Dressage Spruce Lodge

THREE Dressage Ireland shows were held last Sunday when Dermot Cannon was joined on the judges’ panel at a busy Spruce Lodge, Co Wicklow by Bernie Foley (List 2), Bernie Webb (List 3A), Lynne Cassidy (List 3) and Derval Diamond (also List 3).

There were noticeably few unregistered participants at this first South Eastern Region show of 2023 which was in marked contrast to others.

Five combinations contested the Cannon-judged Grand Prix, an excellent entry at this level so early in the season. Once again, Sarah Mellor had to settle for the minor placings on Let’s Dance (66.30%) and Hotshot (64.02) as Kevin Acres claimed the honours on Ganesh (69.67), Con McCarthy’s 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Jazz.

It was a very rewarding journey from Carrick-On-Suir to Ashford for Rachel Dowley who dominated the Category 3 divisions. She won the Diamond-judged Preliminary BD19 on the DI newcomer Showtime Willow (72.71%) whose score of 66.54 had been bettered in the Cassidy-assessed DI8 by Ailis Cullen and her 17-year-old roan gelding Ould Son (68.27) and other Category 1 riders.

The traditionally bred Irish Sport Horse mare Showtime Willow, who did a small bit of show jumping in 2021, is a seven-year-old grey mare by the Grade A Irish Draught stallion Derg Showtime. She was bred in Co Kerry by Dan Dalton out of the Oke Boy mare Last Of The Line who was out of a mare by Dangan King.

Outright wins

Dowley’s other outright wins came on the Dutch Warmblood mare GFL Nava (75.56%), a five-year-old by For Romance, in the Diamond-judged Novice BD37a; on the KWPN-registered Insticator B.S. (69) in the Cannon-judged Advanced Medium/FEI Junior Preliminary; and on the same 10-year-old Florencio bay in the second of the Advanced Medium classes where Foley awarded the combination a score of 67.69.

Fellow Category 3 rider Emma Kieran won both Elementary classes on Lorli Higgins’s home-bred ISH mare Mystical Meg. The traditionally-bred 13-year-old dun, who is by the Connemara stallion Ashfield Romeo, is out of the thoroughbred mare Mystic Oak (by Waajib) who won on the flat in Germany. Mystic Meg topped Foley’s marks in the six-runner DI52 on 67.64 while Cannon awarded her a score of 70% in the BD43 where she faced seven rivals.