MANY column inches were devoted to RDS matters – naturally enough the paper’s brilliant and extensive coverage of the Dublin Horse Show in August accounted for most of these – but there were also news items earlier in the year, such as ‘RDS secures Rolex as new sponsor’ (February 3rd) and ‘New WH qualifiers for Dublin’ (March 23rd).

In the issue of November 30th, we read ‘RDS begins works on €52m arena regeneration’ with the report stating that the works, which began in September, would be completed by August 2026 in time for that year’s Dublin Horse Show, which will celebrate 100 years of international show jumping.

With construction still to be completed, next year’s show is set to go ahead. I thought the RDS might take this opportunity to have qualifiers for all sections of the 2025 show, but that appears not to be the case.

Socialites

The socialites had their moments in the spotlight early in the year, such as on Saturday, February 10th – ‘Western Region has a ball with East Galway’ and ‘Pony riders shine at annual awards – and seven days later – ‘Awards galore for Ulster Region’. It appears that our friends up north are particularly sociable as on February 24th, we were informed ‘Ulster Region Athletes rewarded’.

The main awards, as far as this newspaper is concerned, are those presented by The Irish Field and there was a gathering of the great and the good at The K Club on Tuesday, February 27th for the 51st annual Irish Horse World awards lunch, when the more-recently established Gain Equine Nutrition Star of the Month awards were also presented.

Two pages of editorial coverage and lots of photographs of the 2023 winners – and others – appeared the following Saturday.

Photographs from Dressage Ireland’s inaugural Black Tie Ball at the Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim appeared in the issue of December 7th.