TIGGY’s Trust are continuing their groundbreaking work with top international course builder and designer Alain Ponsot with the launch of the Tiggy’s Trust YouTube channel this week.

The channel is aimed at younger and less experienced riders, particularly those starting out on their eventing career and also at aspirational fence builders and course designers. The videos are presented under the Tiggy’s Trust banner ‘Cross Country at its Best’ through the medium of an informal exchange of ideas between Alain and Sam Watson, interspersed with instructional footage, from practical fence building tips to cross country clips from Ingrid Klimke and others.

This first series of videos covers themes from building a safe fence, fence readability and ground lines, to how a rider understands the questions asked by the course designer and is therefore able to ride a safe and accurate round.

Filming took place around Tiggy’s kitchen table and on location through the generosity of Graham Ball and Sian Carson at Equipark in County Carlow and Ciaran Glynn at Killosery Lodge Stud in north Co Dublin.

Carol Coad, whose daughter’s event both with Pony Club and Eventing Ireland, was able, through her work expertise, to gather a top team of sound and videographers who would more usually be spotted at Croke Park filming the rugby. Coming at the job with fresh eyes and such a strong skill set in documentaries meant that Brian Shannon and John Sherwin of ‘Videos on the Net’ were able to edit the footage to create a new and exciting perspective.

This opportunity arose through John and Ger Lyttle bringing Alain Ponsot to Ireland to give a seminar to senior Eventing Ireland stewards and course builders to assist in safer cross country design. During 2022 Alain went on to build and be assistant course designer in Pratoni at the World Championships and he is also the resident builder at Le Mans where the Pony European Championships are due to be staged in 2023. View the videos on the Tiggy’s Trust YouTube page.