IRISH show jumpers enjoyed a winning streak during the recent 2021 Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida, scooping almost $1.1m in prize money in the international classes and winning 16 competitions in total.

Of the 32 Irish athletes competing at WEF, 17 have previously competed at senior Nations Cup level and many are on the longlist for the Tokyo Olympics.

Horse Sport Ireland’s (HSI) senior show jumping High Performance director, Michael Blake was a welcome support to the riders, and after a very competitive 12 weeks Michael said: “WEF 2021 was hugely successful for our Irish riders. We were very lucky that so many of them had the opportunity to compete at such a high level.”

The Irish show jumping team qualified for the Olympic Games by claiming a magnificent victory in the 2019 Longines FEI Nations Cup World Final in Barcelona - the first time in 15 years that an Irish team have qualified for an Olympics. Team Ireland will make their five-star Nations Cup debut at the 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Nations Cup in Rome in two weeks’ time, where 12 teams are entered including Ireland.

Ahead of selecting his team for Rome, Michael had this to say. “We are very much looking forward to the start of the five-star Nations Cup season. We will head to Rome with four very experienced combinations, which will be announced shortly. We understand it will be very competitive but we are hoping for a big performance.”

Dressage debuts

Irish senior dressage athletes and members of the team that historically helped Ireland secure its first ever Olympic dressage team, Kate Dwyer and Heike Holstein got their 2021 seasons underway last weekend at the three-star international dressage show in Exloo, The Netherlands.

Heike Holstein and Sambuca finished eighth, with Kate Dwyer finishing 10th on Snowdon Faberge. Dane Rawlins was also competing at Exloo and finished 14th with Espoire. Holstein and Dwyer went on to Wellington CDI, finishing seventh and eigth, respectively, in the Grand Prix Special.

Anna Merveldt and Esporim have had some excellent results on the World Cup circuit this year and Judy Reynolds is planning to make her come back with 19-year-old Vancouver K later this month.

The second round of Paralympic Trials for Olympic selection also took place last weekend, Ireland has two individual places qualified. All Irish riders were in good form.

Eventing update

Many of the Olympic shortlisted riders for the Irish eventing team were competing in the CCI4*-S at Aston Le Walls in the UK earlier this week. Sarah Ennis, Cathal Daniels, Camilla Speirs, Aoife Clark, Joseph Murphy and Padraig McCarthy were competing against some of the world’s best including reigning World champion Ros Canter (GB).

Speaking afterwards, HSI eventing director, Sally Corscadden, said: “We got what we came for, it was a really good test and learning experience for our riders who were up against a very competitive field. The next big event is Millstreet and we are looking forward to that.”