THERE was plenty of wet and windy weather throughout the country last Sunday but, thankfully, it didn’t reach CoilÓg until late afternoon by which time most of the action at the Leinster Region show had been completed.

At one stage, the regional committee thought they would have a quiet autumn season but Sunday’s show was the first of four this side of Christmas as the Horse Sport Ireland dressage autumn development series final at Greenogue on Sunday, November 20th, is also falling under their remit.

Britain’s Richard Baldwin has accepted an invitation from the Leinster Region committee to judge at their next show in CoilÓg on Sunday, November 6th, while last week Anita Darken travelled over to judge eight classes although, disappointingly, three of these resulted in walkovers.

In contrast, nine combinations appeared before Darken in the Novice DI27A where she awarded her highest score of 72.41% to Category 2 rider Tara Hayes on board Maria Radford’s Tinkerbell 68, a five-year-old black German riding pony by Totilas.

Top score

Among the senior riders, Category 3 competitor Emma Kieran achieved the day’s highest score when topping the leaderboard in the four-runner Elementary DI56A with Lorli Higgins’s traditionally bred Irish Sport Horse mare Mystical Meg (74.03).

Kieran and the 12-year-old Ashfield Romeo dun, who is out of the non-winning thoroughbred mare Mystic Oak by (Waajib), also won (69.03) the Category 3 section of the Novice BD38 judged by Ivor Harpur whose top score of 70.97 went to Category 1 rider Ella Grace Ní Bhrionn and the ISH gelding Marlfield Fallon, a 20-year-old bay son of Powerswood Purple.

Harpur’s Category 2 winner on 70.16 was Hayes with Tinkerbell 68 (70.16).

Dressage Ireland chair Marguerite Kavanagh recorded a Darken-judged Category 3 double on Fidette. In the four-strong Prix St George, Kavanagh and her 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare by Westpoint achieved a score of 67.94 while, on 69.41, they saw off their sole opponents in the Intermediate I.

In the Prix St George, Kavanagh also placed second on her home-bred ISH mare Fursten (64.12), while Darken awarded her top score of 69.26 to Junior/Category 2 rider Cillian Curran on his mother Carmel’s Hanoverian mare Dancing Espri, a 10-year-old grey by Denario.

Scores of 70%+ were also achieved on Sunday by three Category 1 riders in the lower registered classes – Chloe Kirwan on her ISH mare Carrigfada Silver Lady (70.40), a Rockrimmon Silver Diamond 10-year-old in the Preliminary BD15, Aoife Brady with her thoroughbred gelding Linkenholt (71.21), a Robin Des Champs 10-year-old, in the Preliminary BD17A and Aoife Nee in the Novice DI27A on Carmel Curran’s Maracuja AG (71.72), a five-year-old German riding pony by Movie Star.

Louise Duffy partnered former top-class French-bred racehorse Arvika Ligeonnierre to finish second (68.79) to Tara Hayes and Tinkerbell 68 in the Category 2 Novice DI27A but the rider and her 17-year-old Arvico gelding fared best in the Elementary DI51 where Bernie Foley awarded them a score of 67.41.

There was an uncontested double at Advanced level for Elaine Potter and her ISH gelding CLH Big Red, an 11-year-old Womanizer gelding out of the Market Square mare Tynagh Royale.

Competing for the first time under Dressage Ireland rules, Co Cork’s Momo Sheehy and her father Morgann’s TMX Herby also recorded an uncontested victory on 66.76 in the FEI Junior Individual test.

In their first season as a combination on the Eventing Ireland scene, Sheehy and the 10-year-old Zirocco Blue VDL gelding recorded five wins from 10 starts, ending their campaign with victory in the EI110 (J) national championship at Lisgarvan and the CCI2*-L at Ballindenisk (3).