“I have access to amazing facilities, a back-up team second to none and a huge support system behind me.”

The 23-year-old is based at Hyde Equine, the livery and training yard established by Corinne Hyde at the home of her parents, John and Yasmin, near Glanmire on the outskirts of Cork city. Facilities include the on-site Tower Equine Hospital which is manned by hunting man John and his team of fellow veterinary surgeons.

In racing, there are usually clearly defined lines between the roles of owner, trainer and rider, leaving all to concentrate on what they best bring to the mix. In equestrianism, particularly in this part of the world, these lines are a lot more blurred, making things difficult for those trying to make a living out of riding horses.

And these days, that is normally in one discipline. Against the modern trend of specialising, Morrison mixes eventing and show jumping as does the great Michael Jung who the Cork rider considers an inspiration. Of the German, Brian comments: “He has taken the eventing scene by storm and has shown that it is possible to compete at the highest level in both codes.

“I started out show jumping when I was in ponies and moved to eventing when I took over the ride on my sister’s pony; I mostly evented through my junior and young rider years. It was only when I began working in Hydes that I started to show jump to a higher level. This year I hope to compete regularly in national Grand Prix as well as in three-star eventing, perhaps taking in the four-star at Pau at the end of the year.

“Combining both takes a huge amount of organisation and time management. However, the flatwork I have worked on over the years for dressage has really helped me with show jumping while, in turn, the amount of show jumping I do over technical tracks has helped me with my eventing.

“Corinne Hyde, Jean Gill and I are in business together and the yard operates very closely with the Duffy Sport Horses team of Vinnie Duffy and his sons, Martin, Alex and Michael. Vinnie has a large operation, with horses all over the world. He keeps a number of them here on livery at any one time and finds all our horses for us.”

Cork-born Jean Gill BHS(II), BHS(SM), HND(HS) trained initially with the late Avril Busteed and then extensively throughout Europe before returning to Ireland in 1998.

Gill has been director of training at Hyde Equine for nearly 10 years and during that time has coached riders to European level such as eventers Jodie O’Keeffe (team silver and individual bronze) and Gavin Smiddy (team gold and winner of the CCNP** at Tattersalls International) and show jumpers Michael Duffy (team silver and winner of 148cms national championships) and Molly O’Shea (Nations’ Cup teams and young rider 1.20m national champion).

“I began working in Hydes when I was 19 and in my first year of college and we continued this association for the next four years,” relates Morrison who attended University College Cork where he achieved an honours degree 2.1 in Business Information Systems. “When I graduated last October, Jean and Corinne offered me the opportunity to become a partner in the business and we each have a different task.

“Corinne is in charge of the wellbeing of the horses, running the yard (there are 50 horses in) and helping to school the animals in our care. Jean spearheads the teaching and training while also making the decisions regarding the purchase and sale of horses and sourcing the most suitable mounts for our clients.

“I’m in charge of the production of the horses. My day begins at 8am and I generally ride straight through until around 4pm, usually schooling between eight to 12 horses a day. I recently moved into a house less than two miles from the yard which has cut down on my travelling time. I live with three friends, all of whom either take part in the sport or have done so at some stage.

“I have top-class training daily with Jean and also get help from Heike Holstein and Martin Duffy who visit Hyde Equine on a regular basis. Martin show jumped to Grand Prix level and competed at the junior European championships. He is based in Co Mayo but travels to the international shows with Michael and Alex, training them at the top level. He has vast experience and knowledge and the ability to simplify the most complicated track.

“I help Michael Duffy with his flatwork and Martin and Vinnie help me with my show jumping so the system works really well between us. Michael gets to ride dressage movements on my horses and I get to jump around bigger tracks on his show jumpers!”

TARGET

The Duffy influence is being extended, with the equitation market in the United States now being targeted by the team at Hyde Equine. “This is something we are still learning about,” says Morrison, “But Vinnie has been selling horses to the States for many years.

“Duffy Sport Horses has joined forces with American equine agent Lauren Kardel who has extensive experience in, and knowledge of, equitation and hunter classes; she has been a tremendous help to us. Vinnie, Lauren, Jean and Martin have visited a few shows together in the US and last November, Jean and Martin coached at a clinic in Washington.

“We feel that to understand the American market, you need to see it for yourself and have people you can trust on the ground. I hope to go to Florida myself at the end of the year and experience the scene there.”

PREPARATION & TRAINING

Before then of course, there is plenty of competitive riding to be done at home and, thanks to the large indoor at Hyde Equine, Morrison has been extremely fortunate that his horses only missed one day’s work over recent months.

“I feel I’m the most prepared I’ve ever been at the start of the season. We’ve everything you could need here and now that I’m working full time, I have no excuses.

“We are so lucky to have the on-site veterinary clinic; it’s an unbelievable advantage for me, and our clients, to have vets on hand 24/7 – and we have no call out charges.

“All the horses are trotted up for the vets after every event and they don’t leave a stone unturned. We can get a blood sample taken from an animal the second we have a query. We have the support of a fantastic veterinary team in John Hyde and John Osbourne, who have recently been joined by Rosaleen Hyde, who has done extensive equine surgery in the United States, and Paul Callaghan.

“The yard is run with great enthusiasm and care by all involved such as Michael Brown (yard manager), Saoirse O’Toole, Patrick O’Gorman, Cathy O’Kelly and visiting students. We take on working students, who have the option of bringing their own horse, and offer them what we consider to be great training opportunities and also competition experience.”

Morrison’s career in the saddle started at a young age and he followed his sisters, Aoife and Ciara, into the South Union Pony Club. Their mother Niamh was spending so much time with the ponies, and spending so much money on lessons, that she did her BHS exams and then got a first class honours degree in Equine Science from the University of Limerick.

Niamh, who competes in riding club competitions, is also an integral part of the Hyde Equine team as she instructs at the Centre, taking particular interest in those preparing for Pony Club Tests.

“Niamh has helped me every step of the way and I owe everything to her and my father (dental surgeon) Declan,” acknowledges Morrison who himself passed the H Test. “Niamh helps me at the shows and drives the truck (anyone who knows me knows how much Mother does) while Declan looks after the horses that are left at home and signs the odd cheque.”

With coaching also from Jean Gill, Morrison’s career in ponies saw him on the South Union team who were IPC dressage champions in 2007, achieve second twice in the Silver Spurs and qualify for the RDS 128cms and 138cms show jumping championships.

Through the Sherelle Duke bursaries he won for three years, Brian trained in England with Dot Willis and, having moved into horses, won his first three-day event win on Oakengrove Magic in the CCIJ* at Necarne Castle in August 2008 having landed his first CICJ* at Ballygraffan that April.

The Cork rider has had mixed luck on Irish teams. “On my debut, I rode Dances With Wolves at the 2009 European young riders championships in Waregem, Belgium. He was a great horse and a machine across the country. We finished 11th individually and best of the Irish. We had a really strong team that year but things just didn’t go to plan.

“The following year, the championships were staged at Pardubice racecourse in the Czech Republic where I rode Jail Breaker who I only got a few months beforehand. Just before my dressage, the heavens opened; I could barely see and as ‘Bob’ didn’t appreciate being made work in the downpour, our mark wasn’t as good as I had hoped.

“On cross-country day, things got worse. All day, the track, which was the biggest and most technical I had ever jumped, caused problems. About three-quarters of the way around, there was a drop to a corner which was our undoing. It was a steep learning curve and I did learn a lot from it and the trip.”

Morrison also represented the country at the 2012 World University Championships in Aachen, where the team finished fourth while Morrison placed fifth individually. He was to compete this month at the 2014 championships in Abu Dhabi but unfortunately the equestrian competitions were postponed because of an outbreak of strangles there. He hopes to still be eligible for selection for the rescheduled competition in November.

“Apart from my 11th at the Europeans, my best eventing result came when I landed the CIC** at Ballindenisk in August 2011 on Fernhill By Night. It was a chance ride I picked up when the horse’s regular jockey, Julie O’Neill, was away travelling. I led from the beginning and to go clear show jumping to win.

“My greatest achievement in show jumping so far was competing in the Puissance at the RDS last year with Wilton John VDL. I hadn’t planned on qualifying for Dublin but we cleared two metres so well at Aglish in May that I decided to give it a go. Riding into the Main Arena at the RDS was one of the most terrifying but exciting moments of my life. The plan is to jump in an atmosphere like that on a regular basis.”

At Hyde Equine they believe in giving back to the sport and sponsor the Hydequine.com pony eventing league. “We felt there was a need to encourage pony riders to spend longer producing their ponies, achieving higher standards for longer at novice level before making the leap to two-star,” explains Brian. “The hope is that this will result in the production of more confident, well-rounded ponies which will supply Ireland with better combinations for European championships.”

Show jumping is brought into the mix by Yasmin Hyde (nee Allen), the maker of Ballymaloe Relish, sponsor of the hugely popular SJI Ballymaloe ladies’ 1.10m league.

When he was younger, Morrison had a big interest in other sports, being captain of Bandon Grammar School rugby team and playing Gaelic football for Clonakilty; he also swam and played soccer. One thing he’d like to do, but hasn’t as yet, is ride in a point-to-point but that might be pushing the time management skills over the limit.