EQUESTRIAN:HORSE SPORT Ireland yesterday confirmed the following riders and horses were nominated to the Olympic Council of Ireland for the eventing competition at the London Games.
Aoife Clarke with the Lily White Syndicate’s 11-year-old Master Imp gelding Master Crusoe; Mark Kyle with Ronnie Bartlett’s 10-year-old Ghareeb grey Coolio; Joseph Murphy with Electric Cruise, an 11-year-old Cruising gelding owned by Noel Good, Jill Andrews and Annette O’Callaghan; Michael Ryan and the 12-year-old Don Juan de la Bouverie gelding Ballylynch Adventure, a chestnut owned by Carol and Tom Henry and Sheila Foley; and Camilla Speirs with Portersize Just A Jiff, a 12-year-old gelding by the Connemara stallion Crosskeys Rebel, which the rider owns in partnership with her mother Bridget.
Capt Geoff Curran has been nominated as first reserve, with the Minister for Defence’s Shanaclough Crecora with Sam Watson named as second reserve and Horseware Bushman, which the rider’s parents own along with Tom MacGuinness.
The combinations were selected by Ginny Elliot, Horse Sport Ireland’s eventing high performance manager, following last weekend’s international horse trials at Barbury Castle.
Kyle and Curran have competed previously at Olympic level, the former riding Drunken Disorderly in Athens in 2004, while Curran partnered Kilkishen in Hong Kong during the 2008 Beijing Games.
The Army rider was on the World Equestrian Games team two years later with The Jump Jet competing alongside Watson (Horseware Bushman), Speirs (Portersize Just A Jiff) and Kyle (Step In Time).
The four riders also represented Ireland at last year’s European championships in Luhmuhlen, Germany, where they were joined by Murphy and Electric Cruise.
A shortlist of 10 riders and 11 horses was drawn up by Elliot following the Tattersalls international horse trials in late May. The disappointed riders are Jayne Doherty, Sarah Ennis and Elizabeth Power.
