THERE was a strong line-up of judges on duty at the Dressage Ireland Eastern Region’s show in Marlton last Sunday and while it may have looked as if Britain’s Penny Lang (BD List 1) and Ireland’s Bernie Foley (DI List 2a) had an easy time of it, they were, in fact, also examining List 5 and 6 candidate judges.

Foley’s comfortable winner of the Preliminary DI18 was Category 1 rider Barry Higgins with Aideen McCormack’s Irish Draught mare Castanasky (72.08%), a seven-year-old Welcome Emperor roan. For good measure, Higgins achieved the next highest score on Una Morris’ Thacka Brexit (67.50), a similarly-aged Welsh Section D gelding.

Category 3 rider Sonya McCormack only scored 55% in that test with Matador but turned things around in the second Preliminary test, the BD15 judged by Lindsey Ilona Brady (List 5), where she and the 12-year-old bay gelding posted a winning score of 74%.

Gwyn Holmes recorded a Novice double with Karen O’Sullivan’s eight-year-old British Warmblood mare Hillgrounds Flamenco, topping Lang’s leaderboard in the DI24A on 70% and that of Britain’s Douglas Hibbert (BD List 2) in the BD23 on 70.21. Sean Burgess won both Medium classes with Anita Kelly’s Dutch Warmblood mare DHI Kikkis, being awarded 65.29 in the DI77 by Jane Whitaker (List 2) and 66.47 in the BD73 by Dermot Cannon (List 1).

At Elementary level, Alexandra Frei and the seven-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare Quibelle Van De Vlindervallei won the Whitaker-judged DI51 on 70.37% but, in the Hibbert-assessed BD57, they had to settle for second (66.79) behind Anna Radford and Rose Carr’s 17-year-old palomino mare Calelvador May Blossom (68.21).

On their first public appearance as a combination, Sadhbh O’Toole and Maureen Dwyer’s Irish Sport Horse gelding Vaalsberg, an 11-year-old grey by S Creevagh Ferro, doubled up in both Advanced Medium classes. Kate Dwyer recorded an uncontested victory in the Advanced with Maureen’s ISH mare Harmony, a nine-year-old daughter of Blue Hors Hotline. Oscar O’Connor won both FEI Pony classes with his mother Susan’s Westfalian gelding Top Hero 2.

There were uncontested wins for the home-based Josephine Delahoyde and her mother Barbara’s 11-year-old Holstein gelding Cashmere (67.65%) in the Lang-judged FEI Intermediate I and for Austen Burns and Lucinda Blakiston Houston’s Happy Feet 3 in the FEI Para Grade I Grand Prix B judged by Mark Ruddock (List 1).