Great Britain made it three wins in a row at Ballindenisk (IRL), the second leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing 2016. The home team finished second and a valiant French quartet, who had again made the long journey to this friendly Co Cork venue, came a close third.
As a result, Ireland and France, respectively third and second at Fontainebleau (FRA) last month, now jointly head the 2016 FEI Nations Cup™ Eventing leaderboard. Britain, who could only finish sixth in the French leg, are in third place ahead of Fontainebleau winners Germany.
Britain has a policy of choosing from a pool of younger riders who have not yet been on a senior team, but last-minute changes to the squad resulted in the experienced Oliver Townend, a former European team gold medallist and CCI4* winner, being sent out as pathfinder. He finished second in the individual classification on Cooley SRS behind his compatriot Pippa Funnell on Mirage d’Elle.