FOR the Irish eventing team, the Paris Olympic Games did not go as planned when they ended with a ninth place finish. Austin O’Connor finished in 17th place individually. The team of Susie Berry, Sarah Ennis, O’Connor and Aoife Clark, who was subbed in for show jumping, the first day of dressage put them on the back foot.

Sarah Ennis was Ireland’s pathfinder and was fourth into the incredibly atmospheric arena with Susanne Macken and Andrew Cox’s Action Lady M (Plot Blue x Acorado). The 10-year-old mare started with some nice trot work, but spooked at the bottom left-hand side of the arena and was tense through the remainder of the test. They ended on a score of 38.0.

Susie Berry was next of the Irish into the arena with the 11-year-old bay gelding Wellfields Lincoln (Luidam x Priolo xx), owned by Sue Wilkinson and Anne Marling. Some really nice work saw them finish on a score of 33.0.

Last to go for Ireland was anchorman Austin O’Connor with the Salty Syndicate’s Colorado Blue (Jaguar Mail x Rock King), bred by Kate Jarvey. They produced some excellent work throughout, though the flying changes were not perfect and lost them some marks. They finished with the best Irish score of 31.7, though O’Connor was a bit disappointed after, commenting: “I was trying to break the 30 barrier but that’s improved eight marks from Tokyo. I think a lot of his work was real quality.”

Cross-country

The Irish were electric across the country, all clear jumping, while Austin O’Connor shone when one of 10 clears inside the time across the fabulous track with the backdrop of the palace of Versailles. “He was super the whole way around. I am beginning to just hope he stays around forever! He’s an incredible athlete, whatever he does from here on, and he’s been an unbelievable horse of a lifetime for me,” O’Connor said afterwards.

Sarah Ennis was fourth out on course and came home with 3.2 time penalties, which was an excellent score for the team, but she looked to pull up lame. Later in the day, the mare was sadly ruled out of the remainder of the competition with an injury. After her round, Sarah said she was “so proud of the mare. She’s incredible. She just just just always wants to go forward. The crowds out there helped, I have never seen so many people.”

Susie Berry took a long route close to the end of the course so racked up 15.2 time penalties. “I had to do a long route at the last water which definitely wasn’t plan A. He just landed a little bit more to the left than I wanted to go over the first log. I probably could have done it as a risk if it was doing it for myself but as a team, I needed to get home.”

Ireland had to add 20 penalties for the substitution of Clark in for Ennis and, despite an excellent final day, when Clark and Berry had four faults before O’Connor faulted twice to finish on eight in the team final, it wasn’t enough to claw back up the leaderboard. The team finished on a final score of 157.20 in ninth place.

On coming into the Irish team for show jumping, Clark said: “The reserve is a difficult position to be in, I was ready to run all week. I love love love that little mare. She’s just such a trier and she was nervous going in, but we have such a good partnership. She just took a deep breath and trusted me and I mean she bust a gut for me in there.”

O’Connor returned for the final individual round of the top 25 and produced a perfect clear to move up to 17th place. “It’s just a bit of relief. He’s come in and showed the jump is still there and he is a long way off finished. If I had another disappointing round, you’d be psychologically thinking ifs and buts, but he jumped great. He tried his heart out so, it’s a great finish.”