Irish show jumping team manager Robert Splaine has confirmed to The Irish Horse that Ireland’s four points-gaining venues for this year’s Furusiyya Nations Cup will be Lummen, La Baule, St Gallen and Dublin.

“We submitted a preferred list and this is what has been assigned to us,” said the Irish chef d’équipe.

“Olympic qualification at the European Championships in August is of course our main priority for 2015 but we will also be fielding our best possible Nations Cup sides in order to stay in the league for 2016,” he told The Irish Horse this week.

Noting that it is never easy to field strong teams when there are two goals in mind, he did say that he is very hopeful of being among the three that will gain tickets for Rio out of the Europeans in Aachen.

“Our team performed superbly at WEG last year and did everything except qualify. If the same horses hold form for the Europeans, we certainly could do it this time.”

On a further positive note, he also indicates that there are at least three new combinations that are showing very good potential at the moment. Prior to the Furusiyya campaign beginning in the Belgian round at Lummen, there will be opportunity to see some of this talent in action during the Florida circuit where two Nations Cups run this year, in February and March.

Three of Ireland’s qualifying rounds come up during the early weeks of the European outdoor season: Lummen in Belgium at the end of April, La Baule during the third week of May, followed by St Gallen, Switzerland, later that month.

Meantime, Aachen will host a five-star show in May and Splaine hopes that two or three of our riders will have an outing there, which will further prepare them for the Europeans. As always, the Dublin date will pose a conundrum.

“While the Europeans will be coming up in the middle of August, I will still be hoping to give our home crowd something to shout about at the RDS,” said Splaine.