FRANKFORT Stud, which was transformed from a farm to an eventing venue this year, hosted its third and final Eventing Ireland one-day last Sunday when riders, anxious to get horses out as the season draws to an end, defied the wind and rain.

In the days leading up to the fixture, there was some heavy rain while strong overnight winds knocked all the fences down in the two show jumping rings.

“That was probably the first thing I noticed when I got up on Sunday morning,” said Will Kearney who runs the Co Wexford venue with his father Norman.

“I had to go straight over to Barnadown and borrow their sandbags. Thankfully, the wind died down around noon and while it was a wet day, the rain was really just spitting.”

Frankfort Stud was due to get the 2020 EI season underway on Sunday, March 15th but this event was cancelled when the Covid-19 pandemic first intervened and it was mid-July by the time the Kearneys welcomed their first EI visitors to Frankfort Stud.

They did so again at the end of August before opening their gates to EI competitors for a third time last Sunday. They have also hosted an Island Pony Club one-day event, a South Leinster Region of the AIRC one-day event and an Island Hunt/Pony Club hunter trials.

Blessing

“It was probably a blessing in disguise that the first event was cancelled as it just gave us that extra bit of time to get things ready and also that, when the events did get going, there was a reduced number of starters as it let us see where things needed tweaking,” continued Kearney.

“This time, we reversed the direction of the cross-country course, which riders seemed to prefer, and also moved the dressage arenas to see if this would free up more space for parking in the future.

“We are blessed with good draining land here so, even after all the rain, the going was good and you’d hardly see prints in the show jumping ring. We were delighted with the support we got for the EI events which filled up almost immediately when entries opened each time as we spent a nice bit of money getting it all up and running.

“We have a few variations on what we can do in the future.

Great support

“Dad and I got great support from the rest of the family.

“My mother, Linda, looked after the food for the officials and volunteers, my sister Wendy helped in the office, my other sister Helen and her partner Chris did the timing on the cross-country course while my wife Fiona and her sisters all scribed for the dressage.

“Now that the season is over, I’m going to concentrate on my own two event horses.

“I’ve a few youngsters to break and I have a nice four-year-old to produce who’s a half-brother to The Caped Crusader and I think he’ll be a nice horse.”