OSLO; Jessica Kurten
HELSINKI; Cameron Hanley
LYON; Cian O'Connor
VERONA; Cian O'Connor
STUTTGART; Denis Lynch
OLYMPIA; Billy Twomey
MECHELEN; Cameron Hanley

The World Cup is the world's highest level of indoor jumping. The places at the remaining world cup shows which take place in January, February and March will be allocated at a later stage.

The World Cup final is taking place in Geneva on the weekend of 14-18 April, 2010 and riders must qualify for this through designated qualifying shows around the world.

Each National Federation is allowed to nominate one rider for each of these shows and the places were allocated by Team Manager Robert Splaine with particular emphasis on the support the rider gave to the Irish Nations' Cup team during the outdoor season.

Some Irish riders may also be successful in securing personal invites to these shows.

"I am pleased to be able to allocate these shows to our top riders who have supported the Irish Nations' Cup team this year. This is competition of the highest standard and there is a strong level of interest amongst our top riders for the places," said Splaine today (Tuesday).

He explained that he would be announcing his selection for the shows in the new year at a later stage.

"Obviously I will be watching the form of the riders and monitoring their progress, however the commitment shown to the Nations' Cup team during the 2009 outdoor season will still be the main criteria for these later world cup shows," he said.

“We used nine riders and 16 horses in the Meydan series during the year and the team finished a comfortable fifth in the series. The series was spread over eight top shows and it took significant planning, and also commitment from the riders, to ensure that we stayed competitive without overusing any combination," he said.

"I am glad to be able to reward the riders and owners who went out of their way to support the team, with places at World Cup shows," he added.