HORSE Sport Ireland has announced that it has agreed a contract with Eventing High Performance Coach Ginny Elliot up until the London Olympics in 2012.
Agreements have also been secured with Dressage coach Ferdi Eilberg and Show Jumping coach Michael Quirke for the same period.
Ginny Elliot said that she was delighted to stay on board and said that her focus was now on trying to qualify for the Olympic Games at the Alltech World Equestrian Games Kentucky this year.
“I am delighted that Ferdi and Michael have also committed themselves, and with Marcus Swail as team vet, I believe we have a very strong backroom team in place. It would be great if we could secure Olympic qualification at WEG this year so that we could use the Europeans next year with the Olympics in mind,” she said.
A training squad has been in action since January with three two day pre-season training camps already having taken place. The list consists of experienced horses that are being prepared for WEG and younger horses who have been identified as having Olympic potential.
“The three camps have gone well and the riders have done very well in their warm up events. There are some really nice horses for the future and we were anxious to get these onto the programme as soon as possible,” Ginny Elliot said.
One issue which she expressed concern about was the sale of potential Olympic horses out of the country. Two horses that were selected on the training list, Amacuzzi (Stuart Crawford) and Westwinds El Divo (Louise Codd), have already been sold abroad.
“This is a real concern. These horses were very promising and we had invited them onto the training squad with 2012 in mind. They were also part of the team that went to Le Lions d’Angers last year. Initiatives like the Going for Gold syndicate are so important and it would be great if more people were in a position to support their efforts,” she said.
In the short term Ginny is looking forward to Badminton, where as many as nine Irish combinations are now accepted for the event.
“I don’t expect that all nine will end up going but most of them are currently on track and I do expect that we will have a strong representation there. After Badminton, Tattersalls and Luhmuhlen I will be naming the initial squad for Kentucky,” she said.
Ginny also confirmed that Capt Geoff Curran and The Jump Jet would represent Ireland in the Rolex event in Kentucky next weekend which will also act as the test event for WEG. US based rider Hilda Hick Donaghue and her horse 'Extravagence' are also due to participate in the four-star event, which is one of the HSBC Classics.