Cian O’Connors Olympic Horse Blue Loyd Returns to Irish Team for Swiss Nations Cup
17 August 2012; Cian O’Connor, Ireland, on Blue Loyd 12, celebrates after his team’s victory in the FEI Nations Cup. Dublin Horse Show 2012, Main Arena, RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Picture credit: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
IRELAND’S Team Manager Robert Splaine this morning (Friday) revealed that Cian O’Connor’s Olympic Bronze Medal horse Blue Loyd will return with him to the Irish team for the vital Nations’ Cup competition at St. Gallen in Switzerland next Friday, May 31st.
Though sold late last year, Blue Loyd’s new Canadian owner Nicole Walker has offered O’Connor his former London mount to jump as part of the Irish squad competing at the country’s second fixture of the Furusiyya FEI series.
Robert Splaine said this morning: “This is an exceptionally generous gesture by Nicole, as there is no doubt Blue Loyd will greatly enhance Ireland’s competitiveness at St. Gallen. Under the 2013 rules we have just four venues where we can gain world series points, so we need the very best horsepower available to us, and they don’t come much better than Blue Loyd.
“Owners play an incredibly important part in making horses available to the Irish team, and for St. Gallen we also have to thank the Minister for Defence for providing Capt. Michael Kelly’s Annestown, and Mrs. Jackie Bolger and Mel Sutcliffe, who own Shane Carey’s Ballymore Eustace.
“Shane Breen has two possible combinations for La Baule – Edmund Simpson and Anatoli Pysarenko’s Balloon, and John Griffin and Shane Breen’s ‘Cos I Can – and I hope to shortly confirm which of these two will appear at St. Gallen, as well as a fifth combination to complete the full squad.”
After their first outing at La Baule in France, the Irish currently lie in joint second place in the Furusiyya FEI Europe Division One with 75.67 points, with Switzerland in the lead on 90 points.
Horse Sport Ireland, Colin McClelland
Category: International, News, Show Jumping
