Countryside Alliance Ireland - love the countryside

This year Ballinlough Castle Country Fair is playing host to a range of new and exciting equestrian events, including Pony Club Games and an Inter Hunt Team Chase.   

The Inter Hunt Team Chase is a new event at Ballinlough Castle Country Fair for 2011 and it has been designated as a qualifying event for the RDS Dublin Horse Show.  It will be run on Sunday 17^th July and is located on the spot where the former Ballinlough Castle Horse Trials won such acclaim and became so well known to many in equestrian circles.

As always, the teams will be made up of four members, each team to include at least one of the following; a lady rider, a hunt servant and a heavy weight rider.  The teams will race over mirrored courses in a relay system with sixteen teams expected to compete overall.  Sir Nicholas Nugent, owner of Ballinlough Castle, commented on how delighted he was that the Inter Hunt Team Chase was returning to Ballinlough. 

In addition, four Irish hunts will parade with their hounds, both in the shows’ main arena and in the Horse World arena.  The Ballymacad Hunt, the Westmeath Harriers, the Meath Hunt and the Tynan and Armagh Harriers will all contribute to the weekend at the fair. 

There will be opportunities for visitors to meet the hounds, speak with the hunt members and to enjoy the sights and sounds of the rich tradition of Irish hunting. Pony club competitions, children’s pony rides, working farriers and blacksmiths, carriage driving and heavy horses complete what will be a unique equine weekend in Ireland. 

The Ballinlough Castle Country Fair commences at 10.00am each day and runs through until 7.00pm. The adult admission fee is €15 (or 2 for 1 for all CAI members who pre-purchase tickets) with children FREE and free on-site car parking.  

More information on this and all aspects of the two-day country fair is now available from the show’s website at www.ballinloughcountryfair.com and on Twitter & Facebook.