EVENTING Ireland members were thrown into even further uncertainty last Friday night when the one-day fixture at Frankfort Stud scheduled for Sunday, April 13th was cancelled at late notice and, at present, the calendar in the south of the country remains decimated.

However, The Irish Field understands that the board of Eventing Ireland and the Event Organisers Group (EOG) are due to have a dates meeting on Tuesday and they hope that national eventing in the south will be back up and running in early May.

A statement from Eventing Ireland to The Irish Field and its members on Thursday said: “Eventing Ireland and the Event Organisers Group have been working tirelessly on the solution to the current impasse preventing a full schedule of events in the southern regions. Together we have made huge progress with health and safety and sustainability.

“Eventing Ireland and the Event Organisers Group are committed to finalising the solution as quickly as possible for the good of the sport. We understand the frustration the members are feeling at this time and kindly ask for everyone’s patience.

"It has always been the goal of Eventing Ireland and the event organisers to put a system in place that provides the safest and highest standard of Eventing in Ireland going into the future.”

The crux of the fallout goes back to the end of January when, as reported in this paper on February 1st, issues around assurances over insurance, the fact no meeting was held to discuss the 2025 calendar and a request from event organisers for a greater proportion of entry fees was not actioned to their satisfaction.

Timeline of events

Since then and over an almost three-month period, Eventing Ireland has been in “constructive engagement” with the event organisers around the insurance policy. A statement published on the EI website on April 12th gave a timeline of events. It said that, on February 14th, two amendments to the policy were suggested: (1) the addition of a “hold harmless” clause, and (2) the inclusion of specific landowners’ names in the policy documentation.

It was ultimately accepted that the “hold harmless” clause was not suitable for an equestrian event such as this. The insurers agreed to include the individual names of landowners alongside the existing broad definition of “landowner”.

According to the statement, Eventing Ireland suggested including a “waiver of subrogation” clause that is in Showjumping Ireland’s policy as a practical alternative to the proposed and inappropriate “hold harmless” clause to break through the impasse. This was agreed and incorporated into the policy.

A change of wording of the existing landowner indemnity clause was proposed on March 11th with EI saying the suggested amendment aimed to emphasise that conditions which were already inapplicable were expressly stated as such with a related clarification.

On March 13th, there was a further request for a clarification regarding a perceived need to differentiate between a “site owner” and an “event organiser”. The insurers accepted this additional change again despite reservations about its necessity.

On March 24th 2025, Howden Insurance Brokers issued a revised policy that incorporated all agreed and requested amendments, with the exception of a “hold harmless clause”, which was deemed unnecessary.

That same week, Eventing Ireland published three dates for southern events as Frankfort Stud (April 13th), Crecora (April 20th) and Lisgarvan (May 11th). They have all since been cancelled.

Health and safety

According to the statement from EI, the solicitor’s firm acting on behalf of the event organisers indicated on April 10th that it was satisfied with the revised policy terms and conditions and their attention had turned to health and safety.

A letter from the solicitor acting on behalf of the event organisers was circulated on April 11th and stated senior council Michael Howard was “not comfortable with the position in relation to insurance cover” and he was not prepared to endorse the current insurance proposals. The letter, which was released on social media on Sunday, April 13th, advised landowners not to participate in events until “the insurance picture has been clarified”.

The Irish Field contacted the spokesperson for the Event Organisers Group, William Kearney, with a number of questions including a predicted timeline for any events and why some venues are happy to proceed with unaffiliated events. In response, Kearney said: “We continue to work with Niki [Potterton, Eventing Ireland chairman] to get the issues resolved.”

THE Northern Region of Eventing Ireland, which is due to host its fourth event of the season this weekend in Tyrella, running under the current Eventing Ireland insurance, said it is “100%” happy with the insurance.

A spokesperson for the Northern Region said:

“We have absolutely no concerns. We actually had the insurance looked at by someone who has spent a lifetime in the insurance industry and they felt that our policy was very robust and met all the conditions that anyone would expect.

“We do all the conditional things that the insurance requires. We do, and have done for years, a detailed risk assessment prior to the event and have a safety officer on duty on the day of the event checking everything, because whilst we can do everything in preparatory terms, we also need to ensure that those conditions and rules that we put into play are actually implemented on the day. We comply with the requirements of the insurance conditions and have always done.”

In the south, Peter Fell ran a one-day event last month at Ballindenisk under the current insurance and commented: “Eventing Ireland are doing all they can and, while every policy could be improved, I believe it to be comprehensive and indeed the same policy is also in place in the Northern Region, whose events are run by the members for the members.” Fell reiterated those thoughts this week in the lead-up to the international event at his venue beginning on Wednesday.