THE three show jumping horses travelling from Europe arrived safe and sound at Tryon International Equestrian Centre on Tuesday afternoon after a smooth journey from Liege in Belgium to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina.

Despite concerns surrounding the potentially huge Hurricane Florence, Cian O’Connor’s operations manager Ross Mulholland, who flew with Paul O’Shea’s Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu, Shane Breen’s Ipswich Van De Wolfsakker and O’Connor Good Luck, reported them to be very well after the journey. They were released from post arrival quarantine yesterday (Friday).

Speaking to The Irish Field on Thursday, during his own transit to Tryon, O’Connor said: “All went very smoothly. Ross was delighted how the three horses from Europe travelled. Our horses get out of quarantine tomorrow and we will give them some light work and build up towards the warm up class on Tuesday.

“I’ll be at the show at 3pm local time today (Thursday) and looking forward to seeing the lay of the land and getting a handle on thing.”

News filtered through on Wednesday afternoon that travelling reserve horse ESF Top Contender, ridden my Michael Duffy, would not be making the trip to WEG due to the risk of being caught up in the bad weather.

Announcing the decision on the horse’s Facebook page, the Dalton family said: “It is with great sadness that we have to let you know that our horse Forest - EFS Top Contender will not be attending the World Equestrian Games. This decision has not been taken lightly and we would firstly like to apologise to the Irish team and to Michael, Forest’s rider for our decision.

“As you are undoubtably aware, there is a category four hurricane about to hit North and South Carolina. We appreciate that forecasters are not entirely sure where hurricane Florence may hit, but for us, Forest’s safety is of absolute priority.

“This does not mean that we are in anyway doubting any other owners/ team manager/ riders decision on whether or not to send their horses. As a family, we discussed the possibility of our horse being caught up in either a) hurricane Florence, b) an evacuation procedure or c) bad weather conditions either whilst in the air or once arriving in North Carolina for the games.

“However slim the chances of any of these things happening are, we have decided that we are not prepared to send our horse half way across the world in to a potentially catastrophic hurricane that may or may not hit the area that he will be staying.”

The first round of show jumping begins on Wednesday morning at 9am local time with the usual championship format speed class. Team medals will be awarded on Friday, with competition wrapping up on Sunday when the individual placing’s will be decided.