Not only would Cian O’Connor say the sale of this country’s best horses is not necessarily a bad thing, he would go so far as to declare it as a “positive”.

Irish eventing celebrated yesterday when Aoife Clark became the first rider from this country to take the feature class at Blenheim, England, while the junior rider team took gold in the European Championships, along with bronze for the young rider team.

Ireland’s show jumpers battled to second place in the world’s richest nations cup on a superb weekend that saw their compatriots pick up medals at the European Junior Eventing Championships and in the pentathlon at the Junior World Championships.