DRESSAGE Ireland chair Marguerite Kavanagh showed her support of the Northern Region by competing at last weekend’s two-day festival in Castle Irvine, Necarne where she won the Open championship on Fidette and was narrowly foiled of victory on Fursten in the Advanced.

There were only two starters in Sunday’s Prix St George for the Open championship where Kavanagh and her Dutch Warmblood mare Fidette, a 12-year-old daughter of Westpoint, scored 68.53% to take the title ahead of Co Waterford’s Ellen Lonergan and Cadens (66.2).

The riders’ positions were reversed at Advanced level but here the scorers had to work a bit harder to find the winner.

It was only when taking the collective scores into account that Lonergan was declared champion on Cadens, the 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding she has leased from Rachel Dowley, while Kavanagh had to settle for second with the home-bred Fursten, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding by Furstenball.

The pair, who faced two other rivals, were on a weekend score of 64.98.

Win for Dowley

Dowley too was rewarded for her journey up from Carrick-On-Suir as she won the Preliminary championship on the Dutch Warmblood mare GFL Nava (72.51), a dark brown four-year-old by For Romance, and placed third with GFL Flashdance (66.93), a similarly aged Hanoverian gelding by Franziskus.

Karen McKee split the Dowley runners when finishing second on her traditionally bred ISH gelding Ballyellen Royal Hero (68.19), a nine-year-old Royal Storm bay.

“It’s a shame that the festival wasn’t better supported because the stabling and surfaces at Necarne are great and it’s good for the young ones to be exposed to music, chippers, etc.,” said Dowley.

Co Galway’s Elaine Murphy claimed the honours at Elementary level with QT An Tainiste (72.38) ahead of two Northern Region combinations, viz Barbara Hanna and her home-bred 10-year-old Bobby Sparrow Blue gelding Rock Shenanigans (71.35) and the elsewhere-mentioned Denise Kelly Rice with Forvanna (70.71).

On her previous visit to Castle Irvine, Necarne, Murphy and her eight-year-old ISH mare finished fourth.

However, you won’t find that placing recorded on the Dressage Ireland database as that was in an EI110 class here last August, a run which was sandwiched between their second-place finish in the CCI2*-S at Kilguilkey House and their 10th place finish in similar company at Millstreet.