IN association with Eventing Ireland, Barnadown hosted a combined training competition last Sunday when the dressage judging duties were undertaken by Vickey Clooney, Paula Geiger and Jill Spring.
Geiger assessed the flat work of those forward in the three classes staged in Arena 1. Lexi Kilfeather claimed the overall honours on her winning first phase score (29.8 penalties) in the 16-runner EI115 with her mother Everina’s 15-year-old Anglo European Studbook-registered gelding Lord Of The Morning.
Little influence
The jumping phase had little influence in the 12-strong EI110 where John Tilley led from start to finish on 28.3 with Kilkenny International’s 2017 Irish Sport Horse gelding Cooley Quickfire (aka Veni Vidi Vici), who has been repatriated from the United States. The season’s target for this chesnut son of Womanizer is the CCI4*-S for eight and nine-year-olds at Blenheim Castle in September.
Fifteen combinations appeared before Geiger in the EI80 where, again, her scores proved decisive. Here, however, both Ciara Kelly, riding the 10-year-old ISH mare Fanlehane Nariah, and Rita Naughton with her eight-year-old Oldenburg mare Diamant’s Babalou, who has 110 Dressage Ireland points, finished equal first on 28.8.
Before tackling their show jumping phase, Vickey Clooney judged those entered in the EI120 and the EI100 classes in Arena 2.
Her winner of the higher-graded class was Ian Cassells with Gerry and Fiona Leahy’s 12-year-old ISH gelding Millridge Atlantis, who went on to compete on his flat work mark (26.8). His stable-companion, Master Point, would have finished second but for a pole down show jumping, so had to settle for third on 32.9 behind the recent Plusvital CT115 league winners, Louise Bloomer and Atlantic Rockstar (32.4).
Despite his advancing years, Jane Hancock’s 18-year-old thoroughbred gelding Goldman saw off 26 rivals to win the EI100 on his dressage score (32.3) and under his new rider, Susan O’Brien, a member of the Island Hunt Branch of the Irish Pony Club, who is moving into Juniors this year.
Marginal winner
In Arena 3, Jill Spring’s marginal winner of the EI120 was Jasper Kelly with his mother Lucy’s 10-year-old ISH mare Agatha Raisin (32) but, they extended their advantage when their sole rivals, Caitlin Woods and Greygrove Delight had a fence down for a total of 36.3.
Two other all-the-way winners in Arena 3 were Ava Dowley on Margaret Bowe’s 10-year-old mare IDA 83 in the 14-runner EI110 and Heidi Hamilton with Anne Kirwan’s nine-year-old home-bred Traditonal ISH gelding Mount Atlas in the 18-strong EI90.