After seven years making sometimes difficult decisions, Robert Splaine is realistic to know his reappointment as Ireland show jumping manager may not be greeted with unanimous acclaim.

It has come as a surprise, even to Showjumping Ireland, that membership and registration figures for January are up, albeit marginally, on the same time last year.

Olympic bronze medallist Cian O’Connor leapt into the history books yesterday when he brought show jumping to Croke Park for the first time.

Olympic bronze medallist Cian O’Connor ensured himself a fitting send-off from the Discover Dublin Horse Show yesterday when third in the €200,000 Longines Grand Prix.

“I’m over the moon. It’s fantastic,” said Ireland show jumping manager Robert Splaine after his team captured the Aga Khan Trophy with aplomb at the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show yesterday.

The governing body of equestrian sport in Ireland has said it needs more funding to build on the success of Irish riders at the recent Olympic Games in London and other international competitions.

Ireland's show-jumpers have won the Aga Khan trophy for the first time in eight years at the Dublin Horse Show at the RDS.

Ireland show jumping team manager Robert Splaine believes Cian O’Connor’s bronze medal-winning performance in London will be a springboard for greater Olympic success.

Katie Taylor had her Bray bash, John Joe Nevin was feted in Mullingar, while Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan got the red carpet treatment in Belfast.

With a couple of last-place finishes this season and lying bottom of the FEI Top League, Ireland’s show jumpers pulled off a surprise yesterday with victory in the nations cup in Hickstead, England.

It wouldn’t come as a big surprise to find that Ireland show jumping manager Robert Splaine is putting the controversy over Denis Lynch behind him, and he would be forgiven for, briefly, taking his focus off the Olympics today, as he aims to engineer a get-out-of-jail performance in Hickstead.

Ireland’s show jumpers are in danger of relegation from the FEI Top League after finishing last in yesterday’s Swedish Nations Cup in Falsterbo.

THE Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) yesterday said it was “not particularly happy” that show jumping had become involved in controversy again, but said the sport was not alone in gaining headlines for the wrong reasons.

Paul Beecher yesterday claimed the famous Hickstead Derby for only the 13th time for Ireland in its 52-year history.

Ireland achieved a season’s best result in FEI Top League yesterday, when fourth in the Dutch Nations Cup in Rotterdam.

Ireland eventing high performance manager Ginny Elliot yesterday stressed the importance of Barbury Horse Trials as she makes her final deliberations regarding her Olympic selection.

Eventing rider Sam Watson pulled off a stunning recovery to finish eighth in the three-star at Saumur, France, yesterday.

IRELAND’S bid for eventing glory at the Alltech World Equestrian Games in Kentucky got off to a disappointing start yesterday.

CAPTAIN GEOFF CURRAN and eventing high performance manager Ginny Elliot are confident the Army officer’s mount, The Jump Jet, will be fighting fit for the Alltech World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

THE Show Jumping Association of Ireland’s (SJAI) Premier Series will go ahead again next year, though a new sponsor is in the pipeline.

FRANCIS CONNORS had double reason to smile yesterday after winning the €21,000 grand prix and the €10,000 Austin Trumann Steel Boomerang Final at Millstreet Horse Show.

CLEM McMAHON was relaxed as he stood outside arena one at a sunny Millstreet Horse Show yesterday, taking a passing interest in his rivals as they attempted to better his time in the jump-off of a Boomerang qualifier.

Germany proved unstoppable in this year's Aga Khan Trophy competition at the Dublin Horse Show today finishing on an enviable score of just nine faults, their second consecutive Aga Khan Trophy win.

SHOW jumper Jessica Kürten’s decision to travel to the Global Champions’ Tour (GCT) show in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the weekend instead of this week’s Dublin Horse Show proved lucrative when she placed second in a jump-off class yesterday.

PAUL O’SHEA is 10 points behind leader Clem McMahon in the Atec Premier Series with only two rounds remaining and is surprised to be there.

MONAGHAN'S Clem McMahon snatched Blessington's big Premier Series Grand Prix at Kill International in Co. Kildare today with a superb double clear on May Scott's 'Cobold'.

Paul O'Shea got his domestic season off the mark today winning the latest round of the Boswell Equestrian Centre National Grand Prix League, staged at Coilog, Co Kildare.

THE Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) is to submit the nominations of its affiliates for the interim board of Horse Sport Ireland to Arts Sports and Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue on Monday.

IRISH show jumping team manager Robert Splaine has only one aim in today nations cup at the Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show: to finish well ahead of the Netherlands.

JOHN LEDINGHAM and Robert Splaine are, as expected, the two front-runners for the post of Chef d’Equipe of the Irish Show jumping team following a meeting of riders and management in Dublin yesterday.

TURMOIL and recrimination surfaced within the Irish show jumping camp again yesterday, with Harry Marshall the latest rider to pull out of the senior nations cup squad.

CIAN O’CONNOR gave an unequivocal “no” yesterday when asked if he would be under any undue pressure going into today’s nations cup at the Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show.

SHOW jumper Billy Twomey yesterday said Jessica Kürten was entitled to have differences of opinion with the Irish selectors and Cian O’Connor, but she should, nevertheless, have put aside her principles and lined out in Friday’s nations cup at the Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show.

IRELAND’S showjumpers climbed out of the relegation zone in the Samsung Super League yesterday, when placed fourth in the Nations Cup at Rotterdam.

THE vow by a number of riders to never join Cian O’Connor on a nations cup team demonstrates the depth of acrimony felt towards the rider in some quarters.

“ONE of the better ones” was Kevin Babington’s description this week of his superb win in Sunday’s La Baule Grand Prix with the ever-reliable Carling King.

WITH the Olympic year in the offing, chief show jumping selector Peter Leonard is confident Ireland can produce the goods and win the country’s first gold medal in the code.

IT was a case of mixed emotions for the Irish last weekend at the Samsung Super League Nations Cup Show in La Baule, France, where early domination disipated on the final day in the wake of a supreme performance by the host team.

A SEISMIC shift in the bureaucratic set up of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland is on the cards when it holds its 2001 AGM next Tuesday.

THE discord between the Royal Dublin Society and the Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) over the association’s headquarters at Ballsbridge escalated this week with the news that court proceedings are imminent.

IRELAND’S Peter Charles survived a dramatic moment at Hickstead when his hat slipped over his face and he jumped blindfold down the Derby Bank - but still managed to go clear and repeat his 2001 victory in the Bunn Leisure British Jumping Derby with Corrada.