THE sun shone on the beautifully presented Redhills Stud, Co Kildare, as the West Leinster region teams battled it out for qualification spots for the AIRC National Dressage championships. Cill Dara Riding Club hosted the event with Lisa O’Brien and Jillie Rogers as judges for the day. Sponsorship was kindly supplied by Kildare Village, Redhills Stud and Childeric Saddles Ireland while all the regional team qualifiers are sponsored by Connolly’s Red Mills.

With high entries in the P2 and P3 classes, O’Brien judged these two in arena one. Dunbyrne’s Lynn Cadogan took the honours in the P2 class on Shooting Star Joe. Helen Douglas representing Kilrainy was rewarded for her long drive with second place on board Kilmurry Jimmy Black, closely followed by Catherine O’Leary on the ever consistent 26-year-old Lynamore Jeff.

The champion of the P3 class was the only man in the class, Eamonn Moore from Abbeylands on board Briarhill Contender. This pair were 2% ahead of second placed Charlotte Clear from Mill Road riding Ramesses B with Killcarrick’s Nadine Taylor completing the top three aboard Wardtown Macha.

In arena Two, Rogers judged the P1, Novice, Elementary and Medium classes. Killcarrick’s Rachel O’Reilly took the win in the P1 class with Reddragon Paparazzi, over 4% ahead of second-placed Megan O’Loughlin representing Abbeylands with Scrapmans Gem, Rathfanham took third with Dawn Light Cave, ridden by Orlaith Cullen-Wallace.

The novice was another big class where Oakleaf’s Stephanie McGlynn was victorious with five-year-old former racehorse Mickah Wallace. Stephanie also scored the highest percentage of the entire day with an amazing 75.38% on a horse that was competing on the racetrack only 18 months ago. In second place was Julie Polden aboard Kilnoe Clover, representing the Cill Dara with Abbeylands’s Liz Power filling third with her trusty Connemara Kilshanny Robert.

Next up was the Elementary class, secretary of the host club Sara Wood, took the red ribbon with her seven-year-old TIH Avalon Next Generation, an entire 6.5% ahead of second-placed Edel King and 23-year-old Don Quixote, representing Moyglare.

Kenneth Garrett filled third place, also representing the host club, on board 21-year-old Moonlight Shadow.

The final class of the day was the Medium class where Dunbyrne’s Lorna O’Hare won with DBS Second chance, only two riders coming forward on the day meant that Oakleaf’s Ruth Wiseman came in second place aboard another veteran, 20-year-old Good Grief, also a former racehorse.

A large crowd gathered in the sun on the lawn to see the prizes from the afternoon presented. With eight teams representing six clubs from the region, there was friendly rivalry as each group came up in reverse order to collect their Connolly’s Red Mills-sponsored rosettes.

Moyglare took sixth place with a combined team total of 211.08, in fifth was Killcarrick with 211.65, fourth went to Oakleaf on 214.59, third was an Abbeylands team finishing on 216.15, Dunbyrne were just 1.4 ahead of them to fill second spot on 217.54 whilst host Club Cill Dara took the win with a score of 220.19.

The winning Cill Dara team was made up of Katie McParland on Lullymores Indian Summer, Sarah Gayer with former racehorse Home Farm, Julie Polden with Kilnoe Clover and Sara Wood aboard Avalon Next Generation (TIH).