O’Connor dreams big at Hagen
Cian O’Connor takes his relatively recent acquisition Irenice Horta to this week’s four-star Horses and Dreams fixture at Hagen in Germany. The Irish rider has taken a back seat from competition so far this year to concentrate on coaching clients, but with some serious Nations Cup fixtures looming ahead of August’s European Championships, the German fixture will be a welcome outing for the pairing as the season gets going in earnest.
Irenice Horta was bought by O’Connor last November from Belgian-based Stephex Stables. Spectators at the RDS may remember the then 10-year-old mare going double-clear to take third place in the Grand Prix at Dublin Horse Show last year when partnered by Italian Lorenzo De Luca. The pairing followed up that performance by scoring a seventh-place finish at the World Equestrian Games in North Carolina the following month.
