The final leg of the Silver Spurs qualifying events was held at Barnadown on Sunday 16th July as the Leinster Region leg.

The Silver Spurs is a wonderful innovation from Dressage Ireland which is strongly supported by The Irish Horse Board who have increased their sponsorship of Irish riders and Irish horses.

Ireland has four regions, each of which hosts a qualifying event - the four regions are Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connaught and riders can compete in all four if they choose to.

The riders are divided into three groups - Young Riders (18 - 21 yrs), Junior Riders (14 - 18 yrs) and Pony Riders - all horses and ponies must be 5 years and over.

The tests ridden are the Irish Novice tests which have said to be quite a bit more difficult than other Novice tests, so riders and horses/ponies must definitely be well educated to participate.

All four qualifying events were judged under the same three Judges, Mary Canon, Joan Keogh and the specialty Judge was again Donald Kerr from the UK. At the final leg of the qualifying events all Judges commented on the huge improvement in so many riders that they have seen in previous years at this competition.

Before doing the final presentation to the Young Riders at Barnadown, Donald commented on the talent in Ireland and also apologised for being "vitriolic and tough" in many of his comments but went on to explain that if the riders were serious about going on and becoming International Dressage Riders they had better learn to accept harsh criticism as the forward for learning - this is a man who does not mince his words but what he said made sense to the riders at Barnadown today.

On a day which saw the continuing heat wave in Ireland (with temperatures regularly hitting 30 degrees) the riders and horses did well to ride so well. The final results saw one of Ireland's top Young Rider Showjumpers, Nicola FitzGibbon taking out the overall honours with her jumping mare Joie de Vivre and she came second overall from the four regions to earn her place at the finals in September.

Pictured left - from left to right - Mary Canon, Donald Kerr and Alice Clarke.
Pictured left - 2nd placegetter today in the Young RIder section, Jennifer Lambert and Saturday Night.
And pictured right - the all important dressage test to read.
Coloured horses are seen in all the dressage classes these days - they are growing in popularity.
Barnadown hosts the showjumping most weekends but this weekend resident Grand Prix showjumper, Steven Smith - pictured right - came to watch the dressage.
Third placegetter, Melanie Hamill - pictured left - was happy with her result.
Winner of todays qualifying Young Rider class was Nicola FitzGibbon - pictured right - riding her showjumping mare, Joie de Vivre.

Joan Keogh - pictured left - is the driving force behind Dressage Ireland and also runs and owns Spruce Lodge which was the starting place for many of Irelands best riders in all disciplines.

 

Pictured right - a very happy Nicola FitzGibbon is showing that it is not a problem for her to make the swap from showjumping to dressage and back again.
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