GIVEN the excellent prize money on offer, there was a very disappointing entry at The Meadows on Saturday for the second of two spring legs of the 2026 DAFM Development Series in arena eventing and combined training.

This round at the McCusker family’s Lurgan venue was advertised, and run, as the latter with what was by far the largest field of 13 appearing before the day’s dressage judge, Julie Green, in the six and seven-year-old class.

The first five on the final leaderboard all completed on their flat phase scores, with Kate Horgan leading throughout on 30.2 penalties with her seven-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Highview Shakespeare (Lagans OBOS Quality - Moyglass Covers Rosie, by Coevers Diamond Boy). Horgan and the Vincent Meaney-bred bay rounded off their 2025 campaign with an eighth-place finish (25 runners) in the Michael Leonard championship CCI1*-Intro for five and six-year-olds at Ballindenisk in September.

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Kate A Horgan riding Highview Shakespeare, winners of thesix and seven-year-old DAFM Developement Series class at the at The Meadows \ Tori O'Connor Photogrpahy

Behind the winners came Clare Abbott on the seven-year-old Mullaghdrin Touch The Stars gelding MT Kenobis Touch (30.5), Jonny Steele with the six-year-old Herald III gelding Punch Lion (31.2), Isobella Donohue riding the six-year-old Vancouver gelding Pedro Noire (33) and Lexi Kilfeather on the 2020 Tyson mare TDS Aurelia (33.7).

A pole on the ground over the 1m course resulted in Jill Revill dropping from third or fourth to sixth with her six-year-old ISH gelding Lislan Chacfly (35.2), but she still picked up €100 in prize money to go towards her diesel costs.

There were only five starters in the five-year-old class, which meant that prize money only went down as far as third. Here, there was a very comfortable all-the-way winner in MT In Luck (25.7), who is owned by rider Clare Abbott and her partner Gareth Carlisle. The ISH gelding by Lucky Luck was bred by Michael Doyle out of the Diamond Serpent mare Oldyard Diamond, the dam of one-time Northern stalwart Ballyward (CCI3*-L) among others.

Jo Andrews had to fight her case before being confirmed as placing second on her Creevagh For Sure mare Annie Be Sure (32.5), ahead of John Bannon with his Avos Jordan Z gelding Little Luck (34). It was an expensive trip north for Christine O’Donnell as Coolboy BGK picked up eight jumping penalties to finish on a total of 39 while, having been lying second after dressage on 30.7, there was a technical elimination for the Joseph Murphy-partnered Class Tower.

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Diarmuid Ryan riding BT Bon Vivant, winners of the four-year-old DAFM Development Series class at The Meadows \ Tori O'Connor Photogrpahy

In contrast to O’Donnell, Diarmuid Ryan’s journey up from Co Kilkenny paid off when he won the four-runner four-year-old class on his dressage score of 31 penalties with BT Bon Vivant (Vivant van de Heffinck - Chitter Chatter, by Robin Des Pres). The bay ISH gelding was bred by his owner Bridget Speirs and is a half-brother to her six-year-old I’m Special de Muze gelding BT Just Special, on whom Ryan had two good seasons in young event horse classes and has now moved on to Ian Cassells for his eventing career.

Amy Parsons finished second on her dressage score with her Baloubet Junior Z gelding Renkum Balvanti (32), but a pole down show jumping resulted in Colin Halliday dropping to third with the Cormint gelding Encore C (34).

Competitors were surprised with the length of time it took to complete the two phases with the DAFM horses being slotted at their fence height into the unregistered jumping, which ran throughout the day.