The Association of Irish Riding Clubs has announced that the Masters Series will not take place next year and therefore qualifier dates will not be sought from the regions.

The decision was taken by the Executive Committee at a recent meeting due mainly to the low participation levels at the qualifiers and also at the final.

Since the series was introduced in 2007, the Masters Series changed from a league format to a qualification format, from a two-day final to a one-day final while other changes saw the introduction of a division for Intermediate riders. The series final was also hosted at various times throughout the calendar year following feedback from our members.

AIRC chairman Tony Ennis said, “It concerned us that participation at the qualifiers for the series fell by 25% in recent times. Upon reflection and a number of reviews over the years, we have reluctantly decided to cancel series for 2017.”

“We tried everything to help this series, which was initially introduced to provide a competitive platform for the higher graded riders in show jumping, but the numbers are just not taking part in the qualifiers to justify the costs involved in staging the series each year”, he added.