Dublin Horse Show, August 2013

During our visit to Dublin earlier this month, we enjoyed a great day at the Dublin Horse Show. Held annually at the start of August at its home the RDS (Royal Dublin Society) the Horse Show is one of the highlights of the international show jumping calendar. The international equestrian events take part in the RDS main arena which also acts as home to the very successful Leinster rugby team.

Phew, our seats are ok

With live music and entertainment, arts and crafts, shopping and food as well as the best in national and international equestrian competitions the Horse Show is a great reason to visit Dublin in August. For me the highlight of the Show is the Nations Cup or Aga Khan Trophy as it was known for many years. Held on the Friday, the competing nations compete in a team event over two rounds. Always exciting especially when the home nation Ireland are jumping.

All rise for the national anthem of....

The event starts with the parade of participating nations and the playing of their national anthems. This year there were eight teams taking part, Ireland the champions from 2012, Great Britain, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Ukraine, Spain and the USA. 

We had some great seats in the Anglesea stand, quite close to the front in Row D which gave us a great view of the tricky treble and the finish.  What follows are some shots of the action, with limited experience of photographing live sporting events some of the seemed to work quite well.

Ultimately, thanks to a couple of great clear rounds in the second round, Team GB ran out worthy winners and were presented with the trophy by Ireland's President Michael D. Higgins. The Netherlands were runners up with 3rd place shared by Ireland and the USA.

2013 Nation's Cup winners - Team GB