Ireland currently lies in seventh place of 13 teams competing at the FEI European Eventing Championships in Strzegom, Poland.
The best Irish score after two days of dressage came from Sarah Ennis and Horseware Stellor Rebound, who recorded 38.60 today, enough to slot into 14th place individually.
Germany leads the overnight rankings after a strong performance, with Bettina Hoy and Seigneur Medicott producing a record breaking score of 24.60, helping to leave her team on 87.0.
France is in second with 111.80, while Great Britain is not too far behind on 111.90.
Ireland has 135.20 penalties on the board, and with the country’s strong suit of cross country happening on Saturday, Irish hopes are high that they will reclaim enough lost ground to put them close to medal potential before Sunday’s show jumping phase.
Team manager Sally Corscadden said this evening: “The Cross Country course is very intense and technical. There are a lot of difficult lines and obtuse angles – a lot of obstacles to jump in ten minutes and it will require real focus.
“It’s a proper Championship course. I can see plenty of places with the potential to pick up 20 penalties so this course is going to be very influential. It was 31 degrees here today when Sarah (Ennis) was doing her test. We are due to get some rain tonight and tomorrow and that might cool things down a bit.”
Ireland this week is missing the team presence of Olympian pairing Jonty Evans and Cooley Rorkes Drift. Evans launched a crowdfunding appeal in July to raise £500,000 so that the horse would not be sold to America and would stay with the Irish team for the European Championships.
However, although the required sum has been raised, Evans made an unexpected announcement on the Horse Sport Ireland website during Dublin Horse Show week, revealing that the horse would not be competing at the European Championships this year after all.
“The physical issue of paying for him is complex and will not be completed in time,” Evans said last Saturday.
Other Irish scores today were:
31st Austin O’Connor and Kilpatrick Knight 45.20
51st Michael Ryan and Dunlough Striker 51.40
67th Joseph Murphy with Sportsfield Othello 54.80
46th Patricia Ryan with Dunrath Eclipse (individual entry) 50.40.
Jack Burns
We Live Horse 