Irish eventer Susie Berry secured third place at the prestigious Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials on Sunday.
Berry and her mount John The Bull jumped clear in the final show jumping phase to finished on 27.9 points, just 2.7 points behind the winner Yasmin Ingham and Banzai Du Loir, with Rosalind Canter and Lordships Graffalo second on 27.1 points.
Earlier this year, Berry and John The Bull suffered nasty injuries, but the 24-year-old was back to her best in a field of 90 that included Britain's Olympic medallists Oliver Townend and Tom McEwen.
Northampton-based Berry scored an excellent 27.9 in Friday's opening dressage phase. This was followed by a perfect clear inside the time in Saturday's cross country and another flawless performance in the final discipline.
Elsewhere, Ireland was represented at the prestigious World Equestrian Festival in Aachen by Olympians Bertram Allen and Darragh Kenny, with both riders claiming major wins.
Offaly-born Kenny began the week by taking victory with Crispo R in the Sparkassen-Youngsters Cup and followed this up with another Aachen win with Volnay du Boisdeville in the 1m50 competition.
Allen also took a five-star win at the Aachen venue. Riding the 11-year-old FTS Killossery Konfusion, he finished half a second ahead of his nearest challenger in the 1m45 two-phase class.
At the five-star fixture in Traverse City, Michigan, Limerick’s Paul O’Shea and Squirt Gun led an Irish 1-2-3 in the 1m50 winning round.
Shane Sweetnam and Indra van de Oude Heihoef finished second, while Cormac Hanley and RMF Chacco Top took third place for Ireland.
Paul O’Shea was also best of the Irish in the 1m60 Grand Prix and landed a runner-up finish with Machu Picchu, while Andrew Bourns and The Irish Sport Horse Sea Topblue finished fifth.
Michael Duffy also recorded a five-star win this weekend when he guided Jeff Ten Halven to victory in the 1m55 jump-off class at St Tropez in France.
In the feature Grand Prix in St Tropez, Mark McAuley and Jasco Vd Bisschop finished as runners-up to Egypt’s Abdel Said and Bandit Savoie.
