THE first three days of the FEI Para Dressage European Championships in Ermelo, The Netherlands, went extremely well for the Irish. First up for Ireland on Wednesday was Clodagh Walsh, who finished eighth in the Para Grand Prix A Grade I individual final with Chantal on a score of 68.708.

Next in was Katie Reilly, whose Grand Prix A score of 72.167 with Keystone Dawn Chorus led to a superb sixth-place finish and qualified for the Grade III Grand Prix Freestyle on Sunday.

In the same Grade, Jess McKenna was also delighted with her performance in the Grand Prix A with D.C.I Cerruti, the pair finishing ninth on a total of 69.093. Then, on Thursday, Angela Lyons completed her Grade IV Individual Grand Prix A test, scoring 62.639% for 10th place with Woodcroft Santa Cruz.

Moving on to Friday’s team proceedings, with qualification for the final dependant on a cumulative score for all riders, Jessica McKenna put in a solid performance to score 66.9% in the Grade III Grand Prix B and Katie Reilly put in another strong performance to score 67.9%.

Clodagh Walsh scored 67.584 on Friday afternoon for seventh and also secured Freestyle qualification, while Angela Lyons was due to ride her team qualifier test on Saturday afternoon.

Horse Sport Ireland High Performance para dressage manager, Simone Hession, said: “I’m very proud of our results at the Europeans so far this week. Everyone has given their best shot, but most excitingly of all is the talent we have in the team and the potential for higher scores in the future.”

Meanwhile, Mick Ward (Grade 2) and Emma Golding (Grade 1) were representing Ireland in the FEI Para Driving World Championships at Lähden in Germany this week. Ward completed his dressage on 65.2 penalties for 10th place in the Grade 2 competition and Golding scored 63.28 for 16th place in the Grade 1. Emma was due to complete the championships as an individual today with her pony Mossy.