Ireland’s Elite Event Riders Set to Battle it out at Ballindenisk

Rioghan Rua will make her 2020 debut at Ballindenisk this weekend, she is pictured above with Cathal Daniels at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, where they helped Team Ireland to silver medal success (Photo: Alison Green for Shannon Brinkman)

Looking down the list of entries for this weekend’s international competition at Ballindenisk, you can’t help but get excited. In the four-star competition you have Irish WEG medal-winning combinations, European Championship-winning combinations, Badminton top-ten finishers and a plethora of exciting young horses stepping up to the level.

It’s unusual to see so many of Ireland’s high-performance athletes competing against each other on home turf – one up-side to Covid-19! Many are preparing for the four-star long competition which will take place at the same venue in September.

For the full list of entries, click here.

PERFECT PERFORMANCE FROM ELIZABETH POWER

Elizabeth Power and Soladoun (pictured) won the CCI 4*-S at Kilguilkey the week before last will also be in action this weekend.

The first international of the 2020 eventing season took place recently at Kilguilkey, where perfect clear show jumping and cross-country rounds from Elizabeth Power and Soladoun saw the pair take victory in the CCI 4*-S.

Power and Soladoun will also be in action this weekend. Commenting on the pair’s stellar performance at Kilguilkey, High-Performance Eventing Director Sally Corscadden said: “Elizabeth is a real competitor she’s proven that and when she’s determined to win, she makes it happen. She was so focused and determined at Kilguilkey and they made it look very easy.”

Looking toward this weekend’s action, Sally Corscadden says; “This weekend is going to be great. You have Ireland’s top riders competing on both their established horses and their younger up and coming horses in the same class. I’ll be looking for competitive runs – there’s still places up for grabs for Tokyo 2021 so these combinations need to prove themselves, there’s no point playing it safe.”

YOUNG RIDER MEDALISTS STEP UP

Corscadden is always looking to develop the high-performance squads and is looking forward to seeing Melanie Young and Alex Donohoe who were on her European Young Rider Silver medal-winning team in 2011 competing this weekend “Melanie and Alex have had to build up new horses and it’s great to see them doing so well.

“Alex in particular has a lot more horses to ride now. She comes to high-performance training and I always try to encourage riders because we are only a small island, we don’t have large numbers so the more we can encourage the better. English-based Susie Berry she’s really stepping up as well, she has three advanced horses who are doing very well.”

The caliber of Irish athletes competing at every level this weekend makes for very exciting competition, make sure to follow Horse Sport Ireland on social media for the latest news updates and exclusive photos from this weekend’s competition.