THE first issue of The Irish Field in 2017 carried advertisements in the classified pages which had been placed by Horse Sport Ireland.

The Governing Body for Equestrian Sport in this country wished to recruit a Senior Eventing High Performance Director and a Senior Showjumping High Performance Director. Sally Corscadden was appointed to the former position in early March and, later that month, Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa took up the show jumping role.

In that January 7th edition of the paper, the advertisements were covered in a piece by Isabel Hurley, editor of the Irish Horse World, and by Susan Finnerty who also wrote about the announcement the previous day by HSI that Gerry Mullins had been appointed chairman of the High Performance Show Jumping Committee, “tasked with planning qualification for and success at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”

The article continued: “With eight Irish show jumping riders in the top-50 world rankings, the future manager will have a formidable squad to choose from for the 2017 Nations Cup campaign and the European Championships.

“Future championships include the 2018 World Equestrian Games, reallocated to Tryon in North Carolina, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Qualifying an Irish team for Tokyo – with Athens being the last Games where an Irish show jumping team competed – will be a priority for the show jumping chef d’equipe.

“Ireland’s top show jumping riders recently met with HSI and it’s understood that their views will be taken on board regarding the criteria for the manager’s job.

“Both jobs are described as High Performance Director – a term favoured by Sport Ireland – and the successful candidates will be reporting directly to the CEO of Horse Sport Ireland.

“However, the chief executive officer job was recently vacated by Damian McDonald and is currently being filled by acting CEO James Kennedy.

“With HSI’s structures currently under review by Indecon, it’s possible that the CEO job may not be filled until after the findings of the Indecon Review are known.”