Two of the second-placed Irish eventing team horses were sent to the holding box during Sunday afternoon’s second horse inspection at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina.
While all competition was cancelled due to the effects of Hurricane Florence, the inspection went ahead although it had to be moved from its original site, which was completely flooded, to what had been the practice strip on day one.
There was an anxious wait for the Irish before Sam Watson’s mount, Horseware Ardagh Highlight, was re-presented and passed and a longer one for Sarah Ennis’s ride, Horseware Stellor Rebound, which had to be trotted up twice on re-presentation before being accepted by the ground jury.
Ennis is in the bronze medal position individually going into the concluding show jumping phase while Watson is lying 25th. The other Irish team horses, Mr Chunky (seventh with Padraig McCarthy) and Rioghan Rua (28th with Cathal Daniels) were accepted straight away by the ground jury as was Dunrath Eclipse (63rd), the mount of Irish individual Patricia Ryan.
The last-named combination will be eighth to jump when the show jumping phase, in reverse order of merit, gets under way at 10am local time on Monday.
