19/08/09 IRELAND will field its first ever team at a World Pairs Driving Championships this weekend. The Championships are due to start tomorrow (Thursday) in Kecskemet, Hungary with the Dressage phase, which continues until Friday. The Marathon phase will be held on Saturday, and Cones on Sunday. The Irish team who qualified for the championships are Barry Capstick, Folke Rohrssen and Edwin Bryson. A total of 23 nations will take part. Irish Chef d'Equipe at the Championships, Charles Powell, said: "This is the first opportunity Ireland has had to be represented at this level, as we have never had three competitors of this standard who have also duly qualified through international competitions. Barry Capstick, for instance, is coming here off the back of four straight wins in Pairs, at Erddig in Wales, and Wrexham, Sandringham and Farleigh in England." The Irish team suffered a setback earlier this morning when one of Newry-born Edwin Bryson's horses was unable to start, which will remove the option of a discard score from the team's efforts.

03/08/09 Fourteen-year-old Stephen Spillane took first prize in his class at the international Channel Cup which took place August 1-2 at Ashfields Carriage Driving Centre in the UK.

12/07/09 IRISH international Driving competitor Barry Capstick followed up his recent victories at Sandringham and Farleigh with another win in a strong field at the Horse Pairs class at Catton Park in England last Sunday. In a ten-strong field he ended on a penalty-free score of 118.91, having led through all phases. Runner-up was the UK's Geoff Brown on a total of 121.94.

10/07/09 Rathdrum - All Ireland Three-Day Horse Driving Trials Friday 10th to Sunday the 12th July 2009 By kind permission of John and Elizabeth Hughes & family. Organiser and Chief Steward: John Hughes. Incorporating the Tower View League. Location: Rathdrum is located in the N11. The event will be signposted from Market Square in Rathdrum. For more information please click on the Championship schedule.

17/05/09 IRELAND'S James Dwyer racked up three wins at the Para Equestrian Dressage International at Wayne, USA this weekend, riding the 13 year-old Dutch warmblood gelding 'Orlando'. Dwyer, who is 38, took first place in the Grade IV Team test, the Grade IV Individual Championship test and this morning (Sunday) the Grade IV Freestyle Test. A native of Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny, he competed in pony show jumping classes until the age of 16 when he withdrew from competition on medical advice. Treatment for cancer over the next ten years eventually led to his right leg being amputated in 1997. Three years later Dwyer applied for membership of Para Equestrian Ireland, and after initial competitions in dressage, was trained by Donie McNamara of Limerick, who is also the trainer of two-time National Dressage Champion Laragh Hamilton. Dwyer has been resident in the USA since 2004, where he is based with Jessica Ransehousen in Unionville, Philadelphia.

17/05/09 BARRY Capstick today (Sunday) achieved a qualifying place for Ireland at the Pairs World Driving Championships in Hungary later this year when he finished overall fifth in the Land Rover International Driving Grand Prix at the Royal Windsor Show in England. Gloucester-based Capstick, who is 51, took sixth place in Dressage and fifth in the Marathon, while 10 penalties in the Cones phase this morning cemented his fifth position. A professional Driver originally from Stow-In-The-Wold, Capstick took Irish nationality in November of 2003 and three years later competed under his new flag at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, his fifth appearance at this level. Today's Horse Pairs at Windsor were won by Switzerland's Beat Schenk.

09/04/09 FOR THE first time ever Ireland has a competitor in an international equestrian vaulting competition. Charlotte Rimaud, who has been training and competing in France on a national level, has become Ireland's first vaulter. She is the grand-daughter of Jim Marsh (formerly of the Irish Turf Club and the Curragh Racecourse). Equestrian vaulting is, as yet, an unknown sport in Ireland, though it has a good following in England, Scotland, Germany and the US. It is a combination of gymnastics and dance on the back of a cantering horse. It has often been described similar to ice-skating as there are seven compulsory exercises, a technical programme and a free-style programme. Horse Sport Ireland wishes Charlotte the best of luck in her competition at Saumur, France over the Easter weekend and hopes this will be the start of a new equestrian activity in Ireland.

23/01/09 THE FIRST meeting of the carriage driving section of Horse Sport Ireland took place on Wednesday night in Horse Sport Ireland's office in Naas. The establishment of the section followed the decision at Carriage Driving Ireland to wind up that organisation and become a formal section within Horse Sport Ireland. The outgoing Chair of Carriage Driving Ireland, the Hon. Sarah Mullins, said that she believed the move would be good for carriage driving. "The primary reason for this decision is to reduce costs. It is very costly in terms of time and money to maintain a separate legal structure with costs such as audit fees, and all the other time-consuming aspects of running an organisation" she said. "I also believe that the discipline will benefit from being part of a bigger organisation, with the strong support structure that Horse Sport Ireland has in place." Horse Sport Ireland Chairman Joe Walsh said he was very pleased that Carriage Driving had decided to fully integrate into Horse Sport Ireland.