THE judges for the event horse championships at next week’s Dublin Horse Show will probably be of as much interest to spectators as the animals competing.

The young horses, whose prize money is funded by DAFM and delivered by HSI, will come under the scrutiny of William Fox-Pitt, Simon Grieve and Nicola Wilson, while England-based Irish international Susie Berry will assess the Junior/Young Riders event horses along with Jesse Campbell and Maire-Claire Nimmo.

Steven Smith, who won the five-year-old class in 2022 and 2024, went down to Scarteen to qualify Ann Bowe’s Irish Sport Horse gelding Le Barantula, a chesnut son of Echonix out of an OBOS Quality 004 dam.

Among those who travelled north to qualify at Tullylish was Diarmuid Ryan who did so on Bridget and Nyall Speirs’s home-bred ISH gelding BT Just Special (by I’m Special de Muze) who didn’t make the placings here last August but has an excellent record in young event horse classes.

Sarah Ennis rides two of the three five-year-old ISH mares qualified, viz Andrew Cox and Susanne Macken’s Lady Sky M, a Cinsey bay bred by Macken out of a Je t’Aime Flamenco mare, and PJ Hegarty’s home-bred Fenyas Email. The latter, a daughter of Jaguar Mail, is out of Fenyas Elegance (by Ricardo Z) who won the four-year-old Future Event Horse League in 2008 and was to go on and win at the old 3* level in eventing (now 4*) with Aoife Clark and Oliver Townend.

Welsh natives Andrew Williams and John Tilley have had a big impact on the young event horse scene since moving to Ireland and Tilley has four mounts in this sector next week.

These include Borris Cornet Coole (an ISH gelding by Castlefield Cornet who was third here last season) and Goldburgs Sister Act (an ISH mare by Dignified van’t Zorgvliet) winners, respectively, of the five and four-year-old Young Eventhorse Series leagues.

If owning multiple entries guaranteed success then Paul Donovan is a shoo-in as he owns a fifth of the 20 four-year-olds qualified with the rides split between Fraser Duffy and Sara Lundkvist.

It would be good for the show if John Bannon’s four-year-old ISH gelding A Good Call (by Rock ‘n Roll Ter Putte) and the Hurst Show Team’s home-bred five-year-old ISH mare Tattygare Me Me Me (by Arkan) were to perform well as they head to the Ballsbridge showgrounds as, respectively, the reigning potential event horse champion and the supreme hunter champion.

Ciara O'Connor and Ashwood Iron Lady won at the 2024 Dublin Horse Show \ Louise O'Brien Photography

Ciara O’Connor, who won the Junior/Young Riders event horse championship last August on her aunt Sharon O’Connor’s home-bred ISH mare Ashwood Iron Lady, has again qualified that Iron Man van de Padenborre’s six-year-old half-brother Ashwood Rio (by Ramiro B) and Emma Ryan’s Clonfin Sidneigh, a six-year-old dun gelding by the Connemara stallion Sinatra.

Caitie Slater, winner of the four-year-old title in 2023, has qualified her boss Richard Ames’s five-year-old ISH gelding Belline LEB Noble Warrior (by OBOS Quality 004) while Carla Williamson, who has been competing at Dublin for many, many years, has qualified with her mother Janet’s seven-year-old ISH gelding Powers (by Colandro).