The jumping is underway. The crowd is baying with approval. Marion Hughes is out there on Flo Jo, flying over the fences. At various points throughout the eight-acre venue in Dublin, riders and horses are gearing up for their turn. An eight-year-old chestnut mare, wearing a little black crochet skull cap, steps carefully across the yard about to go in. There's plenty of horse manure about and a whiff of romance, too, at the RDS. The Kerrygold Horse Show 2000 is in full swing.
Keeping an eye on proceedings is Leonard Cave, director of the show's main arena: "Yep, they tell me the buck stops with me," says the man from Newtownards in Co Down, who represented Ireland as an international show jumper from the 1960s up to five years ago. Racehorse trainer Eddie O'Grady, sporting a smart trilby, stops to say hello to international show jumper Paul Darragh who sits alone at his table in the corporate section of the Grand Stand. He's sad not to be riding in this year's show. "I was rather hoping to, but my horse was sold," he says. Concetto, which he part-owned, was sold for a "ridiculous amount of money". If he'd wanted to keep his stallion, he would have had to match the sum. His other horses were "not quite good enough for Dublin" this year. Perhaps next year, he muses, keeping his eye fixed on the jumping in the Speed Stakes.
And the horse Eddie Macken was planning to ride was injured last Monday, he says, so he has to make do with Fiona, who is "sadly lacking in horse power". Still contemplating the fact that he's about to compete in his 31st horse show, he's feeling "very relaxed".
Love is in the air at the table of Gerard McAufield from Belfast who says it was 50 years ago this month that he first spotted Agnes Duddy from Derry "under that clock over there . . . I saw this good looking girl in riding breeches and I went over to chat her up". They married in 1956. It's just like yesterday.
And all the horsey set are here, of course. The Doyle family from Punchestown House in Co Kildare are spread across two tables with their friends, children and business associates. Jack Doyle and his brother Edward Doyle are both riding, and their mother, Brigid Doyle, is here to enjoy the spectacle. The 36-year-old Edward, who's been riding since he was seven, is about to jump on Cor D'Alme Z. He waves good luck to his wife, Catherine Doyle, and he's off. Jack, the eldest, is getting ready to jump on Dutch Treat. The doctor and tenor Ronan Tynan is sharing a bite to eat with the Doyles, his long-time friends. Between mouthfuls, they remember to mention that his book, Stages, which is due out next year, has been "prebought" by 30,000 people in the US. "He's huge in America," explains Catherine. "I'm huge here," he tells us.
At another table Andrew Nolan, a Co Kildare auctioneer, is entertaining some friends, such as State solicitor Andrew Coonan and his wife, Suzanna, and Maurice Cousins, a horse breeder from Gorey, Co Wexford, and his wife, Felicity Cousins.
The Dutch contingent is also out in force, including Jaques Bakker, master of the Royal Dutch Hunting Society and his wife, Eskil Bakker, having a champagne lunch in the Laurent-Perrier Pavillion. Cariad McAlpine from Augher in Co Tyrone, who has already won in the four-year-old lightweight gelding class, is here also with her solicitor husband, Barry McAlpine and their friends, Dutch barrister Boudewijn van Heuvein and his wife Elizabeth van Heuvein.
Another Dutch man, Joris de Wachter, a horse buyer, is here to buy 10 horses. He's looking for "quality, scope, mind . . . ". "Price, value for money . . . " adds Barry O'Connor, a horse dealer from Malahide, who is hoping to sell him some horses. Would they spit to seal a deal, we wonder? The horse buyer does not smile. This is a highly serious business. Spit, is it? "Only late at night," he says.