real reason for this - however many of the riders did say that it was a track which again required a very accurate ride. Of the 94 starters only 33 managed to go through to the second round and of those 33 only 13 went double clear - which was two short of the 15 who would go through to the Final on Sunday.

Lucy Buchanan and Northon impressed me enormously in this class - her chestnut gelding had some "issues" through the oxer/vertical double at fence 5 and Northon was making it quite clear he was not about to listen - Lucy handled the situation with great tact and finesse as she "disciplined" the horse without the need to "flog" it and as soon as the responded by submitting she patted him and continued her round - this was a very impressive display of horsemanship which some of the senior riders could well learn from.

Richie Maloney and his mare Touched by Love were going great guns with the pedal firmly pushed down through the course until they had the wavy planks down at 12 and then became slightly disorientated from the penultimate fence to the last with the crowds yelling "directions" to him - he finished with just 7 faults which in a tough class like this was quite a feat.

Kieran Carey was forced to retire when things came unstuck for him after a refusal at the first part of fence 5 (oxer) due to his reins and martingale breaking, meaning any form of steering was now non existant so it was to a round of applause that Kieran left the arena - appreciation for having got control as quickly as he did with broken gear dangling!

The next class for the day was the 4 year old qualifier - and we saw pretty much everyone riding again even if they had qualified the previous day - these youngsters had plenty of opportunity to get a good look around at this very arena which to a youngster could appear very spooky indeed!

The Judges for this second round were Enricho Pendretti (Italy) who was also one of the Judges for the National 4 year old Championships at Dublin this year and he was joined by well known and well resepcted Young Horse Judge, Maurice Cousins from Wexford and they were well impressed with the quality of the horses presented. Speaking of the horses presented - mention must be made of the way these young horses were presented - they all looked superb without exception and the Grooms must be commended for having done a sensational job.

I am purposely not mentioning results from each of the qualifiers as I will do a wrap up for the final day and will give the scores.

By now the atmosphere was building to quite a crescendo as the International competitors had arrived and were starting to warm up for the first of their classes - the International Welcome Stakes, a speed class sponsored by GAIN HORSE FEEDS.

The list of non-Irish Internationals was long and for many this was their first - Scotland were well represented by Johanna Gates, Lindsay Babes (YR) and Stacey Babes (YR). The UK saw Carl Curtis (Yorkshireman), Julie Whibley, Stuart Harvey, Jane Annett, Sara Rust, Robert Bennion (Lancashire) and Tim Gredley (Accenture YR Squad member). Sth Africa was represented by Cavan resident rider, Ray Kubber (YR) - Sweden was respresented by Linda Ekberg - Canada saw Linda Russell riding for them and Germany had Inez Wolters. Portugal was represented by Miguel Bravo and The Netherlands had Sophie Horn riding. The USA was represented by first timer, Irish based Gautama Tschannerl and Brazil had two representatives, Rodrigo Gomes and Alfonso Silvereira who both are apparently based in the UK.

This opening class was to prove difficult for many of the riders here today - British International Course Designer, Bob Ellis set the riders a task with this track which included the lifesize statues of cowboys and John Wayne and Black Minstrels but the main problem of the day was in fact the life size pigs which were the cause of a quite a number of eliminations and "spook attacks. The "allowance" the Course designer quartet made was that the cups were quite deep and many of the rails took a good rubbing which gave the horses and riders a achance to get over the many issues which come with the first class of a series.

There was a very funny moment as the first horse entered the arena and Graham Strutt in his most dry of voices asked for the spit roast people to "go quickly as their little piggy is on fire and needed putting out" - the smell of roasting piggy certainly filled Cavan that afternoon - in preparation for the great feed being held that evening on the upper balcony for all to join in.

So to the jumping - First out was Martin Duffy and his Little Midget and they should from the start how this course could be ridden going clear in 61.34secs and after 77 combinations had negotiated this track Martin was in 5th place in the lineup and with only 12 starters going clear jumping and clear time you can tell there were enough casualties. Winner Stewart Harvey and Qutie did a superb job jumping clear in a time of 58.01secs and they did this from being 7th last to go. So the first International Class of this show saw the crowd stand for the British National Anthem!

Mervyn Clarke's horse Wicked Thoughts proved that there is no "home ground advantage" at this show as they were sadly eliminated at the first fence when Wicked Thoughts obviously had some "wicked thoughts" about the lifesize piggy he could see as he approached the first fence and there was no way this horse was going anywhere near this frightening creature and so even jumping fence one was out of the question!

Peter McEntee was another whose horse was not happy to jump fence one as the focus was definitely on the piggy on the way to fence two - and then after elimination for two stops they decided to jump fence one on their way out but unfortunately Special Order must have thought the cottage under fence one belonged to the Three Little Piggies and he made short work of demolishing the thatched roof!

Ronan Corrigan followed these two previous Piggy stories and decided to gracefully retire after Cavaliers Pride was another who took a dislike to the piggy's before even jumping fence one - but Linda Courtney's horse Cavaleve decided the piggy's were ok but didn't like the look of the very smart motor bike (which was the Leading International Riders prize) in the corner of the arena and made short work of making his feelings well known/

Damien Doyle wins the award for the most graceful and clever fall of the show when on getting to the GAIN fence Woodend Teb decided that he had "quite frankly had enough" and stopped very unexpectedly and threw Damien over his head - Damien landed, sitting ever so neatly, on the top rail of the fence and still holding the reins he jumped off and landed on the ground - not a pole had fallen! But sadly as Damien did land he was eliminated - but he must have some satisfaction in recalling that he did not lower a rail on the fence!