Friday sees the first of Ireland’s competitive show jumping team fixtures this year as manager Rodrigo Pessoa brings a strong squad to La Baule for the French Nations Cup.

The securing of a one-year extension to his contract as Ireland’s show jumping team manager was welcomed last week by Rodrigo Pessoa, whose priority in his coming term is to get his charges to Tokyo 2020.

The show jumping team season comes to its conclusion this weekend when fifteen countries do battle in the annual FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona.

Last Sunday’s nations cup in Rotterdam did not involve the Irish team but the result will have a bearing on the country’s league standing up to and including the Aga Khan contest at Dublin Horse Show which is now just over six weeks away.

Bertram Allen and Michael G Duffy will carry Irish hopes in Rome at this weekend’s Italian nations cup, with the country not represented in the team event.

Next Sunday in the French Nations Cup at La Baule, the Irish team will wear black armbands as a mark of respect to legendary show jumper Tommy Wade who exited the arena of life in his 80th year on Monday.

“All in all everyone is happy and it’s onwards and upwards from here,” said Irish rider Shane Breen after Sunday’s nations cup league opener in Samorin, Slovakia.

The Irish show jumping team’s competitive season gets underway in earnest this weekend with a nations cup fixture in Slovakia.

Young Galway rider Michael Duffy could hardly have hoped for a better debut in the Global Champions League when he represented the mostly-Irish Miami Celtics team, riding Efs Top Contender in the opening round of the season in Mexico City at the weekend.

Ireland’s show jumpers could be in line for a notable treble as they tackle the Wellington Nations Cup this weekend during week eight of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida.

The recent cold snap afflicting the US has lifted just in time for the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) which begins today at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida. 

Next year’s World Equestrian Games (WEG) have taken on a new perspective for Ireland’s show jumpers following their recent European Championships victory in Gothenburg, Sweden, team member Cian O’Connor said yesterday.

This Friday sees the Irish senior show jumping team in action at Hickstead for what will be their last competitive nations cup engagement before Dublin Horse Show. 

Ireland are set to field their strongest show jumping team of the season so far for the Swedish Nations Cup at Falsterbo on Friday.

June has been a remarkable month for Irish riders at the top level of individual competition.

Show jumping team affairs get serious for Ireland from this weekend.

Ireland’s show jumping manager Rodrigo Pessoa was understandably disappointed after last Friday’s seventh-place finish in the five-star Nations Cup at St Gallen in Switzerland, even though it was one of the dispensable ones in his calendar.

After an injury-enforced lay-off Cian O’Connor is set for a return to jumping action this coming weekend in Germany. The Meath rider heads for Wiesbaden’s four-star meeting with his top horse Good Luck, along with Copain du Perchet and his newly-acquired Cybell.

Paul Kennedy is in line for his biggest team challenge to date when Ireland take on seven opponents in Friday’s important Division 1 Nations Cup of Italy in Rome.

Nations cups dominated last week’s show jumping headlines, but the international limelight over the next few days switches to the relatively new, mixed-nationality format that is the Global Champions League (GCL), writes Mike Dunne.

The securing of maximum points is the target of manager Rodrigo Pessoa as Ireland’s show jumping team begin their competitive season in the five-star Nations Cup at La Baule, France this Friday.

Ireland’s new show jumping team manager Rodrigo Pessoa maintains that Irish teams have been underperforming and says that his goal is to transfer good individual performances to better team effect.

If you are worried about the Western middle class — and we all should be — you may have started to have some doubts about the virtues of flexible labour markets.

THE Federation Equestre International (FEI) says it will issue a judgment in the case involving show jumper Denis Lynch today.

SHOW JUMPER Denis Lynch appears before a tribunal of the International Equestrian Federation at 1pm today in Lausanne, Switzerland.

RUFUS, the horse of show jumper Rodrigo Pessoa, has tested positive for a banned substance at the Olympics, bringing to six the number of horses to have done so.

EUROPEAN farmers and their co-operatives called on world leaders in Rome yesterday to promote food security through market stability and prices that enable them to make a living.

A MEETING between Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) chairman Charles Hanley and Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) president Charles Powell aimed at smoothing relations between the two bodies failed to materialise yesterday, following the leaking this week of a letter written by the SJAI interim chief executive Liz Pottie.

OLYMPIC gold medallist Cian O’Connor is innocent until proven otherwise, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern urged yesterday.

Cian O’Connor crowned a superb Olympic debut tonight by clinching the Ireland’s first gold medal of the Athens Olympics with victory in the individual show jumping final.

Jessica Kuerten will be the second last to compete in this evening's individual show jumping final at Athens' Markopoulo centre after a stunning clear round on ten-year-old mare Castle Forbes Maike earlier.