With the qualifications high to make it through to the National Winter Dressage Finals this year the standard was always going to be excellent but there were some excellent performances in all classes today and the horses were of excellent quality.

This year the National Finals were held at Kill International Equestrian Centre in Kill, County Kildare and it is an excellent venue with the Outdoor and Olympic Indoor Arenas being utilised for the three rings and the surface would be the "dream" surface for any Dressage anywhere in the world as it is so supportive of the horse making the higher movements so "secure" for both horse and rider.

Entries were pleasing for all classes except for the Grand Prix which saw just the one competitor, Donie McNamara - but in true Donie style, he and Queen of the Night gave it their all and produced a lovely test much to the delight of the spectators, some of whom had never before seen a Grand Prix test and one young lady was heard to comment "Mummy, look the horse is doing ballet" which is indeed high praise indeed from one so small! (pictured below right are Queen of the Night and Donie)

The horse which caught my eye was definitely the gorgeous coloured horse, Latino J, ridden by Angela Lyons and they won both the Medium and the Elementary Finals and well deserved winners they were. This perfectly marked and coloured horse is by the thoroughbred stallion Voltaire, not to be confused with the KWPN Voltaire, and he is out of an unknown mare and this mating certainly was a good one as this horse has temperament, looks, and movement and according to Angela he also has that all important thing called trainability and Latino J is delight to be handle in all ways - couldn't ask for much better I wouldn't have thought. Latino J and Angela pictured below - you can't miss which ones they are!
I just had to ask the question of Angela regarding "colour prejudice" in the dressage arenas towards her coloured gelding and Angela did say that she had not noticed a great deal of it but at
the very early stages of their competition life together there was perhaps a bit of "hesitancy" until he started to move! It is interesting for us coming from Australia where coloured horses

are not so common and those around generally do not stand at 17hh tall and have such gorgeous long legs such as Latino J and so there is certainly not many, if any performing at registered levels of Dressage in Australia.

Young Rider, Kate Dwyer continued her winning ways with Montana Bay by taking out the Prix St Georges Final and they looked superb doing it. This class had an interesting sideline in that we saw mother and daughter competing against each other with Maureen Dwyer on board Jcobi - I guess this is one of the very special features of equestrian sport - parents and their children compete in equal footing against each other and that means fathers against daughters or mothers against sons as well - equestrian sport is really very special as it knows no gender or age boundaries!

It is also great to see the various disciplines showing up to support each other and left we see Lizzie Burcher, showjumper who recently returned from the Portuguese Tour where she was having a very successful show until one of those "moments" occured in the practice arena and Lizzie hit the dirt! Being the tough little thing she is Lizzie jumped off the ground declaring she would be "ok in 10 minutes" and even though her mum Heather knew different she humoured her daughter until finally Lizzie realised she was simply "not ok" and succumbed to the trip to the hospital! On arrival in the hospital the staff were about to cut off Lizzie's brand new Equiport Riding Jacket and discovered this was not a young lady to mess with - the jacket was NOT cut, the shoulder WAS pinned and all will be well as Lizzie is once again up in the saddle and healing well. Lizzie came to watch friends compete in these National Winter Dressage Finals.

Below left: Kate Dwyer and Montana Bay "light" across the ground during their winning Prix St Georges test.

Above right: Maureen Dwyer and Jacobi during their Prix St Georges test. As I understand it this mother and daughter team work together as "training buddies" and Maureen also coaches Kate and they have a wonderful working relationship which is great to hear.

Left we see the look of intense concentration on Kate Dwyer's face prior to entering the ring. This is a young rider who has a huge future in front of her and no doubt she will follow in the footsteps of the great Irish Dressage riders such as Anne Marie Dunphy, Heike Holstein and Yvette Truesdale who have competed very successfully on the highly competitive International Dressage circuit.

Dressage in Ireland is still relatively "new" but seeing the numbers competing at this Winter Final

and also watching the numbers of spectators growing at the competitions I have no doubt that the numbers are rapidly increasing throughout this country and with the serious quality of horses available in Ireland of both Irish bloodlines and also the top Continental bloodlines this is a country who will soon be knocking on the door of the top nations in Dressage.

And to ensure that the quality of riding is on a rising scale the quality of judging must match and to make sure of this there are judges schools/training being held constantly and this Winter Final was no excpetion. The judges training takes place ringside at many competitions with the judges wearing headsets and calling through their marks throughout the tests - this is done with the greatest discretion as this group always manage to find seating well away from any of the public. The tests which are being "shadow judged" are also videoed and the group move off to watch these videos and discuss their marking while everything is fresh in their minds. This seems to me to be a terrific way to work as the judges are not working in a "set up environment" but rather working as they will be when they judge at these levels! Photo below left shows the Judges Training in progress.

Pictured above right is top Dressage Trainer and Competitor Nial Quirk, who although not competing this weekend was there to work his students in and then watch them in the ring, chats with Gillian Quinn, one of the hardworking committee who made this competition not just a possibility but a reality! Dressage is full of tradition and it is this tradition will helps towards making Dressage the

"elegant" sport it is and left we see Judge John Robinson bowing to the competitor as they bow in return on entering the ring.

Below we see the "runners" who are perhaps budding dressage stars themselves waiting patiently to collect the dressage sheets from the judges.

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