“What is it about hunting?” Alastair MacLeod of Patey Hats asked me in a Scottish accent as we sat on the plump sofas of the Grand Salon in the Royal Dublin Society last week, sipping tea and balancing plates of scones on our laps. “Some of the people who buy Pateys hunt every day. What makes it so addictive?”
Go to E-Covertside to read more…
“Badminton Horse Trials ran May 5-10 in Gloucestershire, England, attracting over 250,000 spectators, the second-largest number for any paid-entry sporting event in the world. The lanky William Fox-Pitt won against his old rival Andrew Nicholson, also known as the ‘Silver Fox’, who was leading until the Sunday show jumping. Thrilling…”
Go to E-Coverstide to read more…
“Event rider Bill Levett grew up riding in the wide-open spaces of Australia. He moved to the UK in 1994, and competed at his first Badminton soon after. We caught up with him ahead of this year’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials.”
To find out more, go to Horse and Country TV (article mistakenly attributed to Victoria Spicer)…
“The great baseball player, Rogers “The Rajah” Hornsby once said, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
Winter is a woeful season here on the west coast of Ireland. Storms tear off the dark North Atlantic, yanking down trees, stripping away roads. Any attempt to school a horse regularly is futile, and even the minor chore of walking to the stables leaves me rain-whipped, ice-cold, discouraged.
I tend to mope. I mourn. I see the dark side of things. I lose perspective. As the tragedy of another Irish winter unfolds, with its resonance of famine and plague, I forget that I am, in fact, just waiting for spring.
Practically the only thing that keeps me from leaping off one of the sea-bashed cliffs in front of my house is plotting my summer competition schedule. I slink round the internet, ogling the sites of summer horse trials… and the whole world brightens.
What goes into building these pleasure grounds? Who are the heroes whose dedication to natural obstacles and smooth turf makes my life worth living? I decided to find out.
Here in County Cork, we have a new cross-country course designed by the great Michael Etherington-Smith, designer for the Sydney and Hong Kong Olympics, the 2010 World Equestrian Games, the Rolex Kentucky CCI4* for the past 20 years, and many others.
After salivating over sunny photos on the website of the Millstreet Equestrian Centre, where the course has been built, I rang up Mike Etherington-Smith in a grateful mood.”
Then I published what I learned in Eventing Nation.
In 1673, Sir William Temple traveled round a grassy green Ireland of fields and forests that would still be recognisable today. There was hunting on the hills, horse racing on the strand, and farming done by native working horses, the embodiment of patience. Beside himself with excitement, Sir William wrote home to King Charles II, “Horses in Ireland are a drug”.
He wasn’t the only one talking to his monarch about Irish horses. In the 17th-century Irish horses – and in particular the Irish Hobby Horse, an ancestor of the modern Irish Sport Horse – were imported by most of the crown heads of Europe, becoming foundation bloodstock for many European breeds. Even the modern Thoroughbred is most closely related to the Irish Draught and Connemara Pony (foundation breeds for the Irish Sport Horse), according to DNA testing.
These precious bloodlines are now under threat. I spent the day at the Traditionally Bred Irish Horse Society’s Sale at the historic Scarteen House to find out more… and published the tale in Eventing Nation.
I know a lot of people who were looking forward to the World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy. They booked their tickets for the cross-country at Haras du Pin months in advance and flew thousands of miles to be there. Many of them were disappointed. Some were much more than that; they were raging. The logistical nightmare that some people experienced overshadowed the pleasure of seeing the best horses and riders in the world tackle a universally admired cross-country course. I was there, and it WAS a tough day – even though I was among the lucky ones – and an eventful one. I wrote about it for Eventing Nation.
It’s easy to forget how lucky we are to have the Dublin Horse Show, and what a unique and historic event it is. It took me about a week to recover from all the late nights at the show this year! Then I published my impressions in Horsetalk.
What a joy to be at Dublin Horse Show – that great display of Irish horses and horsemanship, and the pinnacle of the equestrian calendar here in Ireland. I managed to poke my nose in all over the show grounds, stables and even the lorry park (where the barbecues were scrumptious), but I particularly enjoyed watching the Young Event Horse classes. I wasn’t the only one – the stands were packed – and even the judges, who included Lucinda Green looking elegant in an emerald suit and hat, seemed to be enjoying themselves… But who wouldn’t want to ogle leggy young athletes in the summer sunshine? Here’s my article on the classes, published in An Eventful Life (please note there is a paywall).
Trish Donegan-Ryan was one of the first people I met when I came to Ireland ten years ago… What a stroke of luck! I used to bring my young horse to Trish’s family yard in Bandon when the equine dentist was in town. One day, as we were taking a tea break in the Donegan family’s charming farmhouse, he told me a little story about Trish’s hands, which I’ve published in West Cork People.
Camphire International Horse Trials & Country Fair had its best year yet in 2014, with one-third more spectators and entries than ever before. Lucinda Fredericks, Joseph Murphy, Sam Watson, Camilla Speirs and Laura Collett are just some of the star riders who competed, alongside rising stars like Sophie How, American grand prix race car driver Elizabeth Halliday-Sharp, and the Under-18 Development Sqaud from Great Britain. The international field also included teams from Hong Kong, Qatar, Sweden and others. Whatever their results, everyone seemed to be having a great time, basking in the Irish sunshine in the magnificent Blackwater Valley in County Waterford. The mix of experienced and inexperienced riders competing alongside each other, while families and dogs enjoyed the country fair, having a day out – all in the spectacular setting of the riverside grounds of Camphire House – made for a celebratory atmosphere. It was one of my happiest summer weekends, and I wrote about it for Eventing Nation.
Marianne van Pelt 
