IN 2024, the inaugural TRI Eventing Ireland grassroots championships, staged as a standalone fixture at Ballindenisk in July, attracted a disappointing entry so this year they were incorporated into last week’s EI national championships in Barnadown.

There was a change of sponsor for 2025 to Glas Equine but still the numbers forward were small with the largest field of five contesting the combined EI80 national and grassroots championship where the scores after dressage ranged from 30.6 to 39.5 penalties.

Dromore, Co Down schoolgirl Ella McCrory topped the combined scores of Bernie Webb and Lynne Cassidy at this stage on her mother Kathryn’s The Addlers Bobby Dazzler and they then recorded a double clear inside the time to claim the title. Fellow Northern Region member Martha McMurray also completed on her flat work mark on board the British-bred mare Woodrow Rosewood (37.4), an 18-year-old liver chesnut by Willoway Double Gold.

Disappointingly, there is no breeding recorded for The Addlers Bobby Dazzler who McCrory has been campaigning with Eventing Ireland since Tyrella (3) in April. The combination has also represented Area 17 (Northern Ireland) and the Iveagh Branch of The Pony Club in dressage, show jumping and eventing. This was their third EI win of the season.

Riding her father Sean’s ISH mare Tullibards Dolce Vita, another Northern Region member, Molly Smyth, claimed the honours in the EI100 grassroots championships despite adding 2.4 cross-country time penalties to her first-phase score of 35.1. This was a first-ever EI win for the pair.

Smyth and the seven-year-old Ballistic M2S bay faced just one rival combination at the weekend, Matilda Ormond and the Connemara gelding Rathlacken Viscount (48.5), a seven-year-old dun by Rathlacken Finnard who were on a recovery mission following two automatic show jumping eliminations in their previous starts.

There were four entries in the EI90 grassroots championship. One of the combinations didn’t start the competition while another didn’t start the cross-country phase, as horse and rider parted company at the second of the show jumping fences.

There was tight finish between the other pair with yet another Northern Region member, Sharon Madine, faring the better despite picking up eight penalties over the coloured poles on her Connemara mare Lear Lady (38.6), a seven-year-old daughter of Spiddals Wills Boy. Emily Slaven had just the one pole down with the similarly-aged ISH gelding Lugnaquilla Lux (39.1), a grey by Sillan Lux.