Regional Winter Finals at Woodlands, Co, Sligo
Woodlands 06/04/2008
It was cold on the 6th of April at the Midlands and Western Regional finals which took place at the Hession family's Woodlands Equestrian Centre near Tubbercurry, Co.Sligo.
Eilis von Cramon and Tracy Ward started off proceedings with Medium 61 and Tracy's attractive grey gelding, Vallaint K, came out on top in this one. However, Eilis was not to be denied and with a win in Medium 75 and several more points than her nearest rival, she was awarded the Medium Winter League Championship for 2008.
North Munster rider, Sarah Jane Arthur riding Twinfort Mr. Freeze raided this western venue to come away with two red rosettes in Elementary 44 and 57. Shauna Finneran on Creganna Clover had to be content with two blues in both of the aforementioned classes but was rewarded for previous performances by winning the Elementary Winter league Championship.
It was the battle of the stallions in both the registered section of the Novice classes and the Winter League Championship. In front of judge Mary Cannon, Eddie Meehan's RID stallion, Gentle Diamond by Welcome Diamond, ridden by Simone Hession, was the winner of Novice 25 with RID stallion Cool Diamond Star, ridden by Colleen Grogan, slotting into second. Connemara pony stallion, Cashel Bay Prince, ridden by Clare Crawford had a costly error of course to place fourth behind Simone Hession and Elida in third.
The order was reversed in Novice 30 with Cool Diamond Star winning this one. The son of Robert Splaine's Coolcorran Cool Diamond was brought over from England where he had competed up to Grand Prix level in showjumping. Cool Diamond Star also went on to win the Novice Winter League Championship.
Simone Hession and her lovely young mare Beezies Rose won Preliminary 7 ahead of Jean O'Connor on her home bred Hi Jynx and Sally Ann Millar with Wadondiego. But Sally Ann and her recent import impressed judge Dermot Cannon enough to win Preliminary 18 and also went on to clinch the Preliminary Winter League Championship. Click here for full results. Click here for League results.
The team Competition was won by Shauna's Team which consisted of Shauna Finneran/ Creganna Clover, Clare Crawford/Balmoral, Eavan Murphy/ Nocturne de Coudre and Sarah Jane Arthur/ Twinfort Mr. Freeze.
The Summer schedule will be posted shortly. We look forward to seeing all competitors this summer. Pony, Junior and Young Riders check out the new qualifying system for the Silver Spurs on the Dressage Ireland website.