WHILE there have been worse seasons due to Foot and Mouth and the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2025 Eventing Ireland campaign had a very disruptive start as issues arose between most landowners in the southern half of the country and Eventing Ireland regarding insurance.

In the Northern Region, the campaign kicked off at Tyrella 1 on Saturday, March 22nd with the Fell family, who weren’t in dispute with EI, running an event the next day at Ballindenisk. Apart from the spring international at the Co Cork venue towards the end of April and a second national one-day on May 14th, there were no other EI-affiliated events held in the south until Hillcrest hosted a fixture on May 24th.

All the while, the action was continuing in the Northern Region with far more southern competitors making entries while volunteers, anxious to see some action, were happy to travel up as well.

“We in the Northern Region pulled out all stops to get the season underway in the spring when events in the South, apart from Ballindennisk, were not running,” commented the region’s event co-ordinator, Dora Beacom.

“This provided its own problems as entries filled up in record time, requiring the creation and management of waitlists with significant additional workload. However, the efforts of the Region were very much appreciated by the riders and owners who were very happy to travel long distances to help on the day and to provide hospitality for the volunteers, as well as prizes for the volunteer draw.

“The NR Committee is delighted that all scheduled events took place and, for the first time in a very long time, no weather-related cancellations were necessary.” In total, the Northern Region ran 16 one-day events (47% of national fixtures), two two-phase competitions, a Derby Day and a lot of training.

Patrick Whelan and MBF Corbeagh (ISH) won the EI115 (Open) in great style at Flowerhill last summer. Whelan also won the EI115 class at the event \ Lyndsey Robinson

Flowerhill returned to the EI calendar this year with two fixtures being held at the east Co Galway venue, the first clashing with the Sunday of the Dublin Horse Show on August 10th, with the second taking place five weeks later. There were two EI115 classes on both days.

Disappointingly, there was just one EI-affiliated event at both Crecora and Lisgarvan House during 2025 and, with the cancellation of Tattersalls in August, there was just one in the once-populous North Leinster Region.

Sponsored by Barberstown Castle, this was staged at Clonmahon House on the last Sunday of July when 15 sponsored classes, from EI90 up to EI115 (Open), were run off following a divide to the EI110. Ian Cassells rode five horses that day, finishing second in the EI115 and a division of the EI110 on Noa W and Rutland Flamenco, his two medal-winning horses at Le Lion d’Angers later in the season. This was just the second event to be held at the McNally family’s Co Meath venue following its inaugural running in 2023. Once again there was great praise for the organisers’ attention to detail plus the dimensions and presentation of the fences. This venue, along with two or three others, really need to run an Advanced class for our top-graded horses.

There would have been a lot more spectators at Clonmahon House had the event not clashed with day two of the Tattersalls Ireland July Show. It’s always difficult to avoid such a concurrence and, this year, the extended weekend of July 24th to 26th, which has been publicly announced as the 2026 date for that hugely popular charity show, will clash with the Under 25 FEI World Championships for Eventing at Millstreet in Co Cork.