This contest was the fourth and final SNRC of 2009 and attracted riders from as far away as Egypt, Canada and the USA. During the competition, sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland, riders competed on borrowed horses in dressage, show jumping and combined competitions. Cups were also presented to the countries that had accumulated the best results in each competition throughout the year. Natalie Quinlivan, Chef d’Equipe of the Irish Team, member of the organising committee and secretary of IURCA (Irish Universities Riding Clubs Association) said afterwards: “It was a brilliant weekend and I’d like to thank all our sponsors and especially those competitors who travelled from all over the world to take part. It was an added bonus to win both cups. We thought we’d take the President’s Cup, but it was terrific to win the Show Jumping Cup as well.” Natalie herself won the National Accumulator Class.

The Nations Cup is held under the aegis of the AIEC – the Association Internationale des Etudients Cavaliers. The purpose of AIEC is to support, to develop and to coordinate the international university equestrian sports, to develop and improve the cooperation and understanding between the national associations of university equestrian sports, international understanding, and to make known the idea of university equestrian sport and to help gain the necessary recognition on regional, national, and international levels. Founded in 1984 in Saumur, France, AIEC quickly became a world-wide association regrouping members from all 5 continents. Since its registration as a non-profit association in 1988, thousands of international student riders have enjoyed the unique experiences from many AIEC-organised student riding competitions throughout the world, and many friendships have been growing from it ever since.

Well done to all concerned.

RESULTS: STUDENT RIDERS’ NATIONS’ CUP (SRNC) WORLD FINALS 2009, Jan 2, 2010

Individual Show Jumping

1. Elodie Weber (Lux.)
2. Ans Van Oort (Neth.)
3. Nicola Fitzgibbon (Ire.)

Individual Dressage

1. Friederike Haas (Ger.)
2. Joanna Honey (GBr.)
3. Nicola Rossi (It.)

Combined Individual

1. Joanna Honey (GBr.)
2. Friederike Haas (Ger.)
3. Eva Edelmuller (Aus.)

Team showjumping

1. Belgium (Kevin Scholliers, Renee Hessius and Dominique Polet)
2. Ireland (Ben Crawford, Nicola Fitzgibbon, and Michael Hutchinson)
3. Luxembourg (Elodie Weber, Lynn Heinricy, Eric Simos)

Team dressage

1. Great Britain (Joanna Honey, Eilidh Middleton, Danielle Jackson)
2. Germany (Friederike Hans, Heike Jahncke, Alexandra Schwegmann)
3. AIEC Oldies Team (Javier De Wit, Tanguy Debiesse and Nicola Rossi)

Overall team combined

1. Great Britain
2. Belgium
3. Ireland

World Final Dressage Cup 2009 – Germany
World Final Showjumping Cup 2009 – Ireland
Presidents Cup (Overall) 2009 – Ireland