Dublin Horse Show

Ah! Horse show week, the most exciting week in the Irish equestrians calendar. All year hopeful competitors have been practising and accumulating points so that they could qualify to show, ride and jump at the RDS in Ballsbridge. Over the last few years I have enjoyed the excitement of the opening day, Wednesday, with the freshness of the stalls and the welcome stakes. I have partaken of the speediness of the speed stakes on the Thursday and bathed in the glamour of ladies day. I have revelled in the nail biting, edge of your seat competition of Friday's Nation Cup and I have been amazed by the skill of the Grand Prix on the final day, Sunday. This year I decided to buy a season ticket so I could enjoy all these days again, plus get a chance to go on the Saturday to see the Puissance, which I have never seen in the flesh, so to speak. Due to an unfortunate concatenation of events, I wasn't able to make it on Wednesday, but I popped down to Dublin on Thursday and spent the afternoon at the RDS with Madeline. We arrived around 1pm and it was impossible to get parking anyway near Ballsbridge. I have never seen the Horse Show so crowded, especially on Thursday, which is usually a quiet day.

After a long walk we made it to the RDS and browsed the stalls of the main hall. There were loads of finely dressed ladies teetering about in high heels, tiny hats perched on their coiffured heads. I admired them immensely - I take my hat off to anyone who puts their feet through the agony of walking around in really high heeled fashion shoes all day. Of course, there was the possibility of a €10,000 prize for the lucky lady who won, so perhaps the bunions were worth it.

After browsing the stalls for a while, we headed out to our seats in the grand stand to watch some show jumping. We were fortunate that the weather was really warm and sunny and there was a cheerful atmosphere because of it. There has been so much rain recently though that despite two dry days the ground in the main arena was still very heavy and wet. I was really impressed by the grounds men working in the main arena. After every round they scuttled out to put down sawdust, stamp in the divots and aerate the ground with pitch forks.

Because I have been to the Horse Show before (dare I say I am a seasoned attendee?), I came prepared with a packed lunch for both Madeline and myself, which we devoured while watching the Power and Speed competition. Unfortunately we were too late to catch any of the speed stakes, although we did see the winners performing their lap of honour. The power and speed competition consisted of a set of jumps that had to be jumped clear in order to jump a second set of jumps against the clock. It was a hard course and, because of the heavy ground, there was a lot of slipping and sliding going on. We took a break from the jumping to wander around the stalls once more and to purchase some 99 ice creams at a van parked near the Angelsea Stand. They were delicious. Then back to the grand stand to watch a relay race where international riders teamed up with children on their 128cm ponies (I don't know why they don't use hands as a form of measurement anymore) over a course of jumps against the clock. It was great fun to watch and I was very impressed by the young riders getting their tiny ponies to fly so fast over the jumps.