Ireland has, for the most part, been known for it's showjumping by the "rest of the equestrian world" but this weekend the jumpingaround.com were privelaged to be invited to Marlton Stud to be part of the Eastern Region Dressage's Marlton Dressage Festival and I am delighted to report that Dressage is alive and well in this wonderful country! Riders such as Heike Holstein, Yvette Truesdale and Anne Marie Dunphy have been competing on the international scene for some years and have been doing exceptionally well but to date Ireland has not been in a position to field a team for events such as World Equestrian Games and Olympics but I don't believe that time will be far away as the quality of riding and horses we saw this weekend was excellent.

Marlton Stud is the home of one of the most delightful and welcoming families - the Delahoyde's and from our first meeting we knew we would enjoy ourselves this weekend. The "Delahoyde clan" is made up of Barbara and Tom and their two children, Bill and Josephine who work as a "team" running Marlton Stud and they do it with a wonderful mixture of precision, comraderie and humour ensuring that all goes smoothly.

From the moment you drive through the front gates of Marlton Stud you see a well kept and beautiful venue complete with flower beds adding colour and delightful buildings which blend so perfectly with the countryside at this stud which is in the heart of the Wicklows, which is worth a sightsee even if there is no show on - and the weather leading up to and during this Dressage Festival was as perfect as could be asked for! Along with the glorious weather currently being experienced in Ireland come some problems which the locals are totally unused to however and that is "hard ground" - this is something which is currently being experienced by all equestrian sports and so the fact that Marlton Stud have an Indoor arena with an excellent surface which is kept well watered is a bonus but add to this three outdoor arenas all surfaced with the synthetic surface supplied and laid by Equestrian Surfaces and you have a brilliant competition venue where riders/owners need have no concern for their horses soundness after two days of tough competition.

Car parking and lorry and trailer parking was in the capable hands of Marlton Stud's foreman Pat Byrne (pictured right) who did a super job, and he managed to keep smiling at all times and was the master of tact and diplomacy at all times - and this is an impressive result because I personally believe that he had the hardest job of the weekend! Let's face it, no matter where you are in the world, at horse events, there are those who believe they are "entitled" to the best parking spot on the grounds, and with the "wrong person" in charge it can get very ugly - but under Pat's guidance there was none of this over the weekend!

Judges were brought in for the weekend from the UK and both Salley Lidsey and Pat Ryan, along with Irish judges Clare Fitzsimmons, Keith May, June O'Reilly and Allan Dewhurst were all kept very busy with exceptionally large entries in all classes inspite of the fact that the weekend clashed with the AIRC Festival which was also on the same weekend.
There were 160 horses competing each day and the arenas held up

brilliantly to the workload which is a credit to the footing of Equestrian Surfaces who are definintely becoming the leaders in arena surfaces of excellence.

It was also excellent to see the international flavour added by way of Zara Barton who made the trip all the way from Britain with Pretty Woman to compete in Inter II and Grand Prix and while she acquitted herself well she had to give way to Yvette Truesdale's trusted campaigner Accolade in the Horse & Country Grand Prix Championship.

Zara Barton pictured left in the warm up with reigning Irish National Dressage Champion, Niall Quirk who helped her warmup - and pictured right looking the picture of elegance in the

ring - it is great to see this young rider doing so well.


Adding to the international flavour was visiting Australian rider Krystyna Pollard's victory in the Downey Equestrian Side Saddle Championship who gave the Irish riders a run for their money. Krystyna is pictured below left looking very stylish.

In the Equestrian Surfaces Prix St Georges/Inter I Championship it was the turn of Anne Marie Dunphy with Heritage Egano S to claim the coveted blue Festival rug with the narrowest of margins over Sue Smallman's attractive Oakengrove Ideal. The pair had their revenge claiming the McDonell Properties Advanced Championship from Lucy Adams and Ben Hymn.

The Ballyvolan Stud/East Coast Trailers Advanced Medium Championship proved to be the battle of the
mares with Yvette Truesdale's Wishful Thinking just pipping Anne Marie Dunphy's Heritage Nofretete for the red rosette. Anne Marie and Nofretete more than made up for it by claiming the Denis Doyle/Rhinestone Medium Championship by a margin of almost 10% over Lucy Adams on her chance ride Horseware Trooper who's usual rider Allan Dewhurst had exchanged the saddle for the judge's seat. Pictured below from left to right: Anne Marie Dunphy, Josephine and Barbara Delahoyde
The Niagara Equissage Elementary Championship was won convincingly by Rosemary Gaffney and her new partner, the attractive black Midgard who earlier fulfilled the role of "nannie" to 12 year old Josephine Delahoyde for whom the warm up ring got rather crowded on the diminutive Tommy Pickles. Notwithstanding Josephine and the pretty roan went on to claim 6th place in the Junior Novice Championship in their first attempt at this level. In the Dooley Poynton Novice Championship Wicklow rider Heidi Hamilton with the aptly named
Inishannon on Air floated to victory, a feat which she repeated with her other mount Tim'n'I in the Instacom Preliminary Championship.
Looking surpremely elegant both on and off a horse Heidi would have to be one of the hardest working women on the Dressage circuit with many horses in work at home, she is also a consistent competitor on the dressage circuit - Heidi is pictured left and right and below/

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