THE eventing season in Britain has stuttered to a start, being plagued by the weather, but one rider more delighted than most that her campaign got underway last week was 24-year-old Irish international Susie Berry as this year she is competing out of her own yard, Glebe Farm.

The purpose-built facility lies between the villages of Grafton Underwood and Cranford so, not only has Berry remained in Northamptonshire, but she is based just 20 minutes away from her mentor and friend, Piggy March (French), who she joined in 2014 on the advice of eventing coach, Terry Boon.

The Dromore, Co Down-born rider had previously spent two months working at Paul Hayler’s dressage yard in Chelmsford.

“At that stage, I had deferred a place to go to Queen’s in Belfast to study physiotherapy the following year but, when I got to Piggy’s, I loved it so much that going to college was never an option!” said 24-year-old Berry who represented Ireland at European Pony (2012), Junior (2013 and 2014) and Young Rider (2016 and 2017) championships and is now very much a part of the Irish senior high-performance squad.

Glebe Farm is owned by Ron and Caroline Pearson who used to have horses with former Irish international Mark Kyle and who Berry first met around Christmas time in 2018.

“Ron got in touch with Sally Corscadden (Horse Sport Ireland’s eventing High Performance director) to ask if she would mention that he was building a yard for 2020 and would I be interested in having a look. They currently live in the other side of Cranford village but are eventually going to build a house at the new yard.

“Ron and Catherine both ride and Ron is hoping to compete this year. He currently owns two horses with me, Jesmond Renard (by Royaldik), a five-year-old who he bred, and the six-year-old mare Gortin House who he bought from Neill McCluskey and Cormac McKay. He also has another horse with Antonia Brown doing dressage.”

Gortin House, who is one of very few horses by Gatcombe (a son of Gatsby) and is a half-sister to Euro Prince (CCI5*-L), had two outings in EI90 classes last season when ridden by Catherine Robinson, finishing fifth on her debut at Tullymurry (1) and eighth at Grove (2).

“Ron bought Glebe Farm a few years ago,” continued Berry.

“It had an old dairy, hay barn, four-bedroom house and 120 acres. It was pretty cool to see it before it was done up and have an input with what they did with it.

“To be honest though, Ron was incredibly thorough and anything I asked about he’d already thought of! The barn is very well ventilated with Yorkshire boarding and a linear vent in the middle of the roof which allows maximum airflow. We have two wash-bays, three dry tack-up bays and some stocks.

“Outside, we have a 40m x 60m arena, a lunge pen and a walker. At present, we have no cross-country fences which means we have to load up and travel each time to go schooling which we also have to do for canter and fitness work as the land around here is very flat.

“The plus side of this is that I get to school the horses in a lot of different places and get to go over to Piggy’s quite often as she has an uphill gallop which is very good for getting horses fit and I know it well from my time there.”

Fortunately for Berry, the two girls who worked with her at March’s yard, Crissy Salmon and Lucy Field-Richards, made the move to Glebe Farm where they joined a third, Hannah Bab, who worked at the Pearsons’ Jesmond Stud for the past eight years.

Olympic longlist

Also happy to support the rider as she set up on her own were her owners, none of whom are Irish, a factor which swayed her towards staying in Britain. Her top-graded horses, John The Bull and Ringwood LB, are both owned by Nick and Helen Caton who previously had the two Irish Sport Horse geldings with Jonty Evans.

Susie Berry and John the Bull on their way to finishing second in the CCI3*-L at Hartpury International \ Helen Revington

“The Catons, who are from Worcester, rarely missing a training session and go to every event as they are passionate about their horses as well as being incredibly supportive.

“Ringwood LB, who ended last season finishing 13th of 89 in the CCI4*-L at Blenheim, is on the longlist for the Olympics. He will go back for the CCI4*-L for riders under 25 at Bramham if he isn’t on his way to Tokyo. John The Bull, who was second at both Burgham (CCI3*-S) and Hartpury (CCI3*-L) last season will do a few CCI4*-S events in the spring and hopefully a CCI4*-L in the autumn.

“Nick and Helen have recently bought a three-year-old Luidam gelding out of a half-sister to John’s dam and a five-year-old Valent mare that my Mum (Caroline aka Callie) bred.

She (Drumnavaddy Valencia) is a half-sister to Battleoverdoyen who Gordon Elliott trains for Gigginstown House Stud and is the winner of Grade 1 races over both hurdles and fences.

“I was hoping to take her hunting, to get her out and about, but the weather put a stop to that. If it dries up, I’ll take her team chasing in the spring before she starts her eventing career.

“The Catons also own Monbeg By Design who, hopefully, will go for the Under 25 class (CCI4*-L) at Tatts where Debbie and Nat Biggin’s Kilcandra Capitol, Anne Marling and Sue Wilkinson’s Wellfields Lincoln and Trevor Dickens’s Carolines Air Km will be aimed at the six- and seven-year-old class.

“I also have a six-year-old, three five-year-olds and one four-year-old coming on. I would like to break my horses in myself but, with the yard full, it’s hard to get the time to do them properly and, as a result, we have avoided having any three-year-olds here.

“I will event them all but the girls ride the babies as well as the older ones at home – I think it’s really interesting to watch someone else on them now and again, I often find it looks different than it feels.”

Owners, sponsors and friends had the opportunity to inspect the facilities at Glebe Farm when Berry held an open day in mid-February. There is also plenty of information about the yard on the rider’s new website.

One early visitor to www.susieberryeventing.co.uk pointed out that a name missing from the list of horses was that of Stonedge on whom Berry represented Ireland in the Nations Cup competition (CCIO4*-S) at Aachen last July. Earlier in the year, they had finished seventh in the CCIU254*-L at Bramham and eighth in the Event Riders Masters (CCI4*-S) at Chatsworth.

“We just thought Max (Stonedge) wasn’t loving the game at the higher levels like he used to so he is being dropped down the grades,” explained Berry who took over the ride on the grey from Nicky Roncoroni for the start of the 2018 season. “He’s now being spoiled by Nat Biggin who will compete him at Novice level.

“It was incredibly sad to see Max go as he had such a big personality and he left a big hole in the yard. It was also hard as Owen Brennan, and everyone else at Devenish, had been so supportive.

“Owen stepped in at the very start of my senior career and gave me such a leg-up to be able to ride at the top events on such a machine of a horse. I will miss having Max and the Devenish team at the events this year.

“However, it was great to get going last week. I had five horses at Oasby over three days. The ground was incredible especially as, while driving there, the surrounding area was completely under water! The horses were all feeling very jolly to be back out eventing and had a quiet first run. I have six running at Lincolnshire this weekend.”

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THE scene is very different at the events in the UK, it’s a lot less laid-back than at home,” the Co Down-born rider said. “You get a time for all phases and sometimes you could have three horses finished at the event by 11am.

“As I’m based in the east midlands, there are events within an hour or two every week so we don’t really have to travel except for the big internationals – Rockingham International is only 20 minutes from the yard. I don’t have my HGV licence yet so my head girl, Crissy Salmon, does all the driving. I provide the snacks and entertainment to keep her awake!

“I do miss the relaxed atmosphere of the Irish events and I would really like to come back for some of the internationals this year.

“I don’t get back to Ireland that often but was home for 24 hours recently for the ‘2020 Take On Tokyo Eventing Tour’ at Ravensdale for which show jumper, and neighbour, Dermott Lennon very kindly lent me a horse, Canyon Du Fort Vert.”

In fact, and more so since she set up on her own, Susie doesn’t take much time off at all but had hoped to join members of her family this week at Cheltenham where Battleoverdoyen ran in Wednesday’s Grade 1 RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase, finishing fourth.

Berry has one former-racehorse among her team this year, Jayne McGivern’s five-year-old Dark Angel gelding Bhodi who was placed third twice in 10 starts on the flat. The bay, who was bred by the Niarchos family out of their Giant’s Causeway mare Modesty’s Way, carried McGivern’s colours when trained last year by Kevin Frost but was in the care of Michael Stoute as a two- and three-year-old.

Interestingly, Bhodi’s half-brother, Global Freedom (by Maxios), was trained by Elliott when winning a three-year-old hurdle at Far Hills in New Jersey last October under Robert Power. The horse then stayed in the United States.

Incredible team spirit

“The ‘UK Irish’ set-up is amazing and it’s a pretty incredible thing to be part of it.

“We have training at either Austin O’Connor’s or at Aston Le Walls in Daventry every other week with Ian Woodhead and Grant Wilson. Sally Corscadden, Davide Focardi (horse physio), Marcus Swail (veterinary surgeon) and Nigel Perrott (farrier) attend almost all the training sessions to make sure we’re doing as much for the horses as possible.

“We’ve been really lucky to have had cross-country lessons with Yogi Breisner and Andrew Nicholson and recently we went to racehorse trainer Paul Nicholls’s yard in Somerset to use his gallop to test out the heart monitors. It was a long drive down but it was worth it to have a sneaky peak at his set-up!”

Berry has been very fortunate to have had great instructors throughout her career and has particularly fond memories of one of the first.

“As a kid, I was a member of the Iveagh Pony Club where I had the best of time and had an amazing instructor in Mickey McCann. He was really into show jumping and would allow me to bring my own pony to his yard and then have additional lessons on his ponies and horses every weekend. I also did quite a bit of hunting on my ponies.”

Daunting task

It’s a daunting task for any young rider to set up on their own but Berry was well prepared for the challenge having been one of the first graduates of the Young Eventers Programme which is supported by the Windrush Equestrian Foundation.

In collaboration with the Young Riders Academy for show jumpers in Switzerland, the not-for-profit, Britain-based Foundation launched the programme in September 2018 and then invited applications from event riders aged 21 or over who were based in the United Kingdom.

A panel of five judges comprising leading British event rider Pippa Funnell and her show jumping husband Will, British eventing coach Gill Watson, Eleonora Ottaviani (Young Riders Academy) and Emma Chesworth (Windrush) assessed those forward and Berry was one of three successful candidates along with British internationals, Mary Edmundson and Alex Kennedy.

“I’ll admit I knew nothing about insurance, balancing books, employment law or anything really about running a business before getting on the programme,” she said.

“I learned so much from so many experts during the year, from using social media to yard management, and hopefully all this knowledge will be put to good use at Glebe Farm.”

During her time on the programme, Berry certainly kept her owners and fans informed of her progress through social media, ending with this posting on Facebook: “I’ve had the most amazing year with Windrush Equestrian Foundation! We’ve been lucky enough to travel to some pretty gorgeous places, work with some incredible people and make some friends for life!

“Pippa Funnell stands out as one of the most dedicated and generous people I’ve ever met. She’s given up so much of her time to help all of us both at home and at events. She has shared so much of her experience with us and has helped me so much this year… Sad for our year to be over but very honoured to have had the opportunity to be a part of this unique foundation.”