Turner confident ahead of European Championships

IRISH eventing high performance manager Nick Turner was left celebrating two Irish riders in the top 10 as well as plenty of other cracking performances, giving him plenty of confidence looking towards the Blair Castle European Championships later this year and the Rio Olympics in 2016.

“We had one of the least stressful build-ups ever to a four-star event,” said Turner. “We had a few older horses here and they all came out of it well. Aoife [Clark] had a bit of a setback on the first day when Vaguely North was held at the first trot-up. He’s had a slight skin infection and was basically sound but feeling it in the odd step.”

Turner is confident that after Badminton — as well as Saumur, Bramham, Luhmuhlen and Aachen, where he will also be keeping a close eye on the Irish — he will be fielding a strong squad at the Europeans.

“We need to look after some horses for next year,” he said. “But equally we don’t want to hide them this year. However, we’ll be going into July before a decision will be made.”

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