WHILE they rely heavily on the wonderful support of the Northern Region team of volunteers for their Hazeldene Farm one-day events, hosts Andrew (course designer under the mentorship of Adam Stevenson) and Laura (administration organiser) Napier can call on extended members of both their families to give them a hand as well.

A glance at last Saturday’s programme shows that Laura’s mother, Marian Turley, and her brother-in-law, David O’Connor (who won the EI90 on Marian’s home-bred Tullymurry Katie), dressed the fences in advance while Marian also looked after the hospitality on the day.

Andrew’s father Nigel was in charge of parking – and an excellent job he made of it too – while his sister Lynsey was one of the cross-country fence judges.

We hope Lynsey wasn’t on fence 14 on the new loop which Laura’s sister, and David’s wife, Elaine, omitted during an otherwise perfect round of jumping with the ultra-consistent Sir Barnabus on whom she was in the lead in the EI100!

Many of those who have their horses on livery at Hazeldene also answered the call to assist on Saturday but they will have plenty of opportunities to compete at the Ballynahinch venue in the next couple of months themselves as the Wednesday evening training shows are due to start shortly while the Napiers are also going to run a couple of two-phase events.