THE buzz is definitely back at a booming Dublin Horse Show with bumper crowds flocking through the gates at Ballsbridge for the 148th renewal of Ireland’s only five-star Show.

Coming on the back of Ireland’s ‘Khantastic’ win last year and on top of a plethora of stunning team gold and individual gold medal-winning performances from our Young Riders, Juniors and Pony Riders at the 2023 FEI Jumping European Championships, Irish show jumping truly is in a wonderful place. Our uber-talented underage teams are the envy of the entire show jumping world and will, most deservedly, be on parade before the packed grandstands this weekend.

Wednesday’s crowd was very noticeably up on the 2022 opening day, to the delight of the 350 trade stand holders on site amid brisk trade. The Best Dressed attracted enormous entries while the weather gods continued to smile on Thursday and Friday.

There’s nothing like the electric atmosphere on Nations Cup day with every grandstand seat long sold out and every standing room perch occupied three-fold over. Alan Wade’s course was fair, big and bold, asking a lot of questions and putting it right up to every one of the eight teams competing.

Chef d’equipe Michael Blake’s team included Aga Khan pros Cian O’Connor and Shane Sweetnam, who were joined by Kildare’s Mikey Pender and Galway’s Michael Duffy - what a moment for these two young men, their families and support teams. The pressure was on Blake’s boys to retain the crown but hats off to the Swiss victors - many congratulations!

All roads certainly lead to Dublin this weekend with highlights galore including the hugely popular Saturday evening Defender Puissance and Sunday’s feature, the FEI Longines Grand Prix of Ireland.

Well done to the entire RDS team of some 90 staff, headed up by Show Director Pat Hanly and Equestrian Manager Fiona Sheridan, assisted by countless volunteers on whom the Show depends.

Don’t miss Dublin Horse Show this weekend and please drop by The Irish Field stand inside the Main Hall to meet our busy team – see you there!

(Cover photos: Jumpinaction.net; Sportsfile; 1st Class Imaes and Sports Press Ireland)