Kilrainy Riding Club has arrived safely in France ahead of the World Club Tournament Open de France Generali which begins later this week.

The Kildare based club, who were selected to represent the Association of Irish Riding Clubs (AIRC) at the tournament, arrived at the French Federation Parc for the four-day tournament which is a friendly international competition for riding clubs and schools from all over the world yesterday.

The Irish team includes Peter Dargan (Temple Cruise), Aisling Dargan (Sky Starlet), May Gilsenan (CJs Quest) and Claire Leahy (Diamond Discovery) who will be riding their own horses in a change from previous years where Irish teams hired horses in France for the tournament.

Wilson Porter, who is the chairman of Kilrainy Riding Club, is the team Chef d’Equipe.

The competition will begin on Wednesday when the draw for the starting list will take place and this will be followed by a welcome reception. A warm-up session will take place later that afternoon where teams will be allowed to jump a practice round in the main jumping arena.

The main action gets underway on Thursday with the parade of nations followed by the first round of the competition with the second round taking place on Friday.

A.I.R.C. chairman Tony Ennis said earlier today that,

I’m delighted to hear the team including their horses have arrived safely in France. I know they will do our Association proud and I wish them the very best of luck. I’d also like to thank Wilson Porter for acting as the teams chef d’equipe

“This tournament is a friendly competition but it’s also a wonderful chance for our members to compete on the world stage,” he added.

This tournament takes place every summer during the Generali Open of France at the Parc Equestre Federal, 41600 Lamotte Beuvron, France from 25th to 27th July 2018. Lamotte Beuvron is in the Loire Valley, about 140kms south of Paris.

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