Margie McLoone
IF anyone is still asking if a replacement competition has been found for the Future Event Horse League, the answer is YES! (Young Eventhorse Series!), which has received sponsorship of €20,000 from Horse Sport Ireland.
The series sees a reformation of the FEHL organisers, under the chairmanship of Harold McGahern, with seven qualifiers being run at their established venues every Wednesday from June 3rd (Scarteen) to July 15th (Dollanstown).
The other dates on a provisional list are Ravensdale (June 10th), Forth Mountain (June 17th), Rincoola (June 24th), Tattersalls (July 1st) and Tullymurry (July 8th).
The series winners will be decided on the best four scores among the four-year-olds and the best five scores among the five-year-olds. The prize fund will be divided equally between breeders, owners and riders with prize money from first (€3,000) to fifth (€750) to be awarded in both age groups.
There will also be €1,000 training bursaries to the highest-placed Pony Club, junior and young rider competitors, should they finish in the top five.
Most of the rules of YES! mirror those used in the FEHL but there are a number of changes. These include free entry to the qualifiers for thoroughbreds and to traditional Irish-breds, while the percentage of thoroughbred blood of each entry (to be identified by Horse Sport Ireland) will constitute a suitability mark.
Four-year-olds will complete their three phases in the mornings with the five-year-olds appearing in the afternoons; riders will be restricted to three horses per age group and must keep to numerical order.
The jumping phase will follow 30 minutes after the flat work display with the triangle conformation phase following the jumping round. There will be eight show jumping fences before the cross-country section.
The winning horse in each age group (section) at the qualifiers will receive €70 and 20% of the highest-placed horses will receive €50.
It would be surprising to see many thoroughbreds entered (most being tried at racing in their early years) but the efforts to attract more traditional-bred horses to the competition is likely to be welcomed. Traditionally-bred horses are becoming increasingly difficult to find for both Irish owners and potential buyers from abroad.
However producers may well feel that it is late in the day for this announcement to be made as they will have already purchased, if not bred, their horses for the upcoming series. At a meeting of the Royal Dublin Society equestrian committee on Tuesday (February 17th), it was agreed that YES! would be used as a qualifying conduit for the young event horse classes at the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show in August. The venues will also stage qualifiers for the small event horse class at Dublin, with the top two horses from each round going through to the RDS.
Depending on each day’s entry, competitors in the small event horse qualifiers will jump either between the two YES! qualifiers or after the five-year-old section. A Derby class, run on a sweepstakes basis, will be held at the end of the day should there be a demand.
The RDS will also use the YES! venues for qualifiers for both the Irish Draught performance classes and the Connemara performance hunter championships at the Horse Show. These will take place on the Saturdays following the YES! qualifiers.