THE Midland and Western Region of Dressage Ireland held a low-key show last Sunday at Drumindoo Stud outside Westport, where all 10 classes, none higher graded than Medium, were judged by Danielle Carey (List 3).

Local rider, Lilly Berry McLaughlin, recorded a cross-grade double on her mother Carol’s Connemara gelding General Sinatra, topping the leaderboard in both the eight-runner Preliminary DI15 (74.82%) and the Novice DI23 (70.48), in which there were four starters.

Second in that N23 on 65.97%, home-based Ailise Foy and the 17-year-old bay gelding Clew Bay Genesis were the only starters in the second Novice class (DI26), where they scored 65.69%.

When Berry McLaughlin finished sixth on General Sinatra, a 2012 General Humbert grey, in the Intermediate Pony Club combined training competition at the Dublin Horse Show last August, her trainers were listed as Amy Grady and Simone Hession, both of whom were in action on Sunday.

The pair contested the nine-runner Preliminary DI4, where Hession’s good score with Beezies Dusk Cruise (72%) was marginally bettered by Grady on the unregistered Irish Draught mare The Countess Of Murrisk (72.40), a home-bred five-year-old by Farmhill Highlander.

Although she only faced one rival in total, Petra Hewer won both Elementary classes on her Irish Sport Horse mare MCLC Miss Moneypenny, a 10-year-old Tolan R bay. On two good scores (73.71% in the DI62 and 73.64 in the DI72), Bethany Light, a newcomer to the DI scene, recorded an uncontested Medium double with her Dutch Warmblood gelding Eastwood, a 15-year-old bay by Schumacher.

In Trailblazers’ company, Katie Owens saw off one rival to win the Under 12 Preliminary on board Pepsi (67.20%), while Tadgh Murphy faced two opponents in the Under 16 Preliminary, which he won narrowly with The Baroness Of Carn (68), a seven-year-old Connemara mare by Turbo.

The Midland and Western Region is holding a show tomorrow, Sunday, February 25th, at Annaharvey Farm and a test riding day with List 1 judge Vida Tansey on Saturday next, March 2nd, at the Upper Mace Equestrian Centre, Claremorris.