Irish Show Jumping team named for Friday’s Swedish Nations Cup

Horse Sport Ireland Show Jumping team manager Robert Splaine has named his four man team for tomorrow’s (Friday) five-star Nations Cup at Falsterbo in Sweden.

Cork’s Shane Sweentnam will be Ireland’s first rider into the arena with Chaqui Z, a 10-year-old stallion owned by Spy Coast Farm. Offaly’s Darragh Kenny rides the Jos Lansink-owned gelding Go Easy De Muze, while Waterford’s Anthony Condon will partner the John Hales-owned stallion Aristio. Tipperary’s Shane Breen will ride the anchor leg for Ireland with another stallion, Golden Hawk, who he owns along with P. Sultan.

Ireland have been drawn second to go of the eight teams taking part. Falsterbo will be Ireland’s penultimate points-scoring round of the Furusiyya Nations Cup series, with the last chance to collect points coming during the Aga Khan competition at the Dublin Horse Show in a fortnight’s time.
Speaking shortly after announcing his team, Robert Splaine said: “With five of the eight teams chasing league points here at Falsterbo I expect this to be a very tough competition.”

Irish riders got off to a flying start at the Swedish venue on Thursday scoring a win and a runner-up finish. Shane Sweetnam won the very first competition at the show, taking the 1m45 speed class with Cyklon, while Darragh Kenny slotted into fifth place with Zahra II. Kenny was back among the prizes in the afternoon 1m50 when he came home in second place with Catusu behind Switzerland’s Paul Estermann and Lord Pepsi.

Friday’s Falsterbo Nations Cup gets underway in Sweden at 1.30pm Irish time and is available to watch live on FEITV.