Splaine said: ” At this point these are the main contenders being considered. However my decision will be announced in August, as other combinations may yet come into contention.”

The combinations named today were:

Billy Twomey/Diaghilev
Cian O’Connor/Quidam’s Cherie.
Dermott Lennon/Loughview Lou Lou (ISH)
Conor Swail/Lansdowne.
Bertram Allen/Molly Malone V
Cameron Hanley/Antello Z
Denis Lynch/All Star 5

IRISH show jumping manager Robert Splaine today (Friday) announced the show jumping squad who will represent their country in this year’s first European Nations’ Cup of the elite FEI Furusiyya super league series.

A five-star competition, the Nations’ Cup will be held at Lummen in Belgium on May 2nd.

The squad of five, from which four will be selected as the Irish team, is, in alphabetical order:

Bertram Allen with Molly Malone
Dermot Lennon with Loughview Lou Lou (ISH)
Mark McAuley with Isco de Miranda
Thomas Ryan with Caribo
Billy Twomey with Diaghilev

Though Lummen will attract some of the world’s top combinations, Splaine has elected not to count Lummen as one of Ireland’s point-scoring competitions in the series.

Under the new rules introduced in 2013, the world’s top show jumping nations may compete in eight venues but will only be able to gain points in four.

For Ireland these will be La Baule, France (May 15-18), Rotterdam, Holland (18-22 June), Hickstead, Britain (31 July-3 August) and Dublin Horse Show (6-10 August).

Drawn tenth to jump of 12 teams competing, Ireland will line out as follows:

Shane Sweetnam/Eregast Van’T Kiezelhof
Richie Moloney/Carrabis Z
Paul O’Shea/Lilli
Cian O’Connor/Quidam’s Cherie

The teams taking part, of whom either six or eight will go forward to the second round, depending upon the decision of the Ground Jury, are:
1. New Zealand
2. Great Britain
3. Canada
4. Brazil
5. Germany
6. USA
7. Colombia
8. Israel
9. Chile
10. Ireland
11. Mexico
12. Venezuela

Three teams – Canada, Mexico, and the host nation USA – will be eligible for Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping points in the North America, Central America and Caribbean League.

The competition will be available on Livestream in Ireland at midnight on Friday from www.feitv.org

Jonathan Irwin of the Jack and Jill Foundation and Tara Weston at the presentation of the new fence at NSCDA, Blanchardstown. 23/10/13 photo by Laurence dunne Jumpinaction.net

A SPECIAL new fence was added to the Olympic-standard show jumping course at the recently opened Horse Arena in Blanchardstown’s National Sports Campus yesterday (Wednesday).

In a special presentation, Irish show jumping manager Robert Splaine introduced fence builder James Tarrant, and Tara Weston, who had generously bought the fence at auction.

The fence was then presented to Horse Sport Ireland Chairman Prof. Patrick Wall.

The project was an initiative by Robert Splaine and HSI High Performance Committee member James Tarrant.

Robert Splaine said: “Today we are seeing yet another magnificent fence being added to those already in place , and it was designed and built by my colleague James Tarrant who is here today and who built the fence without fee or cost.

“We put the fence up for auction and received €3000. The successful bidder was Tara Weston whose very generous gesture means that the proceeds can go to the Jack and Jill Foundation.”

Jonathan Irwin received the donation on behalf of the Jack and Jill Foundation.

Amongst those also attending today were Sean Benton of NSCDA; Olympic Council of Ireland President Pat Hickey; Tony Hurley, chair of Show Jumping Ireland; Comdt. Brian MacSweeny of the Army Equitation School, and Damian McDonald, CEO of Horse Sport Ireland.
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