WHAT a weekend it was for the Irish eventing team at the FEI Eventing Nations Cup at Boekelo in The Netherlands. In challenging conditions, Irish riders pulled out all the stops to win by a significant margin over the American runners-up.

High Performance director Dag Albert had chosen Austin O’Connor with Isazsa, Aoife Clark with Sportsfield Freelance, Susie Berry with Clever Trick (ISH) and Padraig McCarthy with Pomp N Circumstance to represent Ireland at the last Nations Cup event of the year, while a number of other Irish combinations competed as individuals.

Among Ireland’s team members, dressage scores were fairly consistent. Clark and Sportsfield Freelance were up first and scored 31.2, with McCarthy and Pomp N Circumstance next in to score 32.6. O’Connor and Isazsa registered 33.4, while Berry rode Clever Trick to a score of 32.0. This put the team on a score of 95.8. At that stage, Ireland lay in sixth place of the 11 nations competing, with Germany leading on 76.2, followed by Great Britain (80.4) and France (87.0) occupying the medal positions.

The cross-country phase was where the Irish came into their own. Several weeks of rain had made an impact on ground conditions and, mindful of horse and athlete welfare, organisers and course designer Adrian Ditcham needed to change a number of things on the cross-country course. This included removing a loop of the course in order to ensure suitable footing. Ditcham said: “It has been a tough week for myself and the team. Some of the things we had to change to get the right footing were absolutely the right decision.”

Just 72 of the 93 starting combinations completed the CCIO 4*-L competition.

Clark and Sportsfield Freelance were clear jumping and just incurred 0.4 in time penalties, while McCarthy and Pomp N Circumstance added only 2.4 time-penalties to the total. A clear round within the time for Berry on Clever Trick and O’Connor on Isazsa’s score being discarded, meant 2.8 being added to the Irish team dressage score. This gave Ireland a total of 98.6, which put them into the lead, ahead of the USA on 103.1 in second and New Zealand in third on 116.5.

Aoife Clark riding Sportsfield Freelance at FEI Eventing Nations Cup at Military Boekelo 2024 \ Pam Cunningham/ Irish Eventing Times

Brilliant

Following cross-country, chef d’equipe Dag Albert said: “They were brilliant. Aoife was second out of everyone to go out on course, which is very difficult, but we made a plan that she executed perfectly and that gave us the impetus to go on from there.

“All four were brilliant – Susie clear inside the time and Padraig just a few seconds over, while Austin really dug in to get home. So obviously this is the position we would have liked to be in and we felt we could be in, but there’s three days and three phases and we just need to keep it going now tomorrow.”

The show jumping phase on Sunday also went incredibly well for the Irish riders. Berry and McCarthy both rode fantastic clear rounds to extend Ireland’s lead to more than four fences, taking the pressure off Clark slightly.

She and Sportsfield Freelance, who was bred in Co Waterford by Sharon and Brian Hallahan and owned by the rider and The Freelance Syndicate, were the final combination into the arena and had a fence down to incur four faults, but she was very happy with her round.

Clark was full of praise for Boekelo and the Nations Cup Series: “The Nations Cup final here in Boekelo is a huge deal and it means a huge amount to anyone competing. It has a real weight to it that is more than some of the individual legs. They (the organisers) have really done well here, there’s a great atmosphere - it’s built up to a really fun end of the competition.

“I love Boekelo and would come back every year if I had a horse for it. The ground rode well yesterday. It was testing, but it held up really well and the work they have done is just unbelievable.”

O’Connor had 16 jumping faults, but as it turned out, they did not impair the team’s success, as his teammates had secured Ireland’s lead over their nearest challengers. Ireland finished on a score of 102.6 penalties, followed by the USA in second on 116.1 and Germany in third on 131.9.

Ireland previously won the Nations Cup at Boekelo back in 2015, when Padraig McCarthy was also on the team.

Clark added: “It’s been a brilliant week. The team have performed top of their game, and this win means so much. You can see when we came out (of the prize giving), we were all just over the moon with it. It is a great way to end the year and exciting for next year… We like mud. The Irish are good in mud.”

Padraig McCarthy riding Pomp N Circumstance at the FEI Eventing Nations Cup at Military Boekelo \ Pam Cunningham/ Irish Eventing Times

Co Down’s Susie Berry was the best of the Irish individually, finishing on her dressage score of 32.0 in a super sixth place overall with Clever Trick, a 12-year-old mare by Financial Reward out of Bonnie Dolly (ISH) by Bonnie Prince, bred by Vincent Cousins and owned by the rider, Anne Marlin and Sue Wilkinson.

Tipperary’s McCarthy (35.0) finished 10th and Kildare’s Clark (35.6) was just outside the top 10 in 12th. Robbie Kearns and the Irish Sport Horse Very Dignified were the best of the Irish individual competitors, finishing 17th on a score of 41.2.

Germany’s Julia Krajewski and Nickel 21 took first place individually on a score of 28.8, with Britain’s Laura Collett and Dacapo (29.3) in second and the USA’s Hallie Coon and Cute Girl (30.4) in third.

Ireland’s win here, along with victory at the home leg in Millstreet, put them in fifth place in the overall 2024 FEI Eventing Nations Cup Series, which was won by France with 425 points.

Delighted

After the prize giving, Albert said: “We are delighted. This was all about the team. Every one of them did an important job. The whole way through, they were performing class and that is the reason we got the result. Conditions have been very hard, with lots of rain and the organisers deserve a lot of credit for sorting out the track.

“We are building good depth. That’s been the aim from the start and we’ve a good bunch now. We had a big team of individual riders here as well and most of them performed really well, with two maybe a little unlucky. We are going on to Le Lion next week with the young horses and it’s Pau the week after for the five-star, when we’ll have around 10 going. So, we’re getting better all over.”