IRELAND was well represented at Commercial Bank CHI Al Shaqab in Doha, Qatar, last week with riders, officials, trainers, journalists and even veterinary workers at the venue.

Judith Faherty travelled to the venue for The Irish Field (see reports on page 90) and was on the same flight as commentator Paul Nolan, who did a fantastic job announcing the dressage competitions throughout the show, even when battling with numerous technical issues!

Kirsteen Reid was also on the flight from Dublin to Doha. Reid, whose day job is driving horses to and from Europe for George Mullins Transport, was at Al Shaqab in her FEI Steward capacity for two weeks, also staying on for the first leg of the Global Champions Tour at the venue this weekend. Reid will also be in Tokyo this summer. And also spotted was Gary Marshall, who was on training duty in Doha.

Veterinary personnel

The Irish Field had a tour of the incredible Equine Veterinary Medical Centre (EVMC), located within the grounds of Al Shaqab, where veterinary nurse Sarah Glynn from Co Galway was hard at work. Sarah studied veterinary nursing at UCD and joined EVMC last October, a job she is “loving”. Dublin vet Jessica Johnson, who we featured last year, was carrying out a CT scan on a horse during the visit.

Other Irish connections at EVMC were the husband and wife duo of Dr Florent David and Dr Tatiana Vinardell. Florent and Tatiana spent a number of years in Dublin where Florent was lecturer and chief of service of the Large Animal Surgery Unit in UCD until 2014.

Tatiana obtained a PhD degree from Trinity College in 2011 and was a lecturer in UCD. During this time, she developed a strong research collaboration between UCD, Trinity, and the Royal College of Surgeons on different tissue-engineering projects.