionally-bred 12-year-old ISH mare by Kings Master out of Seefin Rosewood, by Nash Me, topped the scores in the Category 2 championship and, on Sunday, claimed the honours in the Elementary Freestyle. Victoria O’Carroll likewise won the Category 2 Advanced Medium championship and the Advanced Medium Freestyle riding her nine-year-old chesnut KWPN-registered mare Laguna (Valdez - Gerona, by Westpoint).

Among the Category 3 riders, Ger McNulty won the Preliminary championship on Sebastian Curran’s home-bred eight-year-old ISH gelding RBS Man On Fire (Kannan - Amarage, by Armitage); Lisa Dundee partnered Patricia Connon’s home-bred seven-year-old ISH mare RoundThorn Nice N Easy to claim the Elementary honours; and Ruth Hayes won the Medium championship on board Sue Chadwick’s six-year-old liver chesnut Westphalian mare Foxy Lady R (For Gold - Chanee, by Charming).

The Grassroots championships were won by Laura Walshe at Preliminary level on the unraced eight-year-old thoroughbred mare Serendipity Dream (Asian Heights - Oscars Supreme, by Oscar) and by Claire McCarthy, the sole rider at Novice level, on another thoroughbred mare, her own nine-year-old bay Kitchen Duty (Vocalised - High Stool Lady, by Distant View) who was unplaced in four starts.

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