IT proved to be a St Patrick’s Day to remember for Irish Olympic dressage rider Anna Merveldt as she scored 69.370% with the 14-year-old Lusitano stallion Esporim, owned by Mario Greco and Giovanna Mazza, for second place and a podium finish in the Grand Prix class at the three-star show in Ornago, Italy.

Germany’s Franz Trischberger and James Bond 2 won the Grand Prix on a score of 70.565%. Swiss rider Andrina Suter and Fibonacci completed the podium scoring 69.174% for third place.

The good results continued for Merveldt, as a score of 73.680% saw her secure fourth place in the Freestyle to Music.

Reflecting on the results, the Kildare native said: “We were performing a new Freestyle floor plan with new music today. A real highlight is the Spanish Flame-themed flamenco music for the piaffe and passage trot sequence. It is more difficult than my previous Freestyle and the degree of difficulty for the new choreography is high at 9.8. I need to do a bit of fine-tuning after today as we were slightly out of sequence with the new music at certain times.

“I was really pleased with the Grand Prix result, Esporim is learning all the time and he is now sitting much more on the hind leg. This helps the collection and as a result there was a notable improvement in our passage marks. My main aim this year is to be selected for the Irish team for the 2023 FEI Dressage European Championships in Riesenbeck, Germany, as we try to qualify Team Ireland for the Paris Olympics.”

Addington

At the three-star show in Addington, England, Abigail Lyle scored 68.065% with the 12-year-old gelding Farrell for eighth place in the international Grand Prix class. Carolyn Mellor and VSH Gouverneur M completed in 15th place on a score of 65.717%.

On their first international outing of the season, Kevin Acres and Ganesh were one place behind Carolyn on a 65.587% total. Making her big tour international debut for Ireland, Tara Oliver Donohoe and Woodcroft Furst Romance placed 18th on 65.109%.

Also in action at Addington CDI was Irish pony rider Oscar O’Connor who scored 69.054% with Veenstra’s Grapjas for fifth place in the FEI Pony Individual Test class. Ireland’s junior representative Cillian Curran placed eighth with Dancing Espri in the FEI Junior Team Test class on a 66.515% total. Curran’s score of 69.258% with Dancing Espri proved to be good enough for a top-seven finish in the FEI Junior Freestyle to Music class.