PRESS RELEASE
9TH SEPTEMBER 2003
LOUISE
BLOOMER, JENNIFER LAMBERT AND BETHANY MACKEY WIN THE 2003 SILVER
SPURS FINALS
The Silver Spurs Finals supported by the Irish Horse Board brought an added
dimension to the national dressage championships at Cavan Equestrian Centre
last weekend.
Ten pony riders, fifteen juniors and eight young riders qualified for the
finals from regional assessment days throughout the country over the summer
months. In the event all ten pony riders, ten of the juniors and five young
riders turned up in Cavan to compete. Proceedings got underway at lunchtime
on Friday in the outdoor sand arena with all the finalists required to ride
two tests. Chief organiser Joan Keogh pulled off something of a coup in
persuading Anna Merveldt-Steffens to be the master judge for the finals and
it was fitting that the most successful rider in the history of Irish
dressage would adjudicate on the talents of the finalists. She was ably
assisted in the opening round by senior judges Dermot Cannon and Donald
Kear from Great Britain. The pony riders had to ride both test 21 and test
32 with Anna positioned between the two arenas to judge their effectiveness
and position. Once the tests were completed the three judges retired to
confer in detail on the merits or otherwise of each rider and prepare a
written report for each of the finalists which they were handed back along
with their test sheets. Lengthy deliberations were to prove the order of
the day which meant that proceedings did run somewhat later then planned.
Qualifying for the finals is an achievement in itself but the pressure was
on as there were only three places on offer for the ride off in each
division in the main arena the following evening.
Audrey Hickey from County Cork had been a member of the Irish Pony team at
the pony europeans in Necarne and she and Ronald David qualified for the
ride off along with Shauna Finneran riding Milford Sirocco and Bethany
Mackey and Cadmus. The judges were impressed with the standard of the pony
competition. One of the good features of the Silver Spurs is that all the
riders were brought up to meet the judges after the competition and master
judge Merveldt-Steffens spoke to each group in turn about their class
making it clear to all of them that she and her fellow judges were
available to speak to them individually over the weekend if they so wished.
For the junior final Dermot Cannon judged test 32 and Donald Kear test 41.
Both Melissa Liekens-Schurmans riding Ronja 252 and Carragh Kennedy and The
Comedian received top marks and exactly the same scores from both judges.
At this point Jennifer Lambert was somewhat off the pace with her mare
Sally's Diamond but the test marks only accounted for a third of the total
with the riders position and their effectiveness accounting for the final
two thirds of the marks on the scorecard. Here Jennifer scored well and
made it into the junior ride off along with Carragh and Melissa.
Just five young riders went to post in the final action of the opening day
but there was quality aplenty on view here. The young riders rode test 41
in the 20m x 40m arena with Dermot Cannon judging and test 56 in the 20m x
60m arena with Donald Kear officiating. Pauline Millea a student from
Kildalton College received the highest marks of any rider in all three
divisions on the day for her position and effectiveness with Rainborough
Roundhead and she topped the young rider trio for the ride off. Millea was
joined by the experienced Louise Bloomer with Hugginstown and Danielle Read
from Ballinrobe with Early Warning.
The pony ride off got underway in the main arena on Saturday evening and
the riders were judged by Anna Merveldt-Steffens and Donald Kear on this
occasion. Angela Lyons had the distinction of having trained two of the
riders Cork girls Bethany Mackey and Audrey Hickey. The third finalist
Shauna Finneran a pupil of team Ireland chef Vida Tansey. Bethany's pony
Cadmus proved a difficult ride for both Shauna and Audrey but young Mackey
went from strength to strength as she recorded impressive scores with
Finneran's Milford Sirocco and then rode a stylish test with Hickey's
european pony team mount Ronald David to win the final decisively. Shauna
Finneran just held off the challenge of Irish pony team member Audrey
Hickey to take second place.
In the junior final the high scores recorded by Jennifer Lambert the
previous day for position and effectiveness were an omen of things to come.
Jennifer had clearly benefitted from the experience of trainers Niall Quirk
and Gerald Bloomer in her preparations for the finals. Kilkenny resident
Melissa Liekens-Schurmans was under the watchful eye of trainer Anne Marie
Dunphy as she rode her 12 year old westphalian mare Ronja 252 in the ride
off and she set the early pace ahead of the Nicki Colley trained Carragh
Kennedy with The Comedian. Jennifer Lambert may have got off to a quite
start with Sally's Diamond but this mare was to prove the undoing of
Melissa and when Ronja 252 returned the compliment for Carragh the ride off
was thrown wide open. When many were under pressure the day before in the
outdoor arena Jennifer displayed a cool head when it mattered and she
showed it again in the main arena when riding a flowing test on The
Comedian and then followed it up with another good outing on Ronja 252 to
ironically overtake Melissa Liekens-Schurmans and clinch the title.
With brother Gerald having played his part in securing the junior honours
sister Louise set the early pace in the young riders ride off with the six
year old gelding Hugginstown. Louise is trained by Niall Quirk and she was
joined in the ride off by Danielle Read From County Mayo a student of Vida
Tansey's and the Joan Lenihan trained Pauline Millea. Pauline comes from a
show jumping background and had borrowed James Dwyers paralympian mount
Rainborough Roundhead for the finals. Unfortunately the Kildalton student
made a number of errors of course during the ride off which was a great
shame as she is undoubtedly a talented rider and she certainly made a big
impression with the judges. Danielle Read put in consistent performances
throughout the ride off but Louise Bloomer continued to extend her early
lead to finish a clear winner with Danielle in second place and Pauline in
third. Louise's victory was all the more remarkable for the fact that she
was far from well over the weekend being prescribed medication for the
attentions of an unwelcome bug and she showed what an accomplished young
horsewoman she is in coming through win the final in some style. Speaking
at the presentation ceremony in the bar afterwards master judge Anna
Merveldt-Steffens complimented all the finalists on the standard of their
riding and stated she would be happy to return again next year to judge an
offer which no doubt Joan Keogh is likely to take her up on.
