Irish Olympian Judy Reynolds placed fourth in the FEI World Cup Dressage Final in Omaha, Nebraska, USA this evening.

Performing to her 1980s divas-themed freestyle to music programme, Judy and the 15-year-old Jazz gelding Vancouver K, owned by her parents Joe and Kathleen Reynolds, danced their way to a score of 79.571% and a prize of €21,500 in the FEI World Cup Final Grand Prix Kür (Freestyle to Music).  A brilliantly choreographed floor plan saw her gain marks for the high degree of technical difficulty of her canter pirouette and piaffe/passage trot transitions.

Speaking from Omaha Judy said “I’m delighted.  It was more then 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.”

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Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K dwarfed by the vastness of the Omaha arena.

The FEI World Cup Dressage Final was won for the third time by Germany’s Isabell Werth.  She clinched the win with Weihegold OLD on a score of 90.704%.

Reynolds is the first ever Irish dressage rider to qualify for a World Cup Final.

Jack Burns