MICHAEL Blake’s senior Irish show jumping team will get their 2020 campaign under way in the five-star Longines FEI Nations Cup at Deeridge in Wellington, Florida, next Sunday. It will be the first competition with Blake at the helm, following his appointment as High Performance director at the end of December 2019.

Speaking to The Irish Field from the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida on Friday, Blake said he was looking forward to getting the season underway. “I’m very happy. I am delighted to be given the opportunity and looking forward to doing the best I can,” he said.

“It is an exciting year. We still have a long long way to go. The purpose of my remit is to let things develop and everyone has to be given their opportunity. We have a lot of good riders and good horses. We need to organise that well. There are many Nations Cups this year, we will be doing almost 20 overall,” Blake added.

The season will culminate at the Tokyo Olympic Games in August, for which the team secured their qualification at last October’s FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona.

Blake is also looking forward to the new EEF Series, which will replace the former FEI Nations Cup Europe Division 2 this season. That series will be at CSIO3* level until the final, which will be a four-star in Warsaw, Poland. Horse and rider combinations who jump a five-star Nations Cup will not be allowed to compete in the EEF Series in the same calendar year.

“I am also really looking forward to that, it is going to give people a lot of people opportunities,” Blake added.

Horse Sport Ireland is due to announce Blake’s High Performance advisor in the coming days.

Squad

The squad for Sunday's Nations Cup is Capt. Brian Cournane (Armik), Darragh Kenny (Romeo 88), Cian O’Connor (Lazzaro Delle Schiave), Paul O’Shea (Imerald Van’t Voorhof) and Billy Twomey (Lady Lou). Blake will select his four team riders from his squad of five towards the end of the week.