DESPERATE weather conditions countrywide is playing havoc with the eventing schedule in Ireland and Britain with two more one-day event cancellations announced this week on the Irish circuit, bringing the present total to five, as riders struggle to get their qualification for upcoming international events.

Tyrella, scheduled for today, was cancelled due to heavy rainfall, and so too has a new fixture at Clyda, Co Cork. Millstreet will go ahead tomorrow with their second event of the season on an all-weather surface similar to the season opener two weeks ago.

Dora Beacom, event organiser at Tyrella, said the Co Down event cancelled this weekend’s fixture to let the ground recover for the events scheduled on April 14th and 21st.

“We felt if we ran this weekend we would not be able to go for the next two weeks,” Beacom told The Irish Field yesterday. Despite heavy rain prior to last Saturday’s one-day event held at the venue, the ground held up reasonably well and track restorations were completed by Sunday afternoon.

“We had all the restoration on the track done by Sunday with fences built and it was fine, but there was a lot of rain afterwards so it needed to bed down.

“The ground is very sandy so it normally holds up well but this weather has been unprecedented, the water table is just so high, it has nowhere to go,” Beacom said, adding: “Yesterday was a fabulous day and it looked amazing. Hopefully it will remain sunny, we are ready to go, all the fences have been laid out, we didn’t want to leave anything to the last minute.”

It is now of high importance that next Saturday’s event goes ahead at Tyrella as it will now run a CNC3* and, along with Millsteet (3) the following day, it will be the last opportunity for riders to get their final national Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MER) qualifications for Ballindenisk International.

Eventing Ireland are making an exception to the usual 10-day qualification period, now reduced to five days from the start of cross-country to include Tyrella and Millstreet next weekend.

Peter Fell of Ballindenisk International said the track at the Co Cork venue is in good order despite Thursday night’s heavy rain.

“It’s been bad but not terrible, our biggest saving grace is that we have no stock on the farm – we graze sheep in the winter and they do a brilliant job of tidying the farm.

“That is protecting the ground and then when the rain comes, it doesn’t affect it as much. We’ve very good entries given all the things that have happened this spring but they are down on last year so that is disappointing,” Fell added.

British Eventing had to abandon 15 events and partially abandon another seven, with Larkhill in south west England now the only event running there this weekend.

The three-day Burnham Market international was abandoned after two days last weekend while the lack of preparation runs before Badminton is becoming a problem. Austin O’Connor (Kilpatrick Knight) is the first Irish rider to withdraw from the four-star show piece.

CAMPHIRE INTERNATIONAL

Meanwhile, it emerged that all parties involved are working towards a solution to enable Camphire International go ahead. Speaking to The Irish Field Camphire organiser Paul Brady commented: “Negotiations are ongoing. Subject to confirmation, Eventing Ireland have committed for the next three years and we are waiting to hear back from Horse Sport Ireland.”

A Horse Sport Ireland statement said: “HSI are making every possible effort to support Camphire International Horse Trials to run their event again this year. We believe that a workable solution has been proposed and we are continuing to communicate with Camphire to secure the event’s future.”