HOSTING Eventing Ireland’s National Championships is a mammoth undertaking for any landowner, doing so with just three weeks notice would seem nearly impossible.

However, Danny Dulohery took on the challenge and last weekend’s renewal of the national showpiece at Kilguilkey House proved a resounding success on all fronts.

“It was a big job alright,” said Dulohery, “but I had great help from my wife Michelle, from my son Danny and from all the staff in the Eventing Ireland office. It was tough on the Necarne organisers that they had to pull out of hosting the championships but, weatherwise, there is no such thing as a safe date any more with climate change and we’re just very lucky that we can take a lot of rain.

“After our last event (on August 13th) we took all the fences in and cut the grass for silage. When we were asked and agreed to run the championships, the weather was fairly mixed, with very hot dry days and then days of heavy showers.

“However, it was quite dry in the last four or five days before Saturday so we had to water and aggravate the ground which turned out to be quite moist underneath. Thankfully, we had a nice covering of grass for Sunday and the riders seemed very pleased with the going.

“We had great entries given the short notice of the venue change and it was great to see that we had such good support from the North. Understandably, the local sponsors they had organised weren’t going to sponsor down here and, again, I would like to thank the office staff for the sponsorship they organised. I’d also like to thank Tricia (Clark) in the office who organised the music for Saturday night’s welcome reception.”

For those who missed that performance, Tricia played fiddle, Louise Ryan the button accordion, Sean Fitzpatrick guitar and Aoibhinn Fitzpatrick concertina. The quartet played for about two and a half hours during which the Northern Region’s Jonny Steele incited a bit of dancing – it wasn’t his first rodeo!

Bit Media’s livestream coverage of the majority of the weekend’s championships was sponsored by Redmond Property Maintenance who, since the start of 2022, have sponsored coverage of the HSI jumping Studbook Series. Mark Redmond is an avid supporter of the Irish Sport Horse industry, particularly the grassroots element. He was keen to get involved on a sponsorship level with young horse production classes and the show jumping and eventing Studbook Series provided the ideal opportunity.

Eventing proper has now concluded for the year at Kilguilkey where they are set to host clinics with Cathal Daniels, arena eventing and jump-cross competitions.

Positive feedback

As his wife, Sarah Ennis, was competing four horses at the Championships, Eventing Ireland chair Niki Potterton had to stay in Co Meath to look after their yard but he was delighted with all the reports he received back from the Co Cork venue.

“Kilguilkey put on a great show from all accounts and Danny and Michelle deserve all the credit they get having agreed at such short notice to host the Championships,” said Potteron. “We were all very sorry for the Northern Region that they had to cancel as many people were looking forward to competing at such an iconic venue as Necarne.

“It was great that they got such a good entry at the weekend and that so many of our senior riders, who are not too keen on a one-day being held over two, supported the championships despite it being such a busy time of the year on the international front.

“It’s the mix of riders of all ages at all grades which makes the Championships work and they are staged for all members of Eventing Ireland. It was good to see riders who competed at our first, and very successful, Grassroots Championships also competing at the weekend.

“As soon as we can, we are going to look at the format to see what we can do to improve it for next season, as we would not only like to see the Championships grow year on year but we want to make them better for all participants.”

In next week’s paper, we will cover the results of the regional team competitions at Kilguilkey House and also the results of the Horse Sport Ireland Studbook Series leagues.