Judy Reynolds Named Irish Field Dressage Rider of the Year 2017

Dressage

Ireland

Judy Reynolds is The Irish Field Dressage Rider of the Year for 2017. Judy and her now 16-year-old Jazz gelding Vancouver K, owned by her parents Joe and Kathleen Reynolds, were the first Irish combination to qualify for the World Cup Dressage finals.

Performing to her eighties divas themed freestyle to music programme, Judy and Vancouver K danced their way to a score of 79.571% and fourth place in the 2017 World Cup Final Grand Prix Kür [Freestyle to Music] in Omaha, United States of America in April 2017.

This is the fifth time Judy has won The Irish Field Dressage Rider of the Year award as she closes in on Anna Merveldt's record haul of eight awards. Judy was presented with The Irish Field Dressage Rider of the Year award by Leo Powell, Editor of The Irish Field publication at the awards lunch in the K Club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland on Monday, February 12, 2018.

The 2017 season saw Judy and Vancouver K score a double at the four-star show in Fritzens-Schindlhof, Austria winning the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special. In July they added the Irish international Grand Prix Special record score to their Grand Prix and Grand Prix Kür (Freestyle to Music) Irish records, when scoring 75.784% at the five-star show in Aachen, Germany. Judy ended the year as the highest ranked senior Irish rider in the FEI world rankings, across all three Olympic disciplines, in 17th place.

Unfortunately an injury to Vancouver K ruled them our for the 2017 European Championships and the 2017/2018 World Cup Dressage season. They have their sights firmly set on returning to international competition in April with the ultimate aim of competing at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, in Tryon, North Carolina, United States of America next September.