Partying in the oasis

On Wednesday, the sun came out at last, on the long-overdue first day of summer. The Horse Show got under way at the RDS, celebrating its 125th anniversary. At the end of the first day's events, riders and officials gathered in a marquee overlooking the main arena to marvel at the weather and speculate on the forthcoming results for the rest of the week.

Clicking their spurs and ready for action were all seven teams who competed in the Aga Khan Trophy: Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and of course, ourselves.

Chef d'equipe of the Great Britain team, Ronnie Massarella, was celebrating an anniversary of his own. This is the 30th year Ronnie has acted as chef d'equipe. "This may be my last year," he told the crowd in a short impromptu speech; his comment was greeted with affectionate and disbelieving laughter.

Jockey Adrian Maguire was making his first trip to the RDS, to participate in the charity event earlier in the day, in which six jump-jockeys competed against six race-jockeys. British rider Nick Skelton couldn't resist asking Adrian: "What's it like to be watching horses jump rather than fall?" Adrian reports that he's "feeling 100 per cent again" after his fall at the recent Galway Races.

All the show-jumping judges were there, including Pamela Gillespie, who is the president of the Grand Jury and official international judge. Pamela had entered into the spirit of the day by sporting a scarf printed with, guess what, high-stepping horses. Among the many other judges sporting their distinctive red rosette badges were Elspeth Gailey and Liz Pottie.

This is the 10th year Kerrygold has sponsored the Horse Show. "My pockets are getting lighter by the minute," Aidan McCarthy, the PR manager of Kerrygold, joked. Aidan estimates 200 million viewers will see the television coverage of the week's fun. "The RDS is a real oasis in the middle of Dublin. We're looking forward to the next 125 years," he told the crowd.

The Irish chef d'equipe, Tommy Wade, was present, as was the popular former holder of the job, Col Billy Ringrose. Also there were those stalwart Irish riders Eddie Macken, Capt John Ledingham, and Trevor Coyle; British riders John Whitaker and James Fisher; and the literarysounding Swiss team-members, Roland Grimm and Rudolf Letter.