JEAN RETIRES

Jean Mitchell MBE retired from the board of Dressage Ireland earlier this month. Jean was one of the founder members of what was then the Irish Dressage Society in 1989. Jean Scott Mitchell was born in Belfast and now lives in Hillsborough, County Down. She hunted all her days with the Newrys and was a prolific producer of young horses. The ‘apple of her eye’ and pinnacle the star-line was a Blue Cliff mare called Madrigal which was competed on at Badminton by a young veterinary student – one Hugh Suffern. A former director of Eventing Ireland and executive director of the Equestrian Federation of Ireland she became an FEI international eventing judge in 1984. Jean upgraded to ‘Official International’ status in 1994 and five years later in 1999 was the event director of the FEI World and European young rider eventing championships at Necarne Castle. She was a member of the ground jury for the team event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and was the President of the Ground Jury for the 2002 World Equestrian Games, at Jerez in Spain as well as many European eventing championships at senior, young rider, junior and pony levels. She was President of the Ground Jury at Badminton and Burghley on several occasions.

In 2003 she had the unique distinction of being the event director for two European championships held in Ireland, the Pony European championships for dressage, show jumping and eventing in July at Necarne Castle and the FEI senior European eventing championships at Punchestown in September. Jean received the award of MBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, in the 2003 New Years Honours list, for her services to equestrian sport. In 2005 she was invited to join the FEI pony riders committee. A year later she was the Event director for the FEI junior European championships at Necarne, the international horse trials at Balygraffin, Co Down and the inaugural Tattersalls international three day event. Tattersalls was judged ‘Best event in Ireland’ in both 2006 and 2007. Jean is a former international administrator for Eventing Ireland and she has also served as director of the Northern Ireland Horse Board. Jean is the secretary general of the international eventing officials club. In 2008 she was event director of Tyrella CIC***, Ballygraffin CIC**, Tattersalls CICW*** and Necarne CCI **. She is a list 2 Dressage Ireland judge and also an FEI candidate judge for pure dressage. At the Burghley Horse trials last September Jean was presented with a watercolour to mark her retirement from the FEI

judging panel.

Jean has been a very active member of Northern Ireland Dressage for many years both as a committee member and as a judge. She was a member of the inaugural dressage judges group chaired by Gisela Holstein and was fully involved in the training and testing of judges in Northern Ireland for many years. In recent years she has updated the Dressage Ireland rule book a number of times. Irish dressage has benefited greatly from her phenomenal drive, commitment and passion for all things equestrian over the last twenty years. Jean’s ‘can do’ attitude coupled with an unequalled work rate has seen the sport in Ireland make major advances over the last two decades.

Paying tribute Robert McCormick Chairman of Dressage Ireland said “I am especially sad to see Jean retire from both the Board of Dressage Ireland and the committee of Northern Ireland Dressage. Jean has unrivalled experience of international competition having travelled all over the world to competitions. Not only does she pass on her wealth of knowledge and experience to the eventing and dressage people in Ireland, but often while in her company she would get a phone call from other countries like Spain, France or even Australia asking her advice on how to deal with some problem that had arisen. Jean is held in very high esteem world wide and someone we should be very proud of. However it is a personal level that I will miss Jean most. For many years Jean has been my travelling partner for the monthly board meetings. The long journey to Naas seemed to fly in as the craic started in Hillsborough and ended as we pulled into the Johnstown Inn car park. On the way home we would discuss what happened at the meeting and how it would affect our region and as we would arrive in Hillsborough in the wee small hours Jean would be as full of chat as when we left. I have

learnt so much from Jean during those many long car journeys and I would like to thank her for giving me so much advice and help over the years”.

                                                                                                                         Paul Nolan