PROMOTED by Eventing Ireland but open to non-members, the Plusvital combined training series gets underway this weekend in three of the organisation’s five Regions.

The main aims of the series are to encourage new riders to try eventing, to introduce young horses to competition and to act as a warm-up for the Eventing Ireland season, which is scheduled to start at Barnadown on Sunday, March 8th, eight days after this Plusvital series concludes.

There are few constraints to entry. Horses must be at least four years of age, ponies must be at least five and a minimum of 138cm in height; suitably-sized adults may ride ponies. The five classes range in height from CT80 to CT115 (horses only) and full details on the points structure, prize-money distribution and additional prizes can be found on the EI website.

Today’s opening action is at The Meadows, where the first of five Northern Region Plusvital qualifiers runs in conjunction with leg two of the Baileys Horse Feeds flexi eventing league, which commenced last Saturday.

Tomorrow, as the Western Region holds the first round of its annual combined training league at Milchem Equestrian Centre, it is staging the first of five Plusvital qualifiers at the Tynagh venue. Also tomorrow, the first of three South Leinster Region qualifiers at CoilÓg has attracted an excellent entry. A similar number of South Leinster qualifiers are also being run at Wexford Equestrian, the first of which takes place next Sunday, January 25th.

Hollypark Stables was scheduled to hold the first of five dedicated Munster Region qualifiers today, but this was cancelled due to a lack of entries. For next Saturday, and the remaining three legs, the Co Limerick venue will run some lower level non-qualifying classes along with the Plusvital series.