IRISH owners regularly head over to Britain for shows, mainly contesting Horse of the Year Show and Royal International qualifiers, but visits in the opposite direction have been few and far between up to now.

At the Northern Ireland Festival at Cavan in late April, the Cuddy qualifier was won by the English raider Tiger Cub, a Tiger Attack two-year-old who had earlier landed both the hunter and sport horse in-hand championships. At Balmoral the following month, English producer Steve Pitt showed the Irish-owned and bred Waters Meet, a three-year-old gelding by Chillout, to win the young horse championship.