A NEW date has been added to the Eventing Ireland calendar at Ballindenisk later this month, in the hope it will assist riders chasing Minimum Entry Requirements (MERs) for internationals later in the season.

This comes as the vast majority of events in the Republic of Ireland have been taken off the calendar amid a clash over insurance between Eventing Ireland and event organisers.

The Irish Field understands a back and forth over insurance for event organisers is very close to resolution and that a meeting about the dates to confirm the calendar will take place next week.

The new date added this week will be a one-day event at Ballindenisk on March 23rd, catering for EI110 and EI115 riders, who are seeking qualifications.

Ballindenisk will then run their first international event on April 23rd-27th and they are the only two fixtures currently listed for the south of the country until Millstreet International begins on May 29th.

Worry

Cork-based Irish Olympian Michael Ryan, who is not going to Tyrella next Saturday, but has entered for Ballindenisk on Sunday, said the ongoing clash is causing worry for owners and putting young horses on the back foot.

“Fair play to Peter Fell (Ballindenisk) for putting it on. Before that, unless I went to Tyrella in the third week of April, I wasn’t going to be able to event until after Ballindenisk International, because obviously I would have nothing pre-qualified or ran. It does upset more the young horses than the older horses.

“If I was going to Badminton, I’d be in big trouble, because I’d have to go to England. And, when you go to England, it can cost you between €10,000 and €20,000.”

Ryan added: “You can’t make plans and you’re dealing with owners and you can’t even tell them what we are going to do in a couple of weeks’ time. They are worried. We didn’t bother with any registrations or membership or anything until this week, because what’s the point?

“Going forward after Ballindenisk, where do you go? What do we do? For us to go to the north, it is €800 on diesel straight away and, obviously, the cost of everything has gone up. Some owners can afford that and some can’t. Some of the Munster events have stepped in to run unaffiliated and that is fine to get a few horses going, but it’s no good for the bigger picture.”

Unaffiliated

Meanwhile, three southern venues are running unaffiliated one-day and two-phase events over the next two months. Kilguilkey House, Hillcrest and Crecora announced a list of dates on social media this week, beginning today (Saturday, March 15th), when Crecora will host a two-phase.

The Eventing Ireland AGM took place earlier this week, where a new safety committee chaired by David O’Brien, and a High Performance committee, chaired by Kieran Connors, were both set up.