Riding on eleven-year-old horse Marakov, Michael won the Dodson & Horrell Grand Prix Special with 69.375 per cent.

"We worked on submission and instead of riding him up, we worked quite low with lots of crossing of legs," he said.

"I was so pleased with him in the special, he was the first to go and after a difficult grand prix test, the judges aren't so ready to throw marks at them.

In the Horsatack Intermediate I Freestyle and Equimat Prix St Georges, Michael then claimed victory on eleven-year-old Torino as he scored an impressive 75 per cent and 70.184 per cent respectively to win both of the classes.

"Torino is knocking everything out at small tour, scoring eights for his walk, eights for his trot and eights for his canter," he said.

"He's so consistent at this level and he's lovely to ride and have."

Michael then beat sister Maria and Becky Moody to claim the top spot across three of the CDI classes.

Maria went on to secure pole position in the Superflex Grand Prix Freestyle on her WEG ride Two Sox, with a score of 72.475 per cent as the siblings dominated the action.

There was also an impressive showing from the Irish Para-Equestrian as they finished in second place behind Britain with 419.922 points and in doing so moved up the Paralympic team world rankings to fifth place, which puts them in position to qualify a team for the first time at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The Irish team of four comprised Eilish Byrne, Rosemary Gaffney, Helen Karney, James Dwyer and reserve Angela Lyons.

However, for the first time, a total of nine riders represented Ireland at International competition with two-time Paralympian Breda Bernie, young rider Kate Kerr Horgan, Geraldine Savage and Kathryn Wheelock competing in the individual competition.

All riders exceeded the minimum FEI Paralympic qualification criteria.

Ireland Chef d'Equip Naomi Donoghue said: "This was a fantastic achievement for the team.

"Everybody has worked extremely hard and it is great to see consistency across the riders in the team as well as across competitions.

"This puts us in a strong position to achieve our target to qualify a team for London 2012."

Canada claimed third place at the event with 402.117 points, an impressive showing given that the event was the first stop of their European Tour.

New Zealand claimed fourth, while the team from Poland was fifth and riders from Russia earned their country a sixth place finish.

The team from Singapore was seventh, while rounding out the top eight teams was Hong Kong.

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