THERE were very close results at last week’s Ballindenisk international horse trials, a trend which began in the DAFM four-year-old development class, which was held on the Wednesday before the trot-ups for the long format competitions.

Britain’s Les Smith (a member of the ground jury for the 3* classes) judged both the flat work and show jumping phases in the new arena before horses headed out over the cross-country phase, where they were assessed by Britain’s Mary King (who rode in the CCI3*-S). It was the latter’s scoring which proved decisive.