Andrew Nicholson on his first trip to Dublin Horse Show, judging the young event horses
Last week I paid my first-ever visit to Dublin Horse Show, to judge the four- and five-year-old young event horse classes alongside Laura Collett and Annabel Scrimgeour. I also judged the ridden Connemara performance hunter class to warm me up.
You could tell why competing at Dublin is such a highlight for many Irish riders, particularly young ones. There is a great buzz everywhere, it appears to be heaving with people, there’s stacks of pony jumping and loads of classes of all sorts.
When I arrived and walked over to look at the main arena, I asked the gentleman showing me around if they played rugby there by any chance, because I recognised it. Yes, it is the home of the Leinster rugby team, although I think they are moving for next season because work is starting immediately after the show on a brand-new, very expensive grandstand.
The standard in the young event horse classes was very high, and what they are asked to do is quite a step up from what is asked of the equivalent classes at Burghley. On the first day they do a dressage test – with just letters, no arena boards – and then jump five showjumps and move straight on to the conformation judging element, which was my job.
On the second day, they tackled a course in the main arena involving a water jump, banks, a double of ditches and so on – proper stuff, with the added distraction of the big screens facing them. I was impressed with how well prepared and well trained they were, particularly the four-year-olds. The three of us judged that bit together, and we were all happy with the eventual winners.
All the elements of the competition were fast-moving and slick. We each had a steward with a laptop who put in our marks straight away and they were immediately visible on the show app, I think – I did check the exits in case I needed to make a quick getaway!
It was a fascinating experience, especially as I judged the Burghley young event horse final last year. I know it wouldn’t be easy, but it would be interesting to move Burghley’s classes to somewhere like the cross-country warm-up, as the ring there is tight and more space would make the whole thing flow better.
It was lovely to see a showground with so much history in the heart of Dublin, with all the competitions on grass – quite something these days. And of course the Irish are so good at looking after visitors and giving them a good time.
Three is exciting
The Olympics, where I was cross-country coach to the Swiss team, were a big success and very exciting competition. It proved you don’t need a big cross-country track if it is designed in the right way to suit that competition and the time is difficult to get.
Three members with three scores to count makes it exciting; two of your riders have gone well but there’s no let-up in tension – your last one must be fast and get to the finish.
The fact that the Japanese substituted a horse before the showjumping for 20 penalties – five poles, which they pegged back to win a much-deserved medal – made me think the system, and the scoring, works.
Championships need a new plan
It was very good of Hartpury to step in so late and put on the British Championships, but I wonder if they would have been better off not to have done so.
To be British open champion and win £400, and British intermediate champion for £300, is pretty shocking. And cramming those championship classes into Hartpury’s existing timetable of international classes meant that the cross-country ran late into the evening – not ideal for horses, nor anyone else.
I’m not having a go at Hartpury, but I hope that British Eventing has a proper plan for its important national championships for the future.
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