THE South East Region of Dressage Ireland held its final show of the year last Saturday at Ballyrogan Stud where seven regional champions were crowned while others sought qualification for next April’s inter-regional finals.

In the championship classes, Rita Naughton had to hold off six rivals to claim the Preliminary Category 1 title on board her Oldenburg mare Action’s Bond Girl W (70.58%), a tall bay by Action Blue. Naughton also had the pleasure of seeing her daughter Katie win both the Under 10 (69.41) and Under 12 (66.43) regional Trail Blazer classes with the eight-year-old 134cm piebald gelding Whitewell Oreo.

The Preliminary championship class was judged by Lynne Cassidy (List 3) who just had the one Category 2 rider to access, awarding Amy-Jo Peskens a score of 68.08 for her test on KASH Zowie’s Stardust, the five-year-old bay mare by Maplevalley Master Class on whom she doubled up at Novice level before the same judge.

Here, the Category 1 championship was tightly contested between Naughton on Action’s Bond Girl and Sophie Orr on her Connemara mare Tirnaskea Starstruck with both achieving a score of 69.67. However, as she had the higher collective score (64 to 62.5), Orr claimed the title on her 10-year-old daughter of Kay’s Moonlight who she also rode to victory in the non-championship Novice DI21 judged by Jillie Rogers (List 3).

Orr initiated a hat trick of wins when topping the overall scoreboard in the non-championship Preliminary DI6 where Ruth Daunt (List 4) awarded her a score of 69.62 for her test on Connemara gelding Aughnasilla Pat, a four-year-old grey by Western Boy out of a Bode Park Finnard mare.

Hannah Fielding and DWS Firelight recorded a double at Elementary level at Ballyrogan \ Louise O'Brien Photography

Rea bags two titles

Jennifer Rea bagged two championships, the Elementary Category 3 with her six-year-old Yeats gelding Janus and the Small Tour title with her Irish Sport Horse gelding Fermoyle Charles, a 10-year-old bay by S Creevagh Ferro. Between times, Taylor Deane was crowned Medium Category 2 champion with her Dutch Warmblood gelding Insticator BS, a bay son of Florencio.

All championships winners were presented with beautiful trophies and prizes thanks to sponsors TopSpec, Gardiners Grain Gorey, Kates Tackshop, Cooney Furlong and Killeen’s Equestrian Store. Shirley Jones, the Wexford-based Business Development Manager and Equine Nutritional Adviser for TopSpec in Ireland, offered competitors free, no obligation one-to-one feed plan consultations - as well as sponsoring several prizes.

On a chilly but mostly dry day, a double was recorded at Elementary level by Hannah Fielding on her Hanoverian mare DWS Firelight. In the DI51 judged by Rogers, she posted the show’s highest competitive score of 74.44 on the Fidertanz seven-year-old who she guided to success on 67.94 in the Cassidy-assessed DI52.

Kevin Acres also struck twice at Advanced Medium level with Con McCarthy’s seven-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Nybola Turfhorst. Both four-runner classes were judged by Dermot Cannon who awarded Acres and the tall chesnut by Blue Hors Zackerey a score of 66.47 in the DI90 and 66.82 in the FEI Junior team test.

Two horses appeared before Cannon in the Grand Prix and both were partnered by Sorrell Klatzko. The winner on 65.33 was Turbo, Klatzko’s 12-year-old Westphalian gelding by Totilas, who claimed bragging rights over his home-bred stable-companion Gladiator (65.11), a nine-year-old ISH gelding by Sir Sansibar.

On Saturday, the Region also picked the winners of their end-of-year volunteer raffle for which prizes were generously sponsored by Louise O’Brien Photography, Skin Formulas, Anne Marie Dunphy, Posh Cake and the region itself.