A NEW prize, the AMD athlete bursary, was added to the schedule of this year’s Nutriscience SER Classic, held at Barnadown over the August bank holiday weekend. Sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland dressage high performance manager Anne Marie Dunphy to the value of €500, it was to be awarded to an athlete demonstrating exceptional potential for development in dressage.

The criteria included the demonstration of correct riding, training and positive horsemanship in line with the Training Scale, as well as the general impression of harmony, and the judges were asked to nominate potential candidates on day one.

The winner was then selected from the shortlist by the panel of judges on the second day, and the worthy recipient was Hannah Lynam. She finished second in the DAFM six-year-old class at the Classic riding her Donnersmark-sired mare Dark Diamond on a score of 75.4%, behind the bursary sponsor Dunphy, who scored 77.6% with Pedigree OK. Lynam and Dark Diamond also contested the medium championship.

About to start the third year of her veterinary medicine degree in UCD, Lynam bought Dark Diamond in Germany as a four-year-old. “I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to train regularly with Kate Dwyer for the last couple of years,” she said. “Consistent training with Kate, as well as extra help from Anne Marie through the high performance programme, has really helped our development as a partnership.

“I was very excited to win the training bursary as I believe good coaching is going to be key to our continued development, especially now as we approach the more advanced movements that neither ‘Diva’ nor myself have worked on before. The fact that we are learning together is both exciting and hard work, and I cannot wait to see how far we can go. Developing young horses is never a linear process, especially when you’re in unknown territory yourself as a rider, but I hope that we will be able to continue to progress up the levels.”