IN this strangest of years, sponsorship for equestrian competitions has been hard to find so it was very much a good news story when Show Jumping Ireland announced that, for the second year running, The Underwriting Exchange had agreed to sponsor the National 1.40m Grand Prix League and the league prizes to a total of €10,000.

Stephen O’Connor said: ‘’We are delighted to be sponsoring the National League as, without a doubt, it is a great stepping stone to the next level and has been a great springboard for young riders and junior riders in their preparation for their respective European Championships. I think it’s important that Ireland has a proper functioning National League and set-up which, hopefully, feeds into helping Michael Blake having a successful spell as manager of Ireland’s senior show jumping team (of which The Underwriting Exchange is joint-sponsor along with Devenish).