Horse show one of main attractions

THE agricultural show season will start on the May bank holiday weekend and continue until the end of October, with 133 fixtures affiliated to the Irish Shows Association.

Thomastown, Co Kilkenny (May 5 and 6), Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare (May 6), and Leap, Co Cork (May 7), will provide outlets for early season exhibitors.

The Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show (August 8 to 12) and the Tullamore-AIB National Livestock Show (August 12) will again dominate the calendar.

More than 1,000 horses and ponies competed for €750,000 in prize money at last year’s five-day Dublin show in the RDS, which cost some €3 million to stage.

Innovations introduced in that event, to reward improvements in the breeding and performance of Irish-bred sport horses, have been developed further.

An Irish-bred restriction introduced in the four-year-old class last year will be extended to the five-year- olds this year. A prize fund of €15,000 has been allocated to the class.

The Working Hunter Championship will be the richest in Europe this year.

It will have a prize fund of €10,000 per class.

Restricted to horses bred in Ireland, it aims to test the potential of high-class hunters and demonstrate the attributes of horses that are uniquely Irish.

Details of the newly revamped Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show are available on its website at dublinhorseshow.com.