THE Association of Irish Riding Clubs (AIRC) have announced they will introduce changes to the qualification for the National Eventing Championships in September and also the scoring system used at the final.

In order for competitors to be eligible, they must have completed one AIRC one-day event, in the same calendar year, before the close of entries for the championships in September.

Meanwhile, the scoring system at the championships is changing, whereby if a grade is split into several sections, the dressage scores will be averaged across all arenas to reflect the likely scores if all riders were in the same arena. This is based on a system used by British Riding Clubs.

These changes will allow a champion to be determined in each grade, under the new qualification criteria, at the championships in September.