ON Saturday, March 16th, two paragraphs in the news pages covered the cancellation of that weekend’s first scheduled Eventing Ireland one-day of the season at Frankfort Stud. Because of weather issues, the 2024 campaign didn’t get under way until Saturday, April 20th at Tyrella and the following day at Crecora.

The Association of Irish Riding Clubs cancelled their national hunter trials championships planned for Flowerhill on Sunday, April 21st, while the Irish Pony Club postponed their hunter trials at Hillcrest from Saturday, April 27th to the weekend of September 14th and 15th. Ballindenisk was forced to cancel the cross-country phase of their short format classes on the last Sunday in September due to the heavy rain and driving wind.

Even show jumping and dressage weren’t immune to the worst of the weather conditions at stages during the year, and not just here in Ireland, with the third leg of the Longines League of Nations at St Gallen at the beginning of June being cancelled because of bad weather.