No reward for brave WEG effort

By Michael Slavin

Robert Splaine’s team of Shane Breen, Billy Twomey, Marie Burke and Cameron Hanley jumped their hearts out at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen last week. Their rewards were small, but they can hold their heads very high indeed.

In sixth place out of 25 nations, they came within one place of their goal of qualifying for the Olympics and were less than three fences away from a medal.

It is wrong that out of that number of nations only five qualifying places are available.

Perhaps our new Secretary General Michael Stone can do something about that.

The star of the event was Marie Burke. She qualified for the final 25 in 10th place – a fantastic achievement for her and Chippison, the horse she bred herself out of her mare Chipmount and by Cavalier.

Anyway, all of that is behind us now. The next challenge is staying in the Samsung Super League at Barcelona. The team for that includes Marie Burke, Capt. Shane Carey, Shane Breen, Cian O’Connor and Cameron Hanley. Their big test will not come until Sunday week when the final takes place. So they have time to rest after Aachen.