Dane Rawlins and James Connor watch from sidelines as Tokyo equestrian team is named

This comes a week after the decision taken by the national governing body, Horse Sport Ireland (HSI), to not send a Dressage team.

Two failed appeals by riders Dane Rawlins and James Connor only served to fan the flames of discontent across much of the Irish dressage community who believed that they should be allowed to make up a team when three of the main protagonists who had achieved the historic first Olympic qualification in this discipline were all forced to withdraw last month.

But neither Rawlins nor Connor achieved the qualifying standard set by Ireland���s dressage high performance manager Johan Hinnemann who, in 2019, set the baseline at 68pc which is 2pc above the minimum eligibility requirement (MER) laid down by the IOC.

Holstein, this time riding her home-bred mare Sambuca, will be competing at her fourth Olympic Games when the action kicks off in Baji Koen Equestrian Park in Tokyo on July 24.

The showjumping team of Bertram Allen (Pacino Amiro), Darragh Kenny (VDL Cartello) and London Olympic bronze medallist Cian O’Connor (Kilkenny) will be backed up by Shane Sweetnam (Karlin van’t Vennehof) as P Alternate/Reserve, and they are considered a force to be reckoned with. O’Connor and Allen are both riding exciting young Irish-breds that at nine years old are at the minimum age requirement for showjumping horses at the Olympics.

In eventing, Cathal Daniels will partner Rioghan Rua with which he won individual bronze at the European Championships in 2019 and will be joined by Sarah Ennis (Horseware Woodcourt Garrison) and Sam Watson (Tullabeg Flamenco), two of his team-mates from Ireland’s silver-medal-winning side at the World Equestrian Games in 2018. Austin O’Connor (Colorado Blue) is P Alternate/Reserve.