THE weather gods must not have been happy with the Tattersalls July Show being run mid-week as the rain on Tuesday was absolutely terrrible and while there was just a very heavy shower on Wednesday, it was badly-timed to coincide with the start of the ladies side saddle class for the Fania Mahony Trophy.

“Our show should have been on next weekend (today and tomorrow) but there were changes to racing dates which resulted in a change to the sales dates and there was no way the Tattersalls staff would have everything ready for the July Sale which takes place on Tuesday next (July 26th),” said the showing section secretary Gladys Graham.

Here, I must thank Gladys for filling in the results for me on a show catalogue on Tuesday as it would have turned to mush had I taken it out in the rain.

Along with the show committee, the Tatts staff had a lot of extra work to do over the two days as the ground conditions deteriorated. The usual entrance/exit to the showing field suffered badly on Tuesday and, in spite of stone being laid down, most vehicles on Wednesday were directed through another gate to park up in the young event horse field.

The ground in the working hunter ring and, eventually, on the outside of the main show ring cut up badly but, thanks to the work carried out on it in the past, the ground held up really well in the main show jumping ring. However, ring three – and its fences – had to be moved completely on Wednesday morning.

While non-connected spectators were few and far between, and one would have to feel sorry for the stallholders – it was a very good show with some promising young horses in action in all sections over the two days.

Scarteen trial run

As they are parading at the Dublin Horse Show, the Scarteen Hunt asked if they could have a trial run in the Main Arena at Tattersalls on Wednesday when information on the pack, which was supplied by Irish Horse World hunting correspondent Dickie Power, was read out by the Arena’s commentator, Paul Nolan.

First seen in the care of kennelman Paul Collins, 13 and a half of couple of the famous Black and Tan hounds, a mixture of dogs and bitches, were then paraded by the pack’s huntsman Hughie Ryan who was assisted by his brother Michael Ryan (the international event rider and honorary whipper-in) and one of the Scarteen joint-Masters, Jake Murphy.