HAVING covered the best part of 1,000 kilometres in 48 hours, Mallow-based event rider Sian Coleman was well-rewarded when landing the feature class at Ballindenisk last Sunday.

Two pleasing performances at Tyrella the preceding day were crowned in Co Cork, where she piloted Gina Heap’s Carrowgar Je T’Aime Max to head the EI115 from the front. Fellow Cork international Michael Ryan was also in winning form in the EI110, while rounding off the results from the three competitive senior classes, Robbie Kearns landed the EI100 for owner Richard Ames.

The fact that the event was staged at all was due to organiser Peter Fell, who was determined that riders should have the opportunity to pick up vital qualifying runs.

As has been well-documented, the fixture list in the south of the country has been decimated by varying issues within Eventing Ireland, including that of insurance. It is hoped and anticipated that this will have been resolved this week and, at the time of writing, Frankfort is already scheduled to run on April 13th.

Discord

As an organiser in the south, however, Peter Fell has stood alone and was determined to stage this late addition to the calendar. “I’m an Eventing Ireland member and I’m running this event for the membership and through the current Eventing Ireland insurance,” Fell explained to The Irish Field.

“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.”

It has also been evident that there has been discord at the event owners’ meetings, with Fell out of step with some of those present, who have a different agenda. “I’m at odds with individuals involved in the organisers’ meetings, who are not current organisers,” he added. “If you’ve no skin in the game, then keep out of it. As far as I’m concerned, if you are not an organiser, there is no need to turn up at a meeting – in the same way I wouldn’t turn up at a riders’ meeting.”

Politics aside, Fell is keenly looking forward to the season ahead and, with his international fixture looming in four weeks’ time, Sunday’s entries were limited to just 100.

“We staged this event mainly for the professional riders,” he explained. “And also for the underage groups, who have such a short window to compete to be in with a chance to be selected for teams. A condition of entry was that every rider should bring a helper, and this they did.”

Pleasure

Sian Coleman will have been satisfied with all her runs over the weekend and especially with Gina Heaps’ exciting home-bred Carrowgar Je T’Aime Max.

A dual winner last year, the 12-year-old is a comparative new recruit to the sport, having only turned to eventing at the close of 2023.

As a former grade A show jumper under Robyn Moran and Paul Beecher, he has plenty of competition experience however, and last season moved from novice to three-star in just a few months.

“He’s been a complete pleasure to produce and is a real gentleman,” commented Coleman. “Last season, he was put under a bit of pressure to pick up qualifications and, while he still needs a little bit of hand-holding across country, he answered every question today.”

A trip to Kelsall Hill in the UK is next on the agenda for this son of Je T’Aime Flamenco, with a four-star qualification as the goal. Like many other riders, the lack of early season events has put pressure on Coleman’s international plans, as she explained: “It’s very early in the season yet and we’ve done plenty of two-phase unaffiliated events, which has been great, so it’s just the shortage of qualifying runs that makes things difficult.”

The fact that the EI115 was a restricted class meant that over half of the 15 starters were running non-competitively. This made no difference to Coleman however, whose closing score of 28.9 would have been good enough to win in open company. One of just two riders to return home within the time, Coleman led from flag fall to finish, a distance in front of the slower Patrick Whelan riding the Badminton wait-listed Ikoon Lan DHI, as well as Alice Copithorne aboard Barnaboy Peaches N Cream.

Pleased with his pipe-opening run, Whelan is another for whom a British foray is planned, as he travels with three horses to Thoresby Park this weekend. “The shortage of higher-level runs is a problem to me and there’s not much to go to,” he remarked, adding: “In light of that, we will probably run here again at Ballindenisk at the end of the month.”