THE eventing season in Ireland commences next Saturday with the first of four Northern Region fixtures at Tyrella and continues through until the second international at Ballindenisk in late September.

No new venue has come on stream for 2019 and, disappointingly, the South Leinster Region has lost Annaharvey, while, following the recent sale of Kircubbin, the Northern Region was due to lose two fixtures although one date, April 20th, has been reassigned to Finvoy which also runs in July.

As the Co Kilkenny feed company continues to make changes to its sponsorship commitments, there will be no Connolly’s Red Mills SuperLeague for open and advanced horses this season. Sarah Ennis and Sam Watson, who were on Ireland’s silver medal-winning team at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon last September, landed the SuperLeague twice.

Ennis claimed the first title in 2009 on The Underdog (who won under the rider’s sister Nicola the following year) and followed up, two years later, on Sugar Brown Babe. Watson’s wins came on Tullabeg Flamenco in 2016 and on his WEG mount, Horseware Ardagh Highlight, in 2017 when he shared the title with Joseph Murphy (Fernhill Frankie). Last year’s SuperLeague was won by Patrick Whelan on Footfall.

The Irish Sport Horse Studbook series for young horses is set to feature on the EI calendar once again although, as yet, no dates or venues have been confirmed by Horse Sport Ireland. In previous seasons, the four-year-old series consisted of four legs while those for five and six-year-olds comprised six.

A new Eventing Ireland rule book is due to be published shortly with known changes being in the names of classes and in the introduction of EI80 level competitions. Classes at the new height have not been advertised at Northern Region fixtures in March and April, while, at time of writing, none of the other early season events have published their schedules.

Details have been released regarding the qualification criteria for the Eventing Ireland national championships which, for the second year running, will be held at Danny and Michelle Dulohery’s Kilguilkey House outside Mallow on September 14th and 15th. To compete at the championships, all riders must be members of Eventing Ireland and all horses must be registered with the governing body.