THE first week of the year brought the news that Ireland would be heading to the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro with just an individual show jumping rider. This followed the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s announcement to uphold the decision of the FEI appeal committee from Aachen.

The Zika virus occupied minds in January while, early the next month, it seemed as if we would be able to send two show jumping riders to the Games with The Irish Field’s senior show jumping rider of 2015, Bertram Allen, and Denis Lynch being those most talked about following publication of the latest Olympic rankings.