Ginny Elliot signs up again to train Ireland’s Olympic eventing hopefuls
Horse Sport Ireland has now secured the services of all three high performance managers — for dressage, showjumping and eventing — in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics.
Eventing legend Ginny Elliot is the latest to agree her contract, HSI announced yesterday.
She joins dressage coach Ferdi Eilberg and showjumping coach Michael Quirke, to complete the Olympic training team.
“I am delighted that Ferdi and Michael have also committed themselves, and with Marcus Swail as team vet, I believe we have a very strong backroom team in place,” said Ginny.
“It would be great if we could secure Olympic qualification at WEG [the World Equestrian games in Kentucky] this year so that we could use the Europeans next year with the Olympics in mind.”
An eventing training squad has been in action since January with three two-day pre-season training camps already having taken place.
Invitees consisted of experienced horses that are being prepared for WEG and younger horses who have been identified as having Olympic potential.
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“The three camps have gone well and the riders have done very well in their warm-up events. There are some really nice horses for the future and we were anxious to get these onto the programme as soon as possible,” added Ginny.
Ginny has an outstanding competition record in the sport, having won four Olympic medals, three European Championships, a World Championship, five Burghleys and three Badminton Horse Trials.
She took over as Ireland’s eventing high performance manager in February 2008.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.