Five-star winners Austin O’Connor and Colorado Blue head a strong Irish eventing squad for the 2026 World Championships (11 to 23 August).
Colorado Blue, who won Maryland 5 Star with Austin in 2023 and was runner-up at Defender Burghley last year, missed a five-star tilt this spring owing to a “bit of a set back in training”. Austin said at the time that he hoped it was a “fairly short-term” setback and that he hoped they would have the Aachen World Championships to look forward to.
The 17-year-old gelding, who has also been on the Mars Badminton podium twice, had his first run since April last week, jumping a steady clear across country in an open intermediate section at Upton House (14 July).
Latest Videos From
Austin said “Salty” was “very happy indeed to be back out, doing his favourite thing”.
The duo were part of the Irish team at the last worlds in Pratoni, as well as the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games.
They are joined by two combinations who helped Ireland to the historic European team silver medal at Blenheim last year: Aoife Clark with Full Monty De Lacense and Ian Cassells on Millridge Atlantis.
Double world silver medallist Padraig McCarthy, who was also part of the medal-winning side at Blenheim, is named on the squad with his home-bred MGH Zabaione. This will be a first senior championships for the 10-year-old gelding, who won Blenheim’s kingmaker eight- and nine-year-old CCI4*-S in 2024, Ballindenisk CCI4*-L in 2025, and has had other exciting four-star results to his name.
Georgie Goss, a former youth medallist for Britain who switched to represent Ireland in 2023, will have make her senior championship debut wearing the Irish flag with Kojak.
Horse Sport Ireland high performance eventing manager Sam Griffiths said the selection panel “had some incredibly tough decisions to make, which really reflects positively on the growing strength of Irish eventing”.
“There were lots of combinations that could have made the team but just missed it,” he said. “But having said that, the combinations we have are very strong. I firmly believe that if they can maintain their current form and compete to the level of their current form, we’ll be very competitive.
“We’ve got a really strong team. We know we’re going to be against some fierce competition but we’re going with a lot of confidence and we’re all very proud to be able to represent the nation.”
Irish eventing squad for the 2026 Aachen World Championships
The full squad, in alphabetical order by athlete surname, is:
Ian Cassells, Millridge Atlantis, 12
Owners: Ber, Fiona and Gerry Leahy
Breeder: Sean O’Loughlin
Breeding: Dinan Cascaletto x Warrenstown You 2
Aoife Clark, Full Monty De Lacense, 11
Owners: Ace of Spades Syndicate
Breeder: SCEA Du Noron
Breeding: Quickly De Kreisker x Vesontio Du Mesnil
Padraig McCarthy, MGH Zabaione, 10
Owners: Peter Cattell, Diane Brunsden and rider
Breeder: rider
Breeding: Zavall VDL x Acobat I
Georgie Goss, Kojak, 11
Owners: Molly Fisher, Lucy Fleming and Samantha Wilson
Breeder: H Vos
Breeding: Namelus R x Contender
Austin O’Connor, Colorado Blue, 17
Owners: The Salty Syndicate
Breeder: Mellon Stud
Breeding: Jaguar Mail x Rock King
Irish eventing squad reserves
Susie Berry with 15-year-old gelding John The Bull
Owners: Nick & Helen Caton
Breeder: James Byrne
Breeding: by Luidam, out of a mare by Houmayoun
Sarah Ennis with 11-year-old gelding Dourough Ferro Class Act
Owners: James and Niki Potterton
Breeder: Gordon Dury
Breeding: by Creevagh Ferro out of a mare by OBOS Quality 004
Padraig McCarthy with 12-year-old gelding Pomp N Circumstance
Owners: Rachel and Sarah Gough
Breeder: Sarah Gough
Breeding: by Pompadour xx out of a mare by Furisto
Joseph Murphy with 15-year-old gelding Calmaro
Owners: Richard and Tanja Ames, Annette O’Callaghan and Alan Bell
Breeder: Hartmut Schack
Breeding: by Carpalano out of a mare by Elsurimo xx
