ACCORDING to Norse mythology, the Vanir are a group of gods linked with fertility, wisdom and ability to see the future. Yet even the wisest soothsayer could not have predicted eight Irish-breds out of this year’s top-10 Badminton horses or the remarkable achievements recorded by Monaghan breeders.

Ringwood Cockatoo and Mighty Nice, bred by Robert Greer and William Kells, are two Olympic medal-winning event horses from the Border Counties. Just across the Leitrim border, the Tighe family are the proud breeders of Kiltubrid Rhapsody, sixth at Badminton last year with Mark Todd.

This year’s results at the now five-star Badminton set a new high for Monaghan breeding with two of the top-three finishers foaled in the county.

Vanir Kamira was bred there by Kate Jackson. Ronnie Hollinger owned Kamira’s since-exported sire Camiro de Haar Z. He still stands Creevagh Ferro, sire of sixth-placed and best Badminton dressage score titleholder Cillnabradden Evo, at his Creevagh House Stud. And then there’s another longtime stalwart in Peter Rice, who bred both the hugely promising Cooley Lands, third for Australia’s Christopher Burton, and his sire, Cavalier Land.

Next week’s Badminton follow-up article focuses on predominant bloodlines, studbooks and sires amongst the 2019 field, however this week’s feature shows that champions sometimes defy the pedigree odds, formulas and sceptics.

RELIVING THE DREAM

“I’m still a bit shellshocked to be honest!” The realisation that she’d achieved every eventing breeder’s dream of a Badminton winner was still sinking in this week for Kate Stevens, nee Jackson.

Now living in Wiltshire, where she commutes to her London-based project manager’s job, she moved to Co Monaghan in 1996. She brought with her Vanir Kamira’s dam, Fair Caledonian, by the Belgian-bred thoroughbred Dixi.

“I bred Fair Caledonian when I lived in Aberdeenshire, Dixi stood not far away. I got her dam after putting an ad in Horse & Hound for a broodmare, free or cheap! I paid £200 for her. She came with no history at all and a big, boggy hock, hence the price.

“She was called Maddy and I registered her as Fair Words, again, a reflection on her price. She was about 16.1hh and possibly thoroughbred, National Hunt, and a little bit crackers but well made.

“The Irish horse people laughed when I took Georgia, [Fair Caledonian] to Ireland. She was only about 15hh and very fine, but beautifully-made. They said she was a weed and would never come to anything. But I loved her and would never have sold her.

“I was just a lady who loved horses. I went to Ireland to try and make a go of working with horses full-time and succeeded, until I lost the lease on my yard,” she explained.

An ISA-listed judge, Kate was involved in promoting miniature horses, (“I’m still in touch with some of their breeders”) and set up the Irish Orphan Foal Fostering & Foaling Network Facebook page, a voluntary enterprise. “I was quite well known for fostering orphan foals onto mares who’d lost their own foals.

“It broke my heart losing the yard. I had to leave Georgia with Ronnie [Hollinger] when I left and she had around nine foals in all, I think. Ronnie found her dead in the field one day. Seems like another life now and I’ve no horses now, sadly.”

Although she has exchanged good luck messages on social media with Vanir Kamira’s rider Piggy French, Kate wasn’t at Badminton to see the pair, second at Burghley two years ago, win.

“I would hate the crowds, no one would have believed me if I’d said I’d bred her! And I’d have cried! I watched it on catch up on Sunday night. And yes, I cried. Tilly [Vanir Kamira] is gorgeous and more like her grandam than her mother,” added Kate, whose late niece Jo Pitt was on the British Paralympic dressage team.

“I don’t know any horse people now so no one truly understands [about breeding a Badminton winner]. My husband is telling everyone who comes into his garage though, he works in Marlborough where there are lots of horse people.

“An old horseman in Scotland once told me ‘That little filly [Fair Caledonian] will make you famous one day,”’ said Jackson, recalling his prediction about the diminutive dam of the latest Badminton winner.

THE CREEVAGH CONNECTION

Ronnie Hollinger wasn’t as much floating on air this week but driving down the M6 to bring Creevagh Ferro to Rockmount AI Centre. “I brought him to Philip McManus to get more semen frozen,” he explained about the Ferro son, whose Cillnabradden Evo, bred by Tom and Orla Holden, produced a record Badminton dressage score with Oliver Townend.

“I don’t know how you’d sum it up, it’s just a dream come true,” said Hollinger, who bred the Voltaire-sired Slieveanorra, a major winner on the US Grand Prix show jumping circuit with Richie Moloney.

“I always bred traditional horses but from watching the jumping on television, you could see they weren’t going far so I made up my mind to try continental lines.”

He imported both Creevagh Ferro, a winner at the national dressage championships with Kelly Troughton and Camiro de Haar Z, by Chellano Z, as young colts from Europe.

He is quietly delighted though about the pair’s Badminton progeny, considering neither stallion was regarded as ‘fashionable’ or attracted large quantities of mares. Camiro de Haar Z is no longer at his Creevagh House Stud, having been sold to French-based Canadian Leslie Jenkins.

“She had sent her mare over to be covered, then bought him,” he says about the stallion previously campaigned by Richard Howley, while based with Michael Whitaker.

Vanir Kamira, now leading the Hippomundo eventing rankings, was sold as a youngster at Goresbridge for €4,000. With 30 broodmares and youngstock by both Camiro de Haar Z and Creevagh Ferro, plus semen in the tank, Hollinger assures callers that he has plenty of options for those enquiring about tapping into the Badminton success story.

“My vet [PJ Finlay] told me the two horses were doing well and looked it up on his phone when he was in the yard. I watched the final day. I’m a person of few words and I’m just delighted they did so well.”

WHAT’S IN A NAME

Vanir was the prefix used by Kate Jackson and the 2019 Badminton winner incorporates her sire’s name too. “Kamira with a K for me and ending with A, for feminine, instead of O,” explained Kathryn.

THE TOP THREE

NUMBERS

NEXT WEEK: The predominant bloodlines, studbooks and sires amongst the 2019 Badminton field