A week after winning the three-star Under 25s' class at the Tattersalls international horse trials in Co Meath on LEB Lias Jewel, Co Galway-born Cathal Daniels doubled up when landing the four-star Under 25s' class at Bramham in England with Rioghan Rua.
The Kildare-based rider was in eighth place after dressage (33.7 penalties) but climbed to third following a clear cross-country round inside the time on Saturday. He then recorded one of just two clears in Sunday’s concluding show jumping phase to win on his flat work mark.
Second after dressage, Britain’s Yasmin Ingham was also clear within the time across the country to lead going into the show jumping phase where she had a fence down to slip to second with Sandman 7 (36.9). Her compatriot Will Rawlin, who also picked up four penalties on the final leg, finished third with VIP Vinnie (36.9) ahead of the dressage winner, Britain’s Richard Coney, who had a stop over the fixed fences with Kananaskis and finished a distant fourth on 62.2.
England-based, Co Down-born Susie Berry was seventh with Stonedge (74.4) while Co Limerick's Robbie Kearns finished 11th on Master McCormack (96.6).
Daniels was a member of Ireland’s silver medal-winning team at last year’s World Equestrian Games in North Carolina with Rioghan Rua on which he finished sixth in the Event Rider Masters at Chatsworth last month. A 12-year-old chesnut mare by the Swedish Warmblood stallion Jack Of Diamonds, Rioghan Rua was bred in Co Galway by her owner, Margaret Kinsella, out of the Flagmount King mare, Highland Destiny.
Co Meath’s Elizabeth Power, who had also competed at Tattersalls and was eventing at Killossery Lodge Stud on Saturday, switched codes to show jumping on Sunday at Ballivor where she won The Underwriting Exchange national 1.40m Grand Prix on Doonaveeragh O One. Power recorded the fastest of three double clears on her 18-year-old High Roller gelding.
Aboard, Ireland’s show jumping riders had their best results on Sunday in Canada and the USA.
At the five-star show in Spruce Meadows near Calgary in Alberta, Daniel Coyle won the second of two 1.50m speed classes with his own Irish Sport Horse mare, CHS Krooze. The Co Derry rider stopped the clock on 76.86 with his nine-year-old daughter of Kroongraff while his brother, Jordan, was home in 77.23 to place second on Stephex Stables' 12-year-old gelding Picador. Daniel was also sixth with DC Horsepower's Leilani (79.66).
Co Meath’s Jonathan Corrigan fared best of the eight Irish riders in the 1.50m jump-off class when third with Twin Oaks Stables’ 10-year-old ISH gelding Loughnavatta Indigo (45.01). The USA’s Beezie Madden was the fastest of the four riders who went double clear in the second round to win on Darry Lou (41.94) with Argentina’s Luis Pedro Biraben finishing second on Colorado 210 (42.73).
At the four-star show in Upperville, Virginia, longtime US-based Carrick-On-Suir native Kevin Babington partnered the 14-year-old Hanoverian mare Shorapur into sixth place in the 1.60m Grand Prix won by the USA’s McLain Ward on Contagious.
In the 1.50m four-star Grand Prix at Tryon in North Carolina, which was held over a day until Sunday because of bad weather, Sligo’s Darragh Kerins finished second on NRG Farms’ Carlos JD Z (50.332) behind the USA’s Kelli Cruciotti on Hadja van Orshof (49.127). The only other double clear was recorded by Colombia’s Fernando Cardenas on Quincy Car (52.34) with Cork-born Shane Sweetnam posting the fastest four-fault round in the five-horse jump-off on Kirschwasser SCF (48.586).
Ireland’s Rosemary Gaffney partnered Werona into sixth place (68.809 per cent) in Sunday’s Grade IV freestyle competition won by the host nation’s Sanne Voets on Demantur Rs2 (81.417) at the para-dressage show in Kronenburg, The Netherlands. Gaffrey, a lecturer with Teagasc at Kildalton College in Co Kilkenny, owns the 10-year-old mare Werona in partnership with Sue Smallman.
