JANUARY seems to be a month full of new beginnings for the sport horse world with two new team managers announced for eventing and Showjumping Ireland due to announce its new CEO any day now. We hear it will be a well-known and well-respected administrator who has decades of experience with horses and running major events. We will make the announcement official with an online story so stay tuned.

On the eventing side of things, we were recently able to announce that Debbie Byrne is Ireland’s new High Performance Youth Eventing Manager and she will take charge of our pony, junior and young riders. With the FEI Eventing European Championship for Young Riders and Juniors due to be held in Segersjö, Sweden, this summer the role will be a challenging but exciting one for Byrne (pictured below), who certainly has the credentials to make an impact on what is already a stellar group of human and equine athletes.