THIS year the National Eventing Championships were held in the more centrally-located venue of Tattersalls Ireland and over the second weekend in August, a month later than in 2015.

However, this was still considered too early especially by those who had been on international duty or involved in producing animals for the young horse classes at Dublin as they were unable to get the necessary runs into horses to qualify for the nationals.

The fact that for some, the event was staged over three days, did not go down well either.

The good news for 2017 is that the two-day fixture is scheduled to take place at the Co Meath venue on September 9th and 10th and hopefully this will prove a more attractive date as there is a great opportunity to build this event up into a competitive, educational and social fixture.

The Championships could be a target for those for whom representing their country is never really a possibility while also affording our top professionals the opportunity to get runs into their top horses before the autumn international campaign gets into full swing and introducing their younger mounts to the experience of competing over two days.

Not wishing to give the organisers more work, a team competition could also be introduced over the grades, which might encourage people to stay on and watch the final phases of the later classes when their own competitions have been completed. This would certainly add to the atmosphere and help those who have commercials stands at the event.