“IF there’s anyone I’d like to thank, it’s all the volunteers,” stressed Declan Cullen, following the inaugural running of The Clare one-day event, which he, his wife Becky and their daughter, Kitty, hosted last Saturday.

“Until I became an event organiser, I had no idea how much reliance is put on the volunteers and how many of them are needed – before, during and after an event. I think that we here in the Northern Region have a great system of attracting and holding on to our volunteers, and I cannot thank them enough.

“I first thought about holding an event when I bought some extra land about a year and a half ago, and then I got Vina (Buller, cross-country course designer) and Denis (Currie, a former FEI technical delegate, who is on Eventing Ireland’s national dates committee) in to see if it was feasible. Thanks to Tiggy’s Trust (the much-missed young rider was commemorated by a ‘walk of fame’), Alain Ponsot paid two visits to check over the track and fences.

“I realise it’s a tight venue, but from all the feedback I got – and it was all positive – riders thought the cross-country rode well and they were delighted to have natural fences to jump – like ditches and hedges; I did everything I could to get away from boxes. It was a good, testing track, and I think Vina did a great job in where she placed the fences.”

While the cross-country track is always the main focus of attention, and praise must go to Declan and Stephen Orr who did all the building, the dressage arenas were well placed, the Aaron McCusker show jumping tracks were tight and technical with riders having to jump off corners, etc, and nothing was left to chance when it came to organisation and presentation.

There were separate and well-controlled areas for lorries, vehicles towing trailers and cars; all sponsors – and there were lots of them – were recognised and thanked on uniform boards along the entrances and in a dedicated hospitality area.

“Our sport doesn’t work without sponsors and they need to be looked after properly.”

The Cullens were extremely fortunate that the weather gods were on their side. “We were blessed with the weather,” agreed Declan. “We had terrible weather on Thursday and again on Sunday, but, thankfully, it dried up on Friday and Saturday was just incredible. I have to say, I was just thrilled with the way the day went – it was everything I thought it could and would be.”