THE Association of Irish Riding Clubs held its 35th annual Festival last Saturday and Sunday at the Mullingar Equestrian Centre where the Fagan family had hosted international show jumping over the previous two weekends.

The weather could have been kinder, especially on Saturday when there were some very heavy showers, but, as most of the action took place on a surface, the rain had little effect on proceedings in the many rings and arenas used during the day and none at all on the evening entertainment.

The Irish Field, whose editor, Mark Costello, visited the Festival on Sunday, continued its sponsorship of the dressage section while TRI Equestrian sponsored the bulk of the show jumping action over the two days. Premier Performance sponsored the RDS team championship wildcard qualifier on Saturday with Foran Equine coming on board as sponsor of Sunday’s RC70/RC80 team championship.

The breed showing classes at the Festival were funded by the Breeding Grant Initiative under National Breeding Services with thanks to the DAFM, and delivered by Horse Sport Ireland, title sponsor of the showing section. New to the list of sponsors this year was the Co Laois-based company Equipeople. In tandem with their sponsorship of the dressage section, The Irish Field had a stand, manned by two of the team’s outbound sales representatives.

Among those who took time out to talk to the pair were Dressage Ireland List 1 judge Donie McNamara and former international event rider Tony Kennedy who represented Ireland at the 2019 European championships in Luhmühlen. The previous weekend, Kennedy had been at the Millstreet horse trials, supervising his nephew Hugh Kelly who won the CCIP2-L on Fairyhouse In A Pickle.