Irish eventers off the pace in France ahead of cross-country

As the international eventing season draws to a close, Ireland has a squad of 12 riders with 15 horses competing in this weekend’s FEI world eventing championships for young horses at Le Lion d’Angers in western France.

The Irish contingent is off the pace following two days of dressage but Saturday’s cross-country phase could see changes on the leaderboard as the two tracks are considerably stronger than they have been in recent years.

In the CCI1* class for six-year-olds, for which each nation could only nominate a maximum of three combinations, the lead is held by the USA's Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp, who is on a penalty score of 22.4 with Cooley Moonshine. Britain's Millie Dumas is lying second on another Irish Sport Horse, the mare Universal Cooley (23.3).

Best of the trio of Irish riders going into the cross-country phase is England-based Aoife Clark, who is in 15th place with the Dutch Warmblood gelding Homme d'Hotot M (28.9) on which she won a CIC1* for six-year-olds at Millstreet in August.

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Cathal Daniels, a member of the Ireland's silver medal-winning team at the World Equestrian Games in North Carolina last month, is the highest placed of the Irish in the CCI2* class for seven-year-olds with Michelle Nelson and Kieran Connors's ISH gelding OLS King Aragon (19th on 30.3), a home-bred bay by Samgemjee.

Germany's Ingrid Klimke won Thursday's opening session of dressage with the mare Asha P (25.3) and maintained her lead throughout most of Friday. However, she was overtaken by the last rider into the dressage arena, her compatriot Michael Jung, who was awarded a score of 25 penalties for his test on Choclat.

Irish event riders are also competing in Britain and the USA this weekend, two riders are competing at three-star level in dressage in France while the country’s show jumping riders are in action at 12 international shows, four of them in the United States.