Equestrian /Dublin Horse Show: Peter Charles, dropped from the Irish team for Friday's Aga Khan Cup, has pulled out of the Dublin Horse Show, which opens at the RDS tomorrow.

British-born Charles (43), has missed out on selection for the Dublin team only once since declaring for Ireland 11 years ago, and that was after breaking his ankle at Hickstead in 1999. But after his omission from last week's selection he has decided not to travel from his Hampshire base for this week's show.

"I've no gripe with the selectors or the team," he said yesterday. "There's no animosity and I hope the lads win, but the RDS has a strange attitude when you're trying to make horses - they just quote rules and regulations at you."

As a team regular, Charles has always been able to bring three horses to Dublin but, having been left off the team, was limited this time to two. A request to put his horse It's Magic Max in the Grade A competitions was turned down.

Charles will travel to David Broome's three-day fixture the Wales & West next weekend.

"I think they (the RDS) should have some consideration if you're trying to bring on horses. It must be the only show in the world that doesn't help its own riders to produce horses for the team.

"I've always been able to bring three horses, but I didn't know until after Hickstead (which finished on July 27th) that I wasn't on the team, so I couldn't enter before.

"I've got to put the work into the horses I'm keeping, not the ones I'm losing. I've made my decision in the best interests of the horses I've got. I need to get three of them out, not just two."

Dublin Horse Show director Gerry McAuliffe countered Charles's criticism yesterday.

"We work very closely with the SJAI (Show Jumping Association of Ireland) and their selectors," he said. "We accept their list, not requests from the riders, otherwise it just becomes unworkable. We can't tamper with the selection process."

Charles has been named on the team that will defend Ireland's European title in Germany in a just over a fortnight.

The two vacancies left by him at the RDS have been allocated to Marion Hughes with LB Galileo and Marie Burke with Chippison.