German-born dressage coach Ferdi Eilberg, who represented Britain at the 1994 World Equestrian Games (WEG), and show jumping coach Michael Quirke will also stay in their current roles as Ireland seeks to win its first-ever Olympic equestrian medal at London 2012.

Elliot said: "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.

"It would be great if we could secure Olympic qualification at WEG [in Lexington] this year so that we could use the Europeans next year with the Olympics in mind."

A training squad has been in action since January with three two day pre-season training camps already having taken place.

The list consists of experienced horses that are being prepared for WEG and younger horses who have been identified as having Olympic potential.

Elliot said: "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."

The 55-year-old Elliot, who won silver and bronze medals in the team and individual event competitions at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 competing as Virginia Leng, was appointed to her current role in February 2008.

She had previously worked with the British, Italian and Portuguese eventing teams.

Ireland has a rich tradition in equestrian but suffered the embarrassment at Athens in 2004 of having Cian O'Connor (pictured) win the gold medal in the show jumping only to be later stripped of it after his horse Waterford Crystal tested positive for banned drugs.

Joe Walsh, the chairman of Horse Sport Ireland, has set a target of the team winning two medals at London 2012.

A new brand, ‘Team Ireland Equestrian’, which will be worn by all Irish equestrian riders across all disciplines in 2010 up to the London Olympics has been set-up.

The disciplines involved include the Olympic disciplines of show jumping, eventing, dressage and para-equestrian.

The top priority for both managers is to secure qualification for the London Olympics for their respective teams at the WEG in September.

Horse Sport Ireland is targeting London as it sees it the ideal opportunity for Irish horses and riders to compete in favourable climatic conditions without any travel burden on their horses.

Walsh said: "This is a great opportunity for us.

"We now have excellent high performance structures in place with top class coaches involved and we will be aiming to bring home two Olympic medals from London 2012."

Elliot, who also won three world titles during her career and three European gold medals as well as Burghley five times and Badminton thee times, is enthusiastic about the challenge of trying to secure Ireland's first equestrian medal.

She said: "Since I got involved with the Irish team I have been impressed with the way the riders have engaged with the high performance programme.

"If we can secure qualification this year it would give us a real boost and with two more years to prepare I believe we can win a medal at the Olympics."