Like many other events, our country shows are the epitome of normality. Thus it is no fun at all to be reporting on postponements and cancellations. Balmoral has been postponed until August, Tattersalls Horse Trials are cancelled, all Irish Shows Association (ISA) affiliated shows for May are either postponed or cancelled until 2021. The operative word there is all because in the interests of fairness it is imperative that in this present Covid–19 crisis, shows act in total unison.

International circuit

Sadly this was not the case on the top flight international show jumping circuit right up until less than two weeks ago. While the Global Champions Tour, World Cup and other major fixtures around the world had shut down, competition at some venues continued.

The unfairness of this has been pointedly stressed by Belgian international show jumper Neils Bruynseels when he stated: “Not all competitions chose to cancel and that was not really fair for the Longines Ranking points.”

In other words those forced to stay at home due to Covid–19 were at a serious disadvantage.

Last week the International Equestrian Federation(FEI)did act decisively through the creation of task forces for each Olympic discipline to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

Each of these bodies will have representation from show and event organisers along with competitors, lawyers and representitives of the FEI calendar team and the European Equestrian Federation.

Their job will be to keep the FEI president Ingmar De Vos updated on developments and make recommendations for solutions to be put before the FEI Board for approval. This will ensure that all the disciplines are acting in unison for the duration of this crisis.

Irish unity

In an Irish context it is important that this same kind of unanimous action applies. No show, competition, qualification or points gaining event should step out of line and thus perhaps unknowingly give some unfair advantage to one competitor over another. It is up to Horse Sport Ireland (HSI), ISA and the governing bodies of each discipline to make sure that this is the case.

There will come a day when normality will once again return and we can proceed with our badly missed events. And when that happy day comes let resumption of competition happen in unison.

Financial support

It is also important during this very difficult time that financial supports, grants and important qualifying events are not lost to shows due to the forced cancellation of their 2020 event. Despite the obvious financial constraints forced upon the Government by this emergency, one can still hope the much needed grants to agricultural shows provided by Minister Michael Ring are ring fenced and not lost to fixtures that have to cancel in 2020.