Over 80 classes will be on offer at this years Riding Clubs Festival which takes place on Saturday 9th and 10th June 2018 at Mullingar Equestrian Centre, Co. Westmeath.

The same programme of classes in dressage, show jumping and showing will be on offer again this year at the two-day show.

There will, however, be a few tweaks to the format of a small number of classes in showing and dressage.

In showing, on Saturday, all champions and reserve champions will now go forward to their respective ring championship in the afternoon to determine who will go forward to the Carl Geisler Memorial Championship where only 6 horses will compete for the honours on Saturday evening.

The dressage programme includes the same programme as last year with individual classes along with dressage to music, long arena, musical ride, prix caprilli, pairs and team competitions. There is one minor change to the dressage to music class for advanced intermediate, open and advanced open riders as it will now take place in a 20m x 40m arena.

A number of classes have been renamed and are as follows:

• Veteran Rider Show Jumping is now Seniors Show Jumping
• Veteran Rider Dressage is now Seniors Dressage
• Novice / Expert Pairs Dressage is now Pairs Dressage
• Riding Club Horse is now Handy Horse

Competitions will run from 9am each morning until approximately 5pm or 6pm depending on the number of entries while the musical ride will take place on Saturday evening.

Elsewhere, it is envisaged that all show jumping classes will take place on a sand surface while all showing will be on grass along with the majority of dressage with one arena on a surface but this is subject to change depending on the number of entries.

Asides from the competition programme, an improved programme of social events will take place on Friday and Saturday evening in the hospitality marquee as we hope to make this a memorable event for everyone.

The full schedule will be released earlier next month.