IT is over 30 years since the first hunt chase was run in the RDS. Sadly it is no more.

The brainchild of the late Thady Ryan, master of the famed Scarteen Hounds, it was designed as a way of bringing hunting back into the show ring. Almost all equestrian sports have sprung from the hunting field but as they evolved, many have lost contact with their roots.

Originally knows as the “Quinsworth Chase”, it was run midweek in the Main Arena with eight invited hunt teams. It was an instant success and became a firm favourite with the public and often attracted a crowd exceeded only by Aga Khan day. Hunt supporters would look eagerly towards their trip to Dublin on hunt chase day regardless of whether their team was involved or not.

Thady was chief steward, course builder and much more. On year two I was fortunate enough to be picked on the Scarteen team with Thady, the late Phil Purcell and Marie Barnwell. The fact that we didn’t win didn’t in any way take from our enjoyment and in essence that is what the competition was all about. Thady’s horse, Jacko, had to be led in the parade as he was still on foot building the course. The thrill for ordinary riders to have an opportunity to compete in the RDS Main aAena can not be put into words. It could be compared to a member of a local tennis club being invited to play on centre court at Wimbledon!

Hugh Leonard of the Wards competed right into his seventies. There were some remarkable rounds over the years. The late Charlie O’Neill of Kildare went head to head with a Killinick rider less than half his age and beat him! Michael Blake, current showjumping supremo, was a leading star of the event. Back in the day he rode almost single-handed as one of his hands was in plaster after having a couple of fingers re-attached! Those early days were the era when regular hunting men (and women) would put their horses back in come early June in the hope that their hunt and themselves might be picked for Dublin Horse Show in August.

Joe Moorehead went on to be the next chief steward followed by Charlie Powell and this writer with the hard-working John Rowley having being in charge for the last number of years. David Lalor MFH (Laois) succeeded Thady as course builder and went on to run the event at the “Ploughing” when it was first staged on his farm in Ballacolla around 1995 and again in 2000 and 2002.

It has become an intrinsic part of the Ploughing ever since under the direction of Eileen Brennan who is Anna Maye’s sister. This has proven a great shop window for hunting to the farming community without whom hunting could not continue.

Perhaps over the years the event became a victim of its own success and became more professional and much faster, squeezing out older and less competitive riders. This year’s final has moved to Tullamore.

Centenary year

2019 is the 100th year anniversary of women competing on horseback at the Dublin Horse Show, and to mark this event, the eight riders competing in the new Team Chase Competition are all female. The first female show jumper winner was Meath’s Florence Garth on her horse Motor Car. As reported in The Meath Chronicle dated September 6th 1919, not only did the horse win the Ladies’ competition, but they also “came out to beat all competition in the Champion event’’.

Each of the female riders will team up with a pair of Senior Mounted Games riders to take part in a competition that will demonstrates the skills required to cross the Irish countryside, and showcase the speed, athleticism and training capabilities of the Mounted Games riders.

A new course is being designed by Dereck Hamilton, which will comprise of fences synonymous with the Irish countryside including Galway stone walls, imposing Meath hedges, Limerick double banks and trappy Wexford keyholes.

The competition will start with the speed of the Mounted Games element of the competition, and will pass over to the female riders for the cross-country element which will test the horse and riders’ ability to meet the challenges of the Irish countryside.

A number of the fences will be knockable, focusing the riders on the necessity to be accurate (four second penalty for a fence down or a refusal) and balanced, as well as fast around the course.

The Senior/Adult Mounted Games will be showcased for the first time at this year’s Dublin Horse Show, and we all look forward to seeing Irish riders who have competed internationally to great success, demonstrating their athletic skills and horse training capabilities, in the Main Arena.

A substantial prize fund is in place for the new DHS Team Chase Competition.

Team Chase riders

1. Maeve Carty – Galway Blazers

2. Ann Lambert – Killinick Harriers Hunt

3. Rosemary Wentges – Westmeath Foxhounds

4. Linda Murphy – Wicklow Foxhounds (on Sam Salad, former RDS Small Event Horse Champion)

5. Alicia Devlin Byrne – East Wicklow Foxhounds Hunting Club (on Fernando, former Connemara champion)

6. Annemieke Plass – Westmeath Foxhounds

7. Kate Hyland – Ballymacad Foxhounds

8. Alice Copithorne – Former Kilkenny whip from a Cork hunting family