Summer Hall of Fame!

We have seen an incredible streak of successes by our liveries, riding club members and coaching clients this summer. From Dressage Ireland to riding club to pony club our riders of all ages have been so impressive.

Spruce Lodge Classic

This two day show saw great success for Lorna with her two horses. DBS Oisinn took third place in the medium championship with DBS Second Chance taking sixth.

In the freestyle dressage to music, DBS Oisinn won the elementary with 73% while DBS Second chance took first place in the medium with an amazing 74%

AIRC Championships

At the Association of Irish Riding Clubs Dressage Championships our little riding club really punched above it’s weight

Suzanne Conroy is the new P1 national champion. Suzanne and her horse Tilly won by over 10 percent after an incredible performance across two tests.

Myriam and Beau took fourth place in the Novice championships a great result in a very competitive class.

Rachel and Leo placed fifth in the P3 competition - the judges liked Leo as much as we do.

Lorna took third and fourth place in the medium championship with Sammy and Oisin.

Lynn and Joe competed in her first P2 championship with some super scores while Michelle and Star competed in the P2 class.

Our Dunbyrne Riding Club team took third place overall from a field of 18 teams. The team, made up of Suzanne, Lynn, Myriam and Lorna were thrilled with their podium finish.

Pony Club Qualifiers

Multi talented Sive and Ollie, already qualified for the pony club eventing championships decided to turn their hand to show jumping. They have qualified for the 1.10 show jumping championships on what was their first ever attempt at the height!

Leinster Dressage Summer League Final

Myriam and Beau had an incredible result at this league final. They took second place in the preliminary and novice league and also won the Treo Eile award for best TB in the preliminary and novice league. Incredible results from consistent performers.

Lynn did her first EVER Dressage Ireland competition. She did a fantastic job with black beauty Joe and got over 66% to win the unregistered preliminary. Lynn’s two daughters took first place in their trailblazer classes too which mean a lovely hat trick of three red rosettes for the family.

Lorna and Oisinn were third in the elementary league and she also took home second place in the medium league with Sammy.

Dunbyrne Stud Livery & coaching

We believe in managing happy horses through a daily and consistent routine. Our livery horses enjoy daily turnout, huge deep beds and good quality haylage and feed.

Our BHS and HSI qualified coaches use systematic training based on the FEI training scales to bring out the best in horses and riders of all levels.

August Adventures for #teamdunbyrnestud

Its hard to believe its already August - Summer has been flying! Our #teamdunbyrnestud members have been making the most of it.

Sive has started her eventing campaign with Ollie (Political Diamond). These are a new partnership and they have become a wonderful team. They have been competing on the pony club eventing circuit where they achieved their first championship MER this weekend at Kilguilkey!

Lorna and Lynn travelled to Mullingar on Sunday for the AIRC dressage championships. Lynn was competing with Shooting Star Joe in the primary championships - at her third ever dressage competition. Lynn has put huge efforts in this year to train show jumper Joe to also enjoy the dressage ring. Her efforts paid off and she scored an incredible 73+% in one of her tests! Lynn finished third overall and hasn’t stopped smiling since!

Lorna and DBS Second Chance (Sammy) took on their first ever advanced open championship. Trained by our BHSI Ross O Hare they were thrilled to get a personal best score at this level and take home third place overall.

We love seeing riders set and achieve goals. If you have your own horse and would enjoy some training here or at your own venue, pop us an email!

Looking for Livery? Ten reasons to join #teamdunbyrnestud

Are you looking for livery? Here are ten reasons to join #teamdunbyrnestud on livery today :

1. We offer huge courtyard stables with deep warm shavings beds providing the ultimate comfort for your horse

2. We supply top quality haylage and feed twice a day as part of our full stabled livery package

3. Horses are turned out daily in individual paddocks with secure fencing. Horses are still relaxed as they can see other horses beside them and this turnout is much safer than group turnout especially when horses and ponies are wearing a full set of shoes.

4. Our yard owners live onsite so our opening hours are flexible. We never restrict our liveries with set hours so if you need to head off early morning somewhere or are running late from work there is no need to worry.

5. We have a huge livery arena (this is dedicated to liveries and is entirely separate from the onsite riding school). The size of our arena allows liveries to ride when our coaches are running lessons so there is no need to plan your riding around someone else’s lessons or arena bookings.

6. BHS and HSI qualified coaches onsite providing training at competitive rates

7. We are less than thirty minutes from JAG / Redhills / Greenogue / Emerald and just ten minutes from Coilog so Leinster competition venues are close by.

8. We have a heated rug room with storage for liveries. This is ideal on cold or damp days as you can hang up your rug while you ride so its nice and warm when it goes back on your horse.

9. We have a 4.5 furlong all weather sand gallops which is exclusively for our liveries to use. This leads on to our onsite wooded hacking trails and is ideal for hacking, fittening work, eventing preparation or even just a break from the arena.

10. We are lucky to have a lovely bunch of existing clients who are positive and enthusiastic. We enjoy taking part as a group in competing on and offsite and in social activities. Our liveries take part in a wealth of disciplines from eventing to dressage.

To arrange a yard visit and enquire about joining our team - please email dunbyrnestud@gmail.com

Everything you need to know about our forthcoming riding club dressage show

We are delighted that our club, Dunbyrne Riding Club will hold a leg of the Kavanaghs of Newbridge dressage league on Sunday the 14th of April.

Entries:

You need to be a registered riding member of a riding club in order to enter. Entries must be made online by visiting www.itsplainsailing.com/club/drc1

Entries close on Tuesday the 9th April. €20 entry for graded classes, €12 to compete in the Sportsmans class, the walk and trot class or to compete H/C in a class

Classes & Tests:

We will be running the following classes:

• Primary (AIRC Intro A 2011)

• Advanced Primary (DI P5 2012)

• Sportsman (DI P5 2012)

• Intermediate (AIRC 15 2013)

• Advanced Intermediate (AIRC 26 2010)

• Open (DI E46 2013)

• Advanced Open (DI M62 2015)

• Walk / Trot test (DI Intro B 2017)

All tests can be downloaded for free.

Dressage Ireland tests are prefixed DI and are available here:

https://www.dressageireland.ie/members/dressage-ireland-tests/

Association of Irish Riding Club tests, prefixed AIRC are available here:

https://www.airc.ie/downloads/

Photographer:

We are delighted to say that Brian from Saggitarian Photography will be here taking photos on the day - smile for the camera

Tea / Coffee:

We will have tea / coffee onsite and home baked treats the proceeds for the sale will go to charity

Safety:

Safety officer on the day: Rory O’Hare

First Aid Responders: Lorna & Ross O’Hare

Where to find us:

Our eircode is W91 YT62

Preparation and Training:

if you would like to ride through your test and get some practice onsite before the show our onsite BHSI Ross O’hare is available for dressage test training, please email us at dunbyrnestud@gmail.com to arrange a private or group session for you or your club

Joining a riding club:

Dunbyrne Riding Club is open for new members, to enquire or join please email dunbyrne@airc.ie

Dunbyrne Dressage Divas!

It was a very sparkling white affair on Sunday as several of our riders competed at Dressage Ireland at Redhills. The competition season is in full swing at the moment and we were delighted to see our riders heading off looking well. 

Sisters Aoife and Caitlin Harrington had a very early start with Aoife entering at A at 8.18am! Aoife took on the challenge of riding four tests - two each on Cosmic and Killelton Starlight. It was a very very tight turnaround of horses in the novice class with just six minutes between times but Aoife kept her cool under pressure. Aoife won both her preliminary and novice Trailblazer classes on board Killelton Starlight, a fantastic result for their first outing as a partnership. She also took sixth in the prelim and second in the novice trailblazers with Cosmic. Aoife is delighted to have achieved qualification for the preliminary trailblazers at the National Championships in September nice and early in the season.

Caitlin Harrington competed with her chestnut pony Nightlight taking first place in the unregistered preliminary. Big sister Orla Harrington was due a very big thank you having taken on the role of groom for both her sisters as well as for Lorna on the day. 

Keen eventer Ellen Merrins traded studs for sparkles on Sunday to compete her gelding Sillan Ludene in the preliminary classes. The pair had a fantastic Dressage Ireland Debut taking second and third place in their classes with impressive scores. 

Lorna competed with DBS Second Chance at what was their first Dressage Ireland competition of the season. They took third place in their novice class and second place at Elementary level in their second class. Most importantly the pair earned their first two qualifiying scores towards the National Championships. 

Michelle Davitt meanwhile competed in the penultimate leg of the Linda Moore Riding Club Showjumping league at Coilog on board Zono. They placed third in the primary class giving them the lead in the league to date, which they are keen to hold on to heading into the final this weekend. 

We are delighted to see all the training paying off for these riders. Our riders are on livery and train at Dunbyrne Stud with our BHS / HSI coaches Ross, Lorna and Rory O'Hare. If you are working towards competing at pony club, riding club or Dressage Ireland please get in touch to find out how we can help you to achieve your goals. 

Blazing a trail at Dressage Ireland

We have a number of talented young riders at Dunbyrne Equestrian and recently two of our coaches Ross O'Hare BHSI and Lorna Keogh (BHS/HSI) formed what we now call the Dunbyrne Tailblazers. The tailblazers team allows these riders access to quality competition coaching to encourage them to improve their riding and to compete with a positive mindset.

The first tailblazers sessions focused on dressage with riders learning the dressage arena and letters and how to ride the movements within a test. After three weeks of training the team travelled to JAG in November with the Dunbyrne lorry to compete at Dressage Ireland in the trailblazers competitions for young riders. This day out, the first ever dressage competition for the team was a great success with everyone scoring above 60% and lots of positive and developmental feedback from the judges to work on. Zara Logan, Sive Murphy and Hannah Groves competed in the mini trailblazers while Niamh Davitt, Laura Kavanagh, Blaithnaid Sharpe and Molly Dunne all competed in the junior trailblazers. 

Aoife Harrington, a young rider who has been competing for over a year at Dressage Ireland Trailblazers acted as a guide for the tailblazers team members, riding test demonstrations to help them to learn their tests while her sister Orla a successful competitor at Dressage Ireland and riding club was at JAG on the day to help the riders on their first day out. Aoife travelled to Marlton last weekend to compete at Trailblazers. She scored an impressive 73% in her prelim test to take second place. Aoife also rode her first ever novice test on the day earning third place and a good score with plenty to work on for 2018 to progress at this level. 

As the tailblazers team has evolved at Dunbyrne Equestrian we have started to include showjumping coaching into the schedule. Our team have been learning how to ride lines, jump combinations and count strides. We have a showjumping session planned for Saturday as well as a talk for the team on competing with a healthy, positive and balanced approach to competition.  Our riders will compete on Sunday at dressage and showjumping at our Christmas Show - we cant wait to see them in action 

Dressage Ireland Winter Finals

Last weekend was a brilliant weekend for Ross at Cavan at the Dressage Ireland Winter finals. He won his prelim and novice tests on his own DBS Matisse on day 1, scored 70% on Mandy Driesches Trakehner stallion Grand Marnier on day 2 and won the prelim category two championship in the evening with DBS Matisse.