THE number of national events held in 2017 was down slightly on the previous 12 months at 39 but otherwise figures supplied by Eventing Ireland show increases all round.

Membership grew by 2% on 2016 with the number of horses registered increasing marginally to over 1,250. The total number of day memberships/registrations was 7% up on the previous 12 months: approximately 400 riders competed on day tickets (850 registrations) with some doing so up to eight times.

ENTRIES

While the average entry for national events grew by 4%, there was no need for balloting as the new maximum entry system worked well both for event organisers and the EI office. The ‘house full’ sign went up surprisingly early in some instances.

After a break of 10 years, Punchestown made a welcome return to the EI schedule with two one-days taking place at the Co Kildare racecourse in May. A similar number will also be staged there next year but more widely spread with one in May and the other rounding off the campaign in early October.

On the downside, other venues were lost this year with the south-east of the country being particularly badly hit as Ballinamona and Kilmanahan, both of which usually ran two top-class one-days each year, didn’t feature on the calendar. Sadly, the former doesn’t appear on the 2018 schedule but Kilmanahan is down for one event towards the end of the season.

Some 10 events were cancelled in 2017 because of the weather and here it was the Northern Region which suffered the most as among those events which didn’t run were Ballyvannon, Finvoy, Knockany, Loughanmore and Tullylish.

RETURN

Happily, having missed a couple of seasons because of a change to farm practices, Kircubbin reappeared on the EI calendar and the O’Flynn family helped save the autumn campaign by staging two substitute events in addition to two held earlier in the year.

While much work is put into allotting dates each year, not all clashes are anticipated and the organisers of Rosanna (2) showed a willingness to change to the first Sunday in September when their original date was also that of the final day of the European Junior and Young Rider eventing championships in Millstreet and the second day of the Tattersalls July Show.