Ireland’s Tom McGuinness had battled his way into the top ten with Horseware Sasha D’Aillais before yesterday’s Endurance competition was terminated at the World Equestrian Games at Tryon International Equestrian Center in North Carolina.

The decision to call a halt to proceedings was taken by officials following torrential rain and heat which caused concern for horse welfare.

The FEI is to conduct an investigation into how a number of riders were sent in the wrong direction at the start of the event, causing the competition to be restarted from the intended second stage.

Dressage rider Judy Reynolds must wait until later today to see if her score of 71.957% on Vancouver K will be good enough for a place in Friday’s Grand Prix Special, but with a host of heavyweights still to compete it looks like the Kildare rider may miss the 30-rider cut.

It was a disappointing baptism for Bernard O’Sullivan in the Reining competition, the sole Irish representative finishing 3rd-last of the 61 contestants in the opening contest.

Sam Watson, who rides Horseware Ardagh Highlight, will be the first Irish competitor into action in the Dressage phase of the Eventing competition which gets underway later today.

Mike Dunne