IRISH eyes were smiling in Nebraska as Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K made Irish history when finishing in a superb fourth place in the FEI World Cup Dressage Finals.

The Kildare rider is the first ever Irish dressage rider to qualify for a World Cup Final, although she competed at the 2016 finals on invitation. This result bettered her previous best World Cup final placing of eighth, which they achieved in Sweden 12 months ago.

Second last to go, Reynolds produced a flawless Freestyle Grand Prix test to her ‘80s divas themed music, scoring 79.571% to take the prize of €21,500 and finish just outside the medal placings. A brilliantly choreographed floor plan saw her gain marks for the high degree of technical difficulty of her canter pirouette and piaffe/passage trot transitions.

Speaking from Omaha, Reynolds said: “I’m delighted. It was more than I was hoping for. The new freestyle transitions are all coming together and this is the most together Vancouver K and I have been since we debuted this freestyle in Stuttgart last November.”

The FEI World Cup Dressage Final was won for the third time by Germany’s Isabell Werth. Last to enter the 17,000 seater Century Link arena, Werth and Weihegold OLD, the mare with whom she claimed Olympic team gold and individual silver at the Rio Olympics, just cruised through a fabulous Freestyle full of grace and lodged the winning mark of 90.704%. In second place was America’s Laura Graves and Verdades on a score of 85.307%, ahead of Britain’s Carl Hester and Nip Tuck with a score of 83.757%.