CLIMATE change will probably have a bigger impact on the sport of eventing in the years ahead but, over a week, its effects were clearly seen at Hazeldene where the Northern Region of Eventing Ireland brought its spring season to a close last Saturday with the last of just four one-day events, and the first outside Tyrella.

Because of very heavy rain, the Region had made an early call to cancel the event scheduled for Saturday at Castle Irvine, Necarne, which left that date free for the Napier family, who were due to run seven days before then, to postpone their fixture by a week. Conditions could not have been more contrasting according to Laura Napier.

“There was no way you could have run here last Saturday as the place was sodden but, the ground dried up very quickly during the week, and now you would have to call it good to firm. We were happy that we could take the Necarne date and not have to cancel our event as so much effort had gone into preparing the ground and tracks.

“I know from holding events at home (Tullymurry) what it takes to run an event and sometimes I think I could take it or leave it. Andrew (husband plus cross-country course designer and builder), on the other hand, just loves eventing and doesn’t seem to mind how hard he has to work. We never had a 115 class before, and weren’t meant to have one this time, but Andrew agreed to a request to upgrade and he quickly rattled one together as he does – the bigger the better for Andrew! It was then a matter of getting fences out on the track and then rolling the whole place.

“The 115 classes only attracted a small amount of runners (seven) but we were glad we could help out. There were a lot of combinations with bending lines but what people like about the tracks here is that they are old-fashioned with open hedges, stonewalls and banks and most of the feedback was very positive.”

Successful first visit

Co Westmeath’s Christopher Whyte paid a winning first visit to Hazeldene on Saturday when, with a double clear and the fastest cross-country round, he added just 5.2 time penalties to his winning dressage score (37.1) in the EI115 on LadyCraft. True, Whyte only faced two rivals who also went double clear, but he was well-pleased with the performance of his traditionally-bred Puissance mare who is entered in the CCI3*-S at Millstreet next week.

“It was great to get this run into her before Millstreet,” said the Ballymore native who recently completed his last exam in Business at Athlone and had attended the Janet Mehigan-organised coaching session with Caroline Moore the previous Wednesday at Abbottstown. “I thought the cross-country track was brilliant, well up to standard and well presented with lots of questions.”

The eight-year-old LadyCraft was bred in Co Tipperary by Rosemary Ponsonby out of the unraced Warcraft Kate (by Warcraft).

Following the withdrawal after her show jumping clear of the dressage winner Elizabeth Power on Greenfort Gorgeous George (23.5 penalties) and the four show jumping penalties picked up by Lucy McElroy with Major Black (29), Jonny Steele found himself in front in the EI110 (Open) on Zermatt.

There he remained to the end in the six-strong class, despite being a second over the time across the country, for a total of 27.9 on Caroline Keatley’s home-bred 10-year-old by Centre Stage. The bay, who is entered in the CCI2*-S at Millstreet, is out of the Arc Bright mare Chamonix (CCI2*).