FIVE dedicated Junior championships at the lower levels were contested at last weekend’s Premier Performance Dressage Ireland national winter finals at Castle Irvine, Necarne.

Cael Shanahan recorded the highest combined score, 217.625, in the four-runner DSE Equestrian Outfitters Elementary Category 2 championship on the Anglo European Studbook-registered Santana.

Coached at Marlton Stud by the weekend’s leading rider Josephine Delahoyde, Shanahan has been competing Suzanne Kendrick’s black seven-year-old son of Wish Upon A Star since the end of September last year.

There were seven starters in the Midland and Western Region Novice Category 1 championship where Olivia Linnane took the title on board the Dutch-bred gelding Don Dimaro van het Gildeland (201.875). This nine-year-old dun by Don Cremello du Bois made his DI debut early last November having been previously campaigned in Britain.

Third there on 196.125, Molly Byrne partnered Michael Boyd’s home-bred Rostrevor Ard Rí to win the six-strong Leinster Region Preliminary Category 1 championship on 169.125. The seven-year-old 138cm gelding is a son of the Renoir stallion Rembrandt DDH.

Riding the 16-year-old bay mare Miss Pollypockets, Ellen O’Hara recorded uncontested victories in the both Northern Region Preliminary Category 2 championship (where she scored 171.25) and the Midland and Western Region Novice Category 2 championship (193.75).

Trailblazers

All four Trailblazers’ classes at last weekend’s Premier Performance Dressage Ireland national winter finals were contested on Saturday in the Indoor Arena where competitors rode just the one test but were assessed by two judges.

These were Dressage Ireland’s office administrator Claire Ewing (List 5) and her predecessor in that role, Jane Averill (List 6) who had divided opinions in the four-runner Mini class. Ewing’s winner was Elle Jordan on Springwater Last Light who shared the top spot on Averill’s leaderboard with Clodagh Cross riding Rathfarnham Bustamove.

When all the maths were completed, Jordan emerged as the winner on Springwater Last Light (73.09%), an 18-year-old Dartmoor gelding by Moortown Hawkwing, with Cross having to settle for second on Rathfarnham Bustamove (72.355).

In the Under 12s’ class, Emily O’Connor saw off her sole rival to win on the Connemara gelding Kilpatrick Cascade (63.035), a 15-year-old grey son of Moorland Snowy River who has plenty of jumping experience to his credit. In 2021, when the Covid-affected RDS Connemara performance championships were held at Lambertstown, Kilpatrick Cascade was crowned older champion under then owner Aideen Kirby.

Four combinations contested the Junior Preliminary championship where Molly Breslin emerged as the clear-cut winner on board the Irish Sport Horse gelding Galax Z (69.375), a 22-year-old piebald gelding by Aldatus Z.

Harriet O’Hagan recorded an uncontested victory in the Novice championship with the 13-year-old 128cm black mare OOS Fairytale (61.205).