NINETY-Six individual riders competed at the Irish Pony Club/TRI Equestrian national dressage day which was staged last Thursday week at Spruce Lodge, Co Wicklow.

The competition took place on a warm, sunny day which was in direct contrast to the conditions which forced the late cancellation of the event in April. Turnout was to a very high level and several judges, and others, commented on the improvement in the standard of dressage among IPC members with some impressive combinations taking part.

“The feedback was all positive and very encouraging,” said Kate Harvey, chair of the IPC’s dressage and combined training committee and the driving force behind the national dressage day. “The total number of tests entered came to 157 which required seven judges since the Junior, Intermediate, Open and Elementary UK PC ‘Windsor’ competition tests were assessed by two judges.”

One of these was Marie Hennessy (Dressage Ireland List 2) who co-organises this competition with the invaluable help of her husband Dick.

“Members could ride a warm-up test (just rosettes awarded) and a competition test for which we gave super rosettes (and sashes for the winners), IPC trophies and TRI vouchers as prizes,” continued Harvey. “In fairness to everyone, we only allowed riders to compete for prizes in one competition test, so if they were on a second horse/pony, or took part in classes at more than one level, one had to be HC.”

There were some excellent performances from members of the Newcastle Lyons Branch which fielded three competition winners. With plenty of family support on hand, Millie Dalton won the Under 10 competition on Archer (69.75%) while her sister Louisa topped the leaderboard in the 25-strong Under 12 competition riding Jubilee (73.5).

Here, on board Derryglass Lad (71), fellow Branch member Lucy Ferris placed second before her sister, Abbey, who was crowned Junior champion on their mother Mary’s How Ya Sammy. Abbey and the seven-year-old Connemara gelding by Woodfield Sammy, who compete at Preliminary level with Dressage Ireland, saw off the challenge of 24 rival combinations on their way to victory.

Busy summer

It has been a very busy, competitive summer for the Hennessy Murphy sisters and, at Spruce Lodge, Molly claimed the plaudits for Wexford when comfortably landing the Intermediate competition on My Late Find (71.89%) with whom she competes at EI90 (P) level under Eventing Ireland rules. Second in the members’ combined training competition at the Dublin Horse Show, the Island’s Ava Dowley and Margaret Bowe’s seven-year-old Holstein mare Ida 83 claimed first prize in the Open competition on 67.5%.

Here, competing hors concours for the Tipperary Branch, there was an impressive performance from Kate Walsh and Lisheen Fork Lightning (74.74%). However, they could only finish second (66.46) in the Windsor test to Laois’ Mai Monahan and the Connemara Carrickfad Cloud Break (67.03), a 10-year-old grey son of Castle Gigolo.

Kate Harvey commented for organisers, members and their parents when stating: “We all felt a bit poignant leaving Spruce Lodge on Thursday evening as it is not clear whether we will be able to use it again once sold.”