IRISH eventing received a huge pre-Olympic boost at the Millstreet International Horse Trials, Co Cork, last weekend with a close-fought victory for Ireland in a competitive FEI Nations Cup™ leg and an assured victory for Sam Watson in the senior class, the Noel C Duggan Engineering CCI4*-L.

“It was a really tight competition which they won on the jumping,” said Ireland team manager Dag Albert, “but, most of all, they really wanted to win on home ground. They’re a good bunch of young riders who have come up through the system. We’ve got a bigger choice [for team selection] than normal and, to be honest, it’s a bit of a headache!”

The team rose from fifth after dressage to third after jumping and then prevailed on cross-country speed. All four - anchorwoman Jenny Kuehnle (Polly Blue Eyes, individually eighth), Patrick Whelan (Altitu, ninth), Ian Cassells (Millridge Atlantis, 19th) and Robbie Kearns (Ballyvillane OBOS, 29th) - went clear in both jumping phases.

By the final reckoning, only 11.5 penalties separated the first from the fifthteam. The USA also fielded a young team, competing in Europe courtesy of the US Equestrian Federation’s enterprising European Development Tour, and they finished second, ahead of Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand, the latter down to three riders with the withdrawal before cross-country of Clarke Johnstone’s Rocket Man.

Like everywhere else, Millstreet has endured a wet spring with some 6ft of rainfall in 12 months and violent downpours in the preceding week, a considerable challenge when providing tracks for around 400 horses across nine classes. On Saturday night, course-designer Mike Etherington-Smith, described by leading riders as ‘the best in the world’, and wife Sue were out until 10pm moving the start and finish away from the deeper going on the lower ground.

Best home rider

Ian Cassells, who rode four clear rounds in the Connolly’s Red Mills CCI4*-S (which incorporated the Nations Cup), finished best home rider in fifth and seventh on Kelly’s Quality and Millridge Athos. He commented: “The course was very fair. The team here did everything they could to make the ground as good as possible and I think they were right to take out the first field.”

Millstreet was an Olympic selection trial for several nations and competition was tense. The Australians, some of whom were competing in the northern hemisphere for the first time, had a good weekend. Andrew Barnett led the first day’s dressage on the 13-year-old Go Tosca, winner of last year’s Sydney CCI4*-L, and finished fourth individually with a show jumping rail down.

Barnett, a full-time coach from the Hunter Valley, admitted that the journey had been a logistical puzzle, but was a rite of passage that ‘had to be done’. A former show jumper, he is currently based in Yorkshire, England, with British team trainer Chris Bartle. “It was a big commitment to come here - my poor partner [eventer Tarsha Hammond] is teaching flat out while I’m away,” he explained.

The winner, Christopher Burton, bidding to be the first rider since Mark Todd to compete in two disciplines at the Olympic Games, was also quite the story. He has spent the last two seasons as a full-time show jumper - the previous weekend he was on Australia’s jumping Nations Cup squad in Rome - but by January was contemplating a return to the sport in which he won Burghley and an Olympic team bronze in 2016.

He cut it pretty fine: on January 14, he asked his wife Bek how she would feel about him going eventing again - ‘Oh no!’ was her response - but 24 hours later acquired a tiny percentage of British rider Ben Hobday’s five-star ride, the 14-year-old Belgian warmblood Shadow Man, just in time for the closing date to register horses for the nation they would represent at the Games.

Led from outset

An elegant dressage test put Burton in the lead and, two smart jumping phases later, he was never headed, finishing on his starting score of 25.7. ‘I haven’t lost it!’ he joked. “Ben has been very good to me, helping me get used to the horse, who has been beautifully produced and is an absolute joy to ride.”

Millstreet’s immaculately presented courses, expansive facilities and relaxed welcome has long attracted a loyal international field: Burton’s compatriot Kevin McNab, a Millstreet regular and team silver medallist in Tokyo, was equally graceful in second place on Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend and sixth on Faro Imp. Japan’s Ryuzo Kitajima was third on Feroza Nieuwmoed and Kiwi team member Jonelle Price on her 2022 world bronze medallist McClaren was 10th. Forty-seven of the 59 starters completed, all having gone clear across country, 12 of them inside the optimum time of 6 minutes 11 seconds.

Winning Watson

There was further national excitement when Sam Watson, never a sloth across country, soared from ninth after dressage to the top of the CCI4*-L leaderboard by going faster than anyone else; he was the only one to have time penalties in single figures (9.6).

His mount, the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse Ballyneety Rocketman, bred by James Hickey, by Diamond Discovery out of an Errigal Flight mare and sold on by the Ryan family, was a purchase from the 2018 Goresbridge Going for Gold sale. “I was all fired up after winning a medal [world team silver] and wanted a horse for the future,” explained Sam. “He’s an old-fashioned horse, by a thoroughbred and very blood. It’s taken a while to get him to this stage but he’s here now and, looking at Burghley and Badminton, it was the right decision. The cross-country track here was very fair, but it was twisty in parts and, once the horse opens up, it can be hard to bring him back.”

Rising US star Cosby Green, 23, who competed at Millstreet last year, finished second on Highly Suspicious and put the pressure on Watson with a clear jumping round. Both she and third-placed Jonelle Price on Chilli’s Midnight Star, a son of the 2015 Badminton winner Chilli Morning, incurred 20 cross-country time penalties (as did seventh-placed US rider Rowan Laird on Sceilig Concordio), which was the next fastest time after Watson. The unavoidably heavier footing near the start and finish proved influential and five of the 19 starters retired on course after refusals. The dressage leader, Caroline Pamukcu from the US riding She’s The One, lost her avantage with 26.8 time penalties and ended up fourth.

The top six riders all jumped clear in the final phase and there was no change to the top five: Ryuzo Kitajima’s good weekend continued with fifth place on Corona Xtreme JRA and Britain’s Rose Nesbitt rose two places to sixth on EG Michealangelo. Technical delegate Neil Mackenzie-Hall from New Zealand summed up a ‘brilliant’ competion: “Eventing is about three disciplines and today cross-country proved the decider.”

Poignant pause

There had been a pause during Saturday’s cross-country to remember British rider Georgie Campbell, who died after a fall at Bicton, UK, on May 26, and as Sam Watson received his prize, he put things in perspective: “Seeing my wife and kids watching me, reminds me that time is precious and my thoughts go straight to Jesse Campbell [husband]. I know the eventing world will wrap their arms around him.”