20 Oct Barnadown Lady, Sophie Richards brings Bronze Medal back to Wexford from Breeders Championship
WEXFORD rider Sophie Richards claimed the Bronze Medal for Ireland today (Sunday) at the Eventing World Breeding Championships for Young Horses at Le Lion d’Angers in France, with the Irish Sport Horse SRS Adventure. The Studbook ranking also saw Irish Sport Horses take first place in the overall world championships. Richards’s chestnut gelding, jointly owned by the rider and partner Steven Smith, was seventh after dressage in the Six Year-Old class on a penalty score of 47.3. The combination improved a place on Saturday during the cross country phase, and in today’s final show jumping competition went clear to finish third in the hotly-contested top end of the leaderboard. A clear show jumping round moved Co. Kildare’s Melanie Young up from 13th to ninth on Caroline Bjoerk’s Luidam gelding Ard Cluedo (51.9) while Co Wexford’s Maria Byrne dropped two places to 16th when the OBOS Quality 004 mare Class Affair.