First for Judy Reynolds

In the heartland of dressage, Dortmund, Germany, Ireland’s Judy Reynolds and her Vancouver K scored their first ever five-star Grand Prix Freestyle to Music win, on Saturday last. Reynolds, The Irish Field Dressage Rider of the Year, put in a superb performance against some of the world’s top performers to post a score of 76.70%, which was almost three points clear of runner-up Hendrik Lochthowe of Germany.

Although Reynolds finished 13th in the Western European League, she still expressed hope of making it to the World Cup Dressage Final in Omaha at the end of this month. She came seventh in that final at Gothenburg last year.

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Lynch delivers in Dortmund

On Sunday last, Denis Lynch had one of six first round clears in the Dortmund Grand Prix. Third to go in the jump-off he took the lead on the 10-year-old, Hannovarian stallion by Valentino, Van Helsing in a time of 40.07 seconds. However second last to go – Sanne Thijssen of The Netherlands shaved more than three seconds off that for the win on Con Quidam by Quinar, with Lynch holding on to second.

Meanwhile, Richard Howley scored a win at the four-star Spanish Sunshine Tour in Vejer De La Frontera on Calmond.

Allen in Doha

Bertram Allen announced the retirement of Romanov early last week, the horse he credits with launching his professional career. Romanov will continue breeding at The Stallion Company in Ashbourne, Co Meath. Last weekend, at the rich, five-star event in Doha, Allen jumped some good clears. In the featured speed event on Friday he topped a quality line-up that had five of the world’s top 10 taking part, with Molly Malone V. Drawn second last to go they came up with one of their blazing clears in a time of 57.70 seconds, knocking a quarter of a second off the time set by French speedster, Roger Yves Bost to take the €23,000 first prize.

In Saturday’s big three-round €350,000 Grand Prix Allen and Molly Malone V had one of just six first round clears but fences four and eight down in the second round dropped the pair down to 15th place behind the winner, Scott Brash on Ursula XII. Athina Onassis jumped a first round clear with just two time faults on the Irish-bred MHS Going Global. She had one down second time out to finish 13th.

Stallions at Cavan

A total of 33 stallions have been catalogued for this week’s Horse Sport Ireland Stallion Inspections at Cavan Equestrian Centre. There were 14 Irish Draughts inspected on Tuesday while a further 17 sport horses were put through their paces on Tuesday and Wednesday. Two ponies were also inspected. We will have a full report in next week’s issue.