The Riding School

County Kildare · an October evening after the dressage lesson · a grey mare for sale · Difficulty: Detective 6 · 9×9

An October Thursday evening at a riding school in County Kildare: the day's last dressage lesson had just ended. Vonnie, a bloodstock agent over from Newmarket, had come to see the grey mare the owner hoped to sell. The pupils were in no hurry to go home, and some riders had not even left the saddle. Then the agent was found dead, and the mare's papers were missing from her bag.

Rules

Exactly three people were on horseback.
Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
“Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the desk, the saddle racks, the barrel, the water trough, the cabinet, the trophy, the boots, the wheelbarrow, the trees, the ladder, the mirrors, the cart, the hose and the show jumps) cannot be occupied; the chair, the benches, the horses and the hay bales can.
Directions refer to rows and columns, not to the same line: “exactly one row north of him was a woman” = the person in the row directly above is a woman, in any column.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Aisling (owner of the riding school): The cabinet was somewhere in her area.
Barry (head groom): He was in the last column.
Cathal (farrier): A bench was somewhere in his area.
Deirdre (dressage instructor): There was a guest in her area.
Eithne (pupil, adult rider): She was the only woman on horseback. She was in the Arena.
Finbar (pupil, show jumper): He was not beside a horse. Somebody else in his area was beside a show jump.
Garret (pupil, teenage rider): Exactly one row north of him was a guest. The boots were somewhere in his column.
Hollie (a pupil's mother): She was the only one beside a tree.
Vonnie (bloodstock agent from Newmarket): The victim. She was found beside a saddle rack – alone with the murderer.

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