TODAY (Friday) the RDS announced several changes to class at the upcoming Dublin Horse Show which takes place from August 8th-12th next.

It has become increasingly difficult to obtain capable and varied ‘ride judges’ required for the showing classes on an annual basis so while the RDS will continue to employ two judges for the show hunter classes, from this year onwards, there will be one nominated as the ‘ride judge’ and the other as the ‘conformation judge’.

In other developments, exhibitors of four and five-year-old horses in ridden and performance classes at the Show (with the exception of those classes with qualifiers) must now ensure that their horses have competed in a minimum of three shows in the current season, prior to submitting an entry for the Dublin Horse Show. This is to ensure that all animals will have acquired a certain level of experience before competing at the Dublin Horse Show. The exhibitor will be required to document the three shows during the entry process and the entry will not be validated unless this information is provided. Proof of participation must be available on request and incorrect or inaccurate information supplied may incur elimination.

ONLINE ENTRY

To give more riders and amateur producers an opportunity to qualify for the Show, this year will also see a new rule whereby an individual rider will only be permitted to qualify a certain number of animals across each category, and age group, in the Connemara Performance Hunter and Performance Irish Draught classes. Individual riders will be permitted to qualify a maximum of two ponies across the two Connemara Performance Hunter classes, and two horses in total in the Performance Irish Draught classes. It is envisaged that these changes will allow more exhibitors to participate at the Show.

Similarly, qualifier entries will be limited in order to improve efficiency and timeliness on the day of the qualifier. At each qualifier, riders will now be permitted to compete with a maximum of three horses per Young Event Horse qualifier category, two horses in the Small Event Horse class, two horses in each age category in the Performance Irish Draughts and two ponies in each of the Connemara Performance Hunter competitions.

Online entry is now available for the Performance Irish Draught, Connemara Performance Hunter and Small Event Horse qualifiers via the following portal www.itsplainsaling.com/club/yes and it should be noted that entries will no longer be accepted by post, fax or email.

RACEHORSE TO RIDING HORSE

New developments in the Racehorse to Riding Horse, mean that once a horse and rider receive an invitation for the competition via one of the five invitational shows, they will not be permitted to compete in any further invitational classes for the 2018 Show. This change has come on foot of feedback from exhibitors. If more than 18 entries are received (inclusive of the five invitations) horses will be selected based on their highest earnings as recorded by the Racing Post database, at the close of entries, on June 29th, 2018.

NEW TITLE SPONSOR

Longines is the new title sponsor of the new FEI Nations Cup series that takes place throughout Europe and under this new sponsorship arrangement, this year’s Show, (August 8th-12th), will be known as the Longines FEI Jumping Nations CupTM of Ireland at the Dublin Horse Show. Through its sponsorship of the FEI Jumping Nations CupTM Series, Longines is providing much valued support for the sport of show jumping around the world, in particular their support enables the continuation of the international team competitions which are such an important aspect of the sport, including our own Aga Khan Cup competition.

Preparations for this year’s Dublin Horse Show are well underway and a full list of qualifiers is now available on the event website – dublinhorseshow.com.