ON the day the RDS officially announced the cancellation of much of its showing programme for next month’s National Equestrian Championships, the first qualifier for the young event horse, junior/young horse and native breed performances classes, conducted through the Young Eventhorse Series, was held at Tullylish.

The entry for the young event horses’ section at the Stevenson family’s Co Armagh venue was severely impacted by the qualifier’s clash with the international at Kilguilkey with just 20 horses forward in total. However, as this was the first time that all these performance qualifiers were held at the same venue on the same day, it gave the organisers an insight into any problems which might arise.