ENTRIES opened on Wednesday for this year’s new-look Balmoral Show following official publication that day of the prize schedule.

The show has been extended to four days with the final session, on Saturday, May 13th, being very much focussed on children, young riders and amateurs in the equestrian section while also staging one of the highlights of the event from an agricultural perspective, the spectacular cattle parade.

There will be show jumping on all four days, but while the Botanica International amateur classes will take place in two sessions on Saturday, the Barclay Communications and Bottle Green international Grand Prix keeps its traditional Friday afternoon slot. There are changes of days for a couple of the international classes but the remaining national championships will take place as usual on the Wednesday with qualifiers for these commencing on Saturday, March 11th at Kernans Equestrian Centre.

Also taking place in the Main Arena on the final day will be the inaugural Bluegrass Horse Feeds schools open championship and the new Millar McCall Wylie 128cms under 10 championship. The show will end as usual with the popular inter hunt chase sponsored by Wilsons Auctions.

On the showing front, much of the horse breeding stock, youngstock and hunter programme stays the same on the opening day, Wednesday, May 10th, but the Creightons of Finaghy hunter championships in the Main Arena will be at a slightly earlier time as the show will only have one late session this year, on the Thursday evening. Cob fans will have to adjust to a new slot on Wednesday afternoon when the three Grant Engineering classes take place in Horse Arena 2, clashing with the Blue Frog coloured horse class at one stage.

The North Down Marquees representative will be busy on Thursday morning as the firm not only sponsors the ladies’ astride hunter classes in Horse Arena 1 but, at the same time, the Connemara in-hand and ridden classes across the walkway (as well as the breed working hunter classes that evening). The Event Technical Services riding horse class has an earlier start time on Thursday while the UMEX Pony Club games, which are being brought forward a day, will command attention in the Main Arena that morning.

The popular ladies’ side-saddle class take place at noon in Horse Arena 1 followed by the revived ridden Irish Draught class which is for mares and geldings only and will be restricted to 20 entries. Also starting at noon will be the first of four new Mountain & Moorland classes which are broken into large and small breeds and senior and junior riders. Entries will be limited to the first 15 received for each class.

The Knotts Bakery young event horses championships, for which dates and venues of qualifiers appear in the schedule and on the show’s website, will run on Thursday and Friday this year and from 3pm on Thursday, Horse Arena 2 will stage the dressage and conformation phases of these four and five-year-old classes. Details of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association-sponsored racehorse to riding

horse class, which returns to the programme this year at 3.15pm in the Main Arena, can be found in this week’s View From Above column (A19).

Action in the Main Arena on Friday will commence with the Irish Draught performance horse section, which proved very popular on its introduction last year and will be restricted to 40 entries over both classes. These will be followed by the jumping, suitability and potential phase of the young event horse championships.

The Ulster Bank Clydesdale horse section holds on to its traditional Friday morning slot in Horse Arena 2 and this year will only have to contend with competition from the hackney, private driving and light trade turn-out classes in Horse Arena 1.

The regular working hunter horse section, sponsored by The Equestrian Store, has been moved to Friday afternoon. As these are always popular, the three classes will be limited to 40 entries and competitors cannot ride more than one horse in each.

In addition to classes already mentioned for Saturday, the morning’s showing programme will feature the re-scheduled Eventsec ridden pony classes in Horse Arena 2 and the new working hunter classes for Mountain & Moorlands, small horses and intermediates in Horse Arena 1. This year, the usual working hunter pony classes will take place on Saturday afternoon.

Donkey fans will be delighted to know that Lowe Refrigeration are sponsoring displays on all four days of the show while there will be a farriery competition/demonstration on Friday afternoon in Horse Arena 2.

As with all major shows, there are many regulations and instructions around the arrival and departure of all horses and ponies, passes, veterinary treatment, etc and careful reading of the schedule is advised.

Many of the horse and pony classes start before the doors open to the public at 9.30am so readers might like to check out Balmoral’s offer of early equine wristbands which allow access to the showgrounds from 8am. Wristbands, which are day specific, are priced between £3 for children and £16 for adults and must be ordered by Wednesday, May 3rd.