Mullingar Equestrian Centre and the Fagan family had a huge prgram for this weekends jumping and for much of the week leading up to it there was discussion amongst the jumping fraternity about whether the show would continue or not due to the continuing wintery conditions - but the show went ahead!

With a huge program set and four arenas running and classes starting at 9.30am the jumping was relying heavily on the weather as all arenas are grass arenas. Everyone was delighted with the newly surfaced parking area and the provision of 300+ temporary stables but by the end of the day on Saturday the carpark was a mess of mud and water everywhere with the arenas seeing the horses jumping out of 12" of mud making things very difficult for all concerned - this was so disappointing for the organisers who had quite obviously gone to great effort to having the place looking fabulous for the weekend.

The weather did not however deter the pony riders from turning up in huge numbers for the 3rd of the Dublin qualifiers and the same went for the Young Riders, also looking for those hard won Dublin entries through the qualification system in place.

The Mullingar Summer Showjumping Festival also hosts two of the IJM Timber Frame Grand Prix League classes, with a 1.40m Grand Prix on Sunday and a 1.50m Super League Grand Prix on Monday - the numbers were definitely smaller for these two classes and no doubt the condition of the ground was the cause.

Thanks must go to the Fagan family and their sponsors for the incredibly good prize money on offer for the weekend - generalky speaking it is hard to cover costs at shows here in Ireland but this weekend saw reasonable entry fees and exceptional prize funds on offer, which no doubt encouraged many to brave the weather and make the trip to Mullingar.

The Young Rider 1.20m qualifier on Saturday saw huge problems with many of the riders finishing with elimination - clear rounds were few and far between and the same happened for the 1.30m riders - for many the horses and riders had already got a fright in the warm up areas which were seriously vergeing on dangerous at various points throughout the weekend, so by the time they got into the ring the horses were nervous, as were the riders and the horses in many cases were exhausted form the effort of jumping in the warmup. Speaking with the Course Deisgners in the various rings, most were keen to keep shifting the warm up arenas around in search of good ground but sadly the judges were not allowing this due to the hold up it may have caused to the running of the rings - I think it might have been more prudent to chase the good ground but the judges hold the say on this and so the riders had to perservere and being the good kids they are, they made the best of it!

Saturday and Sunday also saw the qualifiers for the 5&6 year old with the top 12 from each day going through to the final of the Castle Forbes Stud Derravarra Final. The top 1.20m horses would also be seen in the main arena on Monday with the top 12 from Saturday and Sunday qualifying.