History was made in Omaha, Nebraska in the USA on Saturday 2nd April, when Ireland’s Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K finished in a superb fourth place in the Dressage World Cup Final, smashing the previous best Irish World Cup Final placing of eighth, that they achieved in Gothenburg, Sweden 12 months ago.

Riding her long-time partner Vancouver K, who is owned by her parents Joe and Kathleen Reynolds, Judy produced a flawless Freestyle Grand Prix test to her 80’s Divas themed music. They scored 79.571% to almost match their Irish record score and briefly held third place with just one rider left to go.

German World No.1 Isabel Werth was crowned World Cup Dressage champion for the third time when she scored 90.704% when last to enter the 17,000 seater Century Link arena with Weihegold OLD. The American audience saw home favourite Laura Graves finish as runner-up with Verdades (85.307%), while Britain’s Carl Hester and Nip Tuck (83.757%) took the last spot on the podium ahead of Judy Reynolds in fourth.

Speaking from Omaha, Kildare-born Judy Reynolds said:

“I’m delighted. It was more than I was hoping for. The new freestyle transitions are all coming together and this is the most together Vancouver K and I have been since we debuted this freestyle in Stuttgart last November. Following the Grand Prix here on Thursday, I took on board some observations about the passage (elevated trot) sequence and I’m thrilled that we were scoring at 97% for the degree of difficulty mark as we completed our final passage/piaffe trot sequence down the centre line.”

Reynolds and Vancouver K represented Ireland at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and their steady rise up the World rankings has given the sport of Dressage in Ireland a huge boost. The sports governing body have reported a huge rise recently in entries, including at the Dressage Ireland Winter Finals which are taking place in Cavan this weekend.