ON Wednesday, the broodmares at Balmoral Park coped a lot better than their younger in-hand and ridden counterparts with the noise coming from an adjacent ‘shooting’ stall.

For all the in-hand classes the stewards directed those showing horses to cut across the middle of the arena while, when it came to Wednesday evening’s dressage phase of the young event horse section, Declan Cullen of sponsor Pegus, received a favourable reply when he asked if the shooting could be stopped altogether.