WITH all the competition suspended due to heavy rain, today (Sunday) was all about the final trot up for the event horses ahead of tomorrow’s final, which will start at 3pm Irish time (10am local time).

So the rain did come and although parts of the venue did experience some patches of flooding, there was no wind or gale worth talking about. The arena surfaces and, most importantly, the stabling areas remain in perfect condition with no flooding. I am positive the final jumping round, and the dressage Freestyle, could have gone ahead today.

A couple of Irish hearts stopped momentarily during the trot up when Sam Watson’s Horseware Ardagh Highlight and Sarah Ennis’ Horseware Stellor Rebound were sent to the holding box. With the team in silver position overnight and Sarah in bronze individually, it was a tense couple of minutes for all the Irish supporters (which there are loads of!) around the area.

Second time out, Sarah was made trot twice with Rocket before receiving the loudest cheer of the day when ‘accepted’. She jumped into Trish Ryan’s arms and was embraced by her teammates and support team. Sam’s gelding flew through the second time. Happy days!

Tomorrow is a huge day for the team, who were out training with show jumping coach Ian Fearon in the rain soon after. They are bidding to win a first ever Irish eventing medal at a World Equestrian Games and I for one have a good feeling we will sneak a medal. Keep EVERYTHING crossed and don’t forget to tune in! I will endeavour to keep everyone up to date on Twitter (@TheIrishFieldHW).

Today I sat down with the ‘newest’ member of Team Ireland, Bernard (Ben) O’Sullivan. And I say newest because it is his first championship in a new discipline.

Bernard has been living in Australia for over 20 years and has a brilliant story to tell, from his eventing background through to his now breeding business in Australia and venture into the sport of reining, which he took up over just over three years ago and made it to a World Games in such a short space of time.

He really summed up the amazing team spirit at these Games when lending his apologies to Judy Reynolds after her chance to make history for Ireland was taken away by the cancellation of the Freestyle.

“Judy's achievements are absolutely magnificent and it was a joy watching her work with her team, including Libby and her husband Patrick and everybody who was involved. It so was so impressive watching such a professional unit, we learned a lot from watching them work,” Bernard said, adding that despite their busy schedule, Judy and Patrick made the time to attend his competition as supporters.

It is no surprise to see such a huge amount of people reaching out to Judy online after the news filtered through, as she is so popular at home, but even people outside of the sport are weighing in on this one. Let’s hope she gets her justice eventually.

So, I will leave you with some footage of the rain from today.