Surviving the Irish
- Details
- Marianne van Pelt Self

On an indifferent morning in late August, I set off with my teenage son for the three-hour drive from my seaside home in West Cork to Limerick Show for the inaugural American Hunter Class at the Traditional Irish Horse Association’s Festival of Breeding.
I’m naturally optimistic. We left Cork an hour late (teenagers!), but I never worried. I knew we would get to the Show at the perfect time. And so we did; we sauntered up to the arena alongside the first horse in the class: a handsome five-year-old chestnut gelding ridden by Olympic eventer and serious foxhunter Michael Ryan.