The 133rd Dublin Horse Show will be officially opened tomorrow by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Vincent Jackson, who will travel from the Mansion House in the Lord Mayor's Coach.
Over 1,000 ponies and horses from every county in Ireland and from abroad, will be at the Ballsbridge grounds for the event which runs until Sunday.
Over the week, there will be 12 major international jumping competitions and 30 national jumping competitions.
Highlight of the week will be the Aga Khan Challenge Trophy competition on Friday where eight international teams will compete as part of the Samsung Super League.
France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the US will field full teams in the hope of Aga Khan glory. A good performance by the Irish team is crucial to avoid international relegation which would put in danger our chance of competing in the next Olympics.
On the showing front, the Ridden Hunter Classes have seen a large number of entries and the Ridden Irish Draught class, added to the show last year, has seen a similar upsurge in interest.
In addition to the normal programme of events, young event horse classes for four- and five- year-olds have been added this year. Prize-money has also been significantly increased and a number of classes will now be restricted to Irish-bred horses.
Ladies' Day takes place on Thursday with a top prize of €10,000 on offer and there is a €1,000 prize each day for members of the public who can pick the horses which they think will win selected showing classes.
There will be over 300 trade stands at the grounds and numerous events have been arranged for children including face painting, jugglers, stilt walkers, giant-sized circus clowns, acrobats and firebirds
The horse show opens from 9.00am and runs to 7.00pm daily. Adult admission is €17. Senior citizens, children under-16 and students with ID card are €12. A family ticket, admitting two adults and up to four children under-16, costs €42.
Tickets for the major jumping events cost extra. For the Aga Khan and the other international jumping events, seats cost €30 each and for the lesser events, €11 per ticket.