WISHING all Irish competitors, horses, owners and breeders the best of luck at the ‘Olympics’ of young horse jumping in Lanaken, Belgium, this weekend, where the WBFSH World Breeding Championships for young show jumping horses are taking place.

Ireland continuously punches above its weight at this competition. 12 months ago, Irish-bred horses won a medal in every age category, as well as a historic one-two-three in the five-year-old final, led by Mikey Pender with HHS Ocala, who has since been sold to a Belgian rider.

There were four Irish riders in the top five of the first seven-year-old qualifier on Thursday, with Bertram Allen taking second on Raffaella (BWP) and third on the much-admired stallion Huricane de Champloue (SF), who he has high hopes for. Jason Foley finished fourth aboard Ennisnag Stud’s Mendoza VDL (KWPN), just ahead of Mikey Pender with the ISH, HHS Mercedes.

After Friday’s second qualifying competitions, which were underway as we went to press, the top 30 horses across each division (plus all the double clears in the five-year-olds’ qualifiers) will go forward to Sunday’s grand finale. You can watch all the action unfold on www.clipmyhorse.tv (subscription).

Loss of event

We have seen plenty of disappointment and even some anger this week, following the announcement that the Wild Atlantic Dressage Festival will no longer take place in Co Mayo. The reason behind the ending of the event is that an individual is not permitted to run Dressage Ireland competitions. That is in vast contrast to the likes of Eventing Ireland and ShowJumping Ireland, who rely heavily on individual show organisers to contribute to the sport.

I understand it is something Dressage Ireland are going to look into going forward, as it seems like a big ask for the organisation to be tasked with governing the sport and running large-scale events.