Mike Etherington-Smith is in his 12th year as cross-country course-designer at Millstreet and has the responsibility of producing the sport’s first ever FEI World Eventing Championship U25 track.

‘The brief is not to make it too fierce because there will be a broad range of experience and expertise among riders,’ he explains. ‘There are plenty of long routes but also some strong straight routes. To win it, you’ve got to jump.’

He adds: ‘It is great that we have the interest for this first U25 championship, with riders crossing the world from the US and Australia and New Zealand and we hope they will spread the word about what a superb place Millstreet is.’

Mike observes that the cross-country footing is ‘in amazing condition’. An enormous amount of work has taken place since the May horse trials, which was wet.

‘Thomas Duggan [owner of Millstreet] went out and invested in drainage equipment and, of course, now it’s been dry for weeks – in Ireland! So the team here at Millstreet have been doing a brilliant job aerovating and watering and we will be continuing right up to Saturday.’

Mike’s course-designing career includes two Olympic Games (2000 and 2008), plus a World Equestrian Games (2010) and three European Championships (2005, 2019 and 2021) as well as five-star courses at Kentucky, Adelaide and Luhmuhlen and next year’s European Championships at Avenches.

‘It’s not only a great honour to be here, but Millstreet is a particularly fun event to be part of. It’s very well organised but also very friendly and relaxed and that’s how I like it.’