Nations Cup Irish Style

Hello all,

So for the sake of not spending 2 days writing about our touristy crap I figured I'd spare you all and skip to the good part.

The last few days were filled with horses, amazing dinners, good friends, shopping and of course lots of Jameson's and Guiness all around. My horse did very well he was a good boy and we are proud of him but he gets a day off due to another event, a big, fun, loud event that got all of us up and cheering right till the last fence.


The Nations Cup is a well known jumper class where different nations fight off against each other to win for they're homes, due to the fact that Canada and Australia didn't have teams here in Dublin we decided that we would all be "adopted Irish" for a day and cheer for the green to win it for the first time in almost 10 years on home soil!

If you don't know what a "Nations Cup" class is, I suggest (if you are anywhere in Calgary or Florida mainly) stopping by the horse show and watching a night of fun. There are nations of 4 horse/rider combinations, each combination on the team is ranked usually with the best for last (going 3rd and 4th). The teams are picked at random and the list runs through having each of the first riders going one after another till they are done, then it skips onto the second riders, then third and fourth all one after another alternating through the teams. There are 2 rounds, for the first round the team is allowed to drop its highest score at the end of the 4 riders, all the rider/horse combinations come back for the 2nd round and the scores are added up giving the team an overall final score, the team with the lowest amount of faults (each jump being knocked down counting as 4 faults) wins.

This was the first time in almost 10 years that Ireland won on home soil, but oh was it a good show! All the teams fighting they're hardest and it coming down to a very close battle between 3 main teams but Ireland prevailed for the home crowd and brought in the trophy. Good on ya boys!

After the nations cup it was time for another dinner, this time celebrating my brother's wifes birthday and then bed since the next day was a tour, horse show and fly out day.

We started Saturday with a nice breakfast down the street, hopped in a taxi and went off to the Jameson's Distillery which we were very excited about all trip. Unfortunately we did not see the real distillery as this was the site of the older one, Jameson's whiskey has now moved to a more modern distillery just outside of Dublin where all the Whiskey is also bottle and distributed from.

If you are ever in Dublin, Ireland, I suggest this particular attraction, for 13$ a person it was a great tour and ended with a nice glass of fine Jameson whiskey to cool you down. After a trip to the gift shop for some "distillery reserve" only sold in the direct distillery, bottles of 12 year old whiskey we rushed off down the street found us a rather "tour oriented" taxi driver and headed to the show where we watched Lance jump beautifully through the course and enjoyed a nice goodbye dinner with our Irish friends and colleagues.

Then it was back to the hotel and off to the airport to take the short trip to Shannon on the Northern end of Ireland.
Shannon is not a big place, its very rural and holds a lot of character to say the least. We arrived later on in the day around 6pm and it was one of the most beautiful sites I had ever seen.
Dromoland Castle... yes CASTLE... Stands on a man- maid hill looking out over the lake that once came straight up to the end of the front walls and bled into a moat that protected it back in the 1700's.
Though the original castle is gone there are a few things that remain, the Wall Garden that has been cut down a little still holds its original walls, the Castle itself which was a private home up till lately in 1962 still has the original entrance to the main castle that used to stand there, the grounds are as they were thousands of years earlier and it is as beautiful as you could ever imagine... and its a CASTLE.

Though our evening was fast and dinner was met by the instinctive need for a soft bed and heavy eyelids, dinner was amazing and the sleep was very restful! Especially after a short walk through the grounds to admire the lights on the stone after nightfall.









If there is one thing that everyone in the world wants to do it is to stay in a castle.
Check mr.Bucket List.


-Hero