Brian Hennessy

THE 2015 FEI European para-equestrian dressage championships got underway yesterday (Friday) in Deauville, France, with Ireland sending a full team of five riders along with one individual.

A total of 75 athletes from 20 nations will compete in a three-day battle for medals while the competition is also one of the last major events for world ranking points for Rio 2016 Paralympic Games qualification.

Ireland’s five team members are Breda Bernie (Master Mexico), Rosemary Gaffney (Aldham Mill Dubloon), Helen Kearney (Rock And Roll), and Kate Kerr Horan with Arlande, while Kathryn Gallagher will compete as an individual with Waragon.

Kearney, from Dunlavin, Co Wicklow, is the most decorated of the team members, having won three Paralympic medals in 2012 when she took individual silver and a bronze and also helped the Irish team secure a bronze medal.

In 2011 she claimed Ireland’s first ever European para equestrian medal, winning a bronze at Moorsele in Belgium, a remarkable achievement for someone that had only taken up competitive riding three years previously.

The Irish team is managed by Dara Kearney while the team is coached by Donie McNamara. Fourteen countries have entered teams - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

Just one year after the Alltech World Equestrian Games in Normandy, Deauville, which is steeped in equestrian sport, will once again be welcoming spectators with open arms to France’s very first European para equestrian dressage championships. British riders have been the ones to beat for pretty much the entire history of para equestrian dressage and they topped the medal table with seven golds at the 2013 championships at Herning in Denmark.

However, over the last few years, there have been signs of a real challenge to this dominance from other European athletes. The Netherlands and Germany are now forces to be reckoned with and could challenge the British favourites for the top spot on the podium.