THERE’S nothing quite like sifting through Grand Prix and Nations Cups rolls of honour, lists of Olympic and championship medallists for spotting equestrian icons and household names.
Back in 1926 - 100 years ago - the first Nations Cup was held at Dublin Horse Show. The lengthy list of its winning teams yields another interesting fact: several Irish winning Aga Khan team members and Grand Prix victors later became chefs d’equipe. Col. Billy Ringrose, Col. Ned Campion, Tommy Wade and Eddie Macken are amongst Friday afternoon heroes who led future teams and now there’s Jessica Kürten to add to this elite chain.
“That’s a nice statistic, and I think it shows the national pride of the riders that it can come full circle like this. For me, I feel very, very humble to have the position and it’s very exciting to come back to Dublin now as a chef d’equipe,” said the Cullybackey-born multitasker.
It turns out that the two Dublin Grand Prix winners and multi-medal-winning riders featured in this year’s Horse Show magazine - Jessica and Laura Kraut - have a strong background in ponies.
The U.S. pony circuit differs from that in Ireland, where many Irish riders, including Jessica, learned the ropes. She has fond memories of her years in ponies and made her Dublin debut at the age of nine, the minimum age at the time to compete in pony show classes.
“It was on a 12.2hh novice show pony, and I was only allowed to ride there when I was nine, so I was waiting!”
Borrowed jackets
“I just loved all that era, and it’s brilliant training for the kids. I mean, those classes taught me discipline, taught me about turnout, everything. It was a very, very important part of my pony upbringing.”
“Show ponies are not dressage; I suppose it’s closer to equitation. It’s about riding correctly. It’s also about producing that extended trot, having the patience in front of the judges. Doing the show pony years taught me an awful lot.”
Robin Redbreast was her first pony at Dublin, back in the era when many pony entries were stabled in the famous two-storey Sandymount Hall that had a ramp leading to the ‘penthouse suites’ on its top floor.
This 12.2 mare was followed by a fleet of winners at both the Horse Show and Spring Show: the two lovely greys, Carnaby Street and Mountcaulfield Tina, were prolific showring winners.
On the showjumping circuit, her two best-known ponies were Dapple Prince and Drumiller Boy. The latter is the one Jessica credits with learning, “how to go really fast over big jumps,” a skill that later paid off handsomely in jump-offs around the globe, from São Paolo to Kuala Lumpur.
There was even a memorable clash one year between Carnaby Street and Dapple Prince’s classes - not that it mattered; Jessica won both.
Jessica Kürten and Mark McAuley at the St Gallen Nations Cup \ Aisling Duffy
The equine folk festival
A strong neighbourhood spirit amongst local families is something she remembers about the preparation and packing for Dublin. Not that new jodphurs and kit were on a shopping list.
“I’d say borrowed jodhpurs from the neighbour, a borrowed jacket from friends. The clothes just got passed from one family to the next and actually, even the ponies too!”
More cast-iron Dublin memories include arriving in Simmonscourt, where the lorries were parked and watching the Aga Khan Nations Cup from the former grandstands.
“I stayed there [Simmonscourt] on many occasions - that was home during Dublin. I stayed in the caravan with my parents and the neighbours, and I remember the first time that I could stay in the truck.”
“It was just really, really cool. I think that Horse Show Week was like a folk festival!”
And like any good festival, there was a chance to glimpse the headline acts. From international names like Raimondo d’Inzeo to Steve Guerdat and oh-so-many Irish household names, everyone has their own favourite to spot at Dublin.
“I was generally starstruck completely by all of them,” replied Jessica when asked who was top of her list then.
“The Americans seemed always to grab me. I remember watching the Aga Khan Cup and just being fascinated by the Americans, their style of riding, and the fact that they were over in Dublin. So I find the whole American thing very glamorous, brilliant.”
Jessica Kürten and Diamond Exchange
Gentle giant
The old grandstand above the pocket bar tended to be the Chesney family’s prime vantage point for the Aga Khan parade and competition.
“I remember watching it there with my mum [Rosemary] and dad [George]; it was really uncomfortable, and there was this American woman who kept singing ‘The USA are on their way to another victory!” I never forgot that and that she shared her chocolate with me.”
“It was so cool being up there, because you saw the riders going in and out of the arena and that close-up of the stress that everyone was under. It was really amazing to watch it from there.”
From being one of thousands watching from the open grandstand to experiencing first-hand the tense ‘Super Bowl’ atmosphere of the Dublin main arena as an Irish team member, happened after Jessica and Diamond Exchange got their first Nations Cup call-up.
Back in February of this year, her affection for the ‘gentle giant’, bred by Mary Hughes and bought at Millstreet from Ronnie Kelly, shone through in the Horse of a Lifetime feature in The Irish Field about Jessica’s favourite horses.
“When we bought Diamond Exchange, he was 171cm and he finished 182cm. He was dearly loved in our family. I think the fact that he was dearly loved by myself, my brother [Marcus], my mum and dad, by the cats and dogs and everybody, he relaxed into a very happy place with us.”
“Outside the ring, he was a gentle giant. Obviously, when you got on him, the blood was up. He was the most gorgeous friend to have.”
“Loved a good parade!”
Simba Run, an ex-racehorse, was Laura Kraut’s horse when they were the US reserves at the Barcelona Olympics. A rider’s first horse to make the internation-al breakthrough is often remembered as a special one.
Similarly, Jessica and Diamond Exchange got their Olympic call-up for Atlanta four years later.
Funnily enough, the Diamond Serpent bay revelled in the Aga Khan atmosphere. “The whole thing with the bagpipes… everybody’s always frightened about the parade because as soon as the dudelsack - that’s what they call the bagpipe in German - starts up, the horses can freak out. But Diamond Exchange loved a good parade! It was just a great experience.”
What could only top the pre-Nations Cup parade is to appear in the Aga Khan victory parade; something Jessica experienced at Dublin’s millennium year show.
That year, parading and competing alongside Peter Charles (Traxdata Amber du Montois), Dermott Lennon (Liscalgot) and Billy Twomey (Conquest II) was Jessica’s Paavo N, the fourth horse of the victorious team of 2000.
National anthems
The 160cm Rheinlander gelding, fondly described by his rider as “a little genius”, and Diamond Exchange were Jessica’s ‘chalk-and-cheese’ pair of top horses at that point.
Four years later, it was the turn of the French-bred mare Quibell that brought Jessica on another victory gallop around the Dublin main arena. It was Jessica’s second Aga Khan Nations Cup win, together with Marion Hughes (Heritage Fortunus), Cian O’Connor (Irish Independent Annabella 26) and Billy Twomey (Luidam).
“That was always amazing. The stands are full, and you really feel that Dublin crowds are just so much with the team,” she said, reliving the glory every Irish rider dreams of.
“It’s like what we had last week in La Baule when the French won the Nations Cup, and in the prizegiving, all the grandstands were full, and everybody sang the national anthem, La Marseillaise. That’s what it’s like in Dublin; it’s just pure national pride.”
Amhrán na bhFhiann rang out on the final day of Dublin Horse Show after Jessica and the brilliant-if-quirky Castleforbes Libertina won the Longines Grand Prix in 2008.
“That would never get old!” she said about this home-ground victory.
Not only do Dublin Grand Prix winners Jessica Kürten and Laura Kraut have birthdays 10 days apart in November, but it turns out they also had the same favourite Horse Show Week nightclub to celebrate big wins in: Club Anabel.
“Well, I met my husband at Anabel’s! I remember when I was young, Leeson Street was the place to go, but then, because everyone stayed at the Burlo [Burlington Hotel], you’d go to Anabel’s,” she said, recalling the hotel’s former nightclub.
Another chef d’equipe - Germany’s Sönke Sönksson, a veteran himself of 25 Nations Cups during his own international career and who oversaw 50 more Cup teams in his leadership years - was responsible for Jessica meeting Eckard Kürten.
“Sonke introduced him to me during the week, then I met Eckard in Anabel’s, and there you go!”
Jessica Kürten and Quibell
Libby’s world
Years later, after their marriage and Jessica’s subsequent move to Hünxe in Germany, it was Eckard who recommended Libertina when they went to try her as a young horse in Paderborn. Their future Dublin Grand Prix winner.
“When I tried her, Eckard said, ‘You’ve got to buy this horse.’ Always, when we bought a horse, it was him on the ground and me on the horse. I said, ‘I don’t care that she knocked jumps down. The feeling over a fence is just amazing.’”
Bought for Jessica’s string by Lady Georgina Forbes, Libertina endured one dressage lesson before Jessica and her flatwork trainer, Johann Hinnemann, quickly came to the mutual agreement that it would be the Libero H mare’s last!
“My grooms were brilliant because everybody just said, ‘It’s Libby’s world, and we’re part of it.’ Gradually, she became more rideable, but it was always a lot of fun in the ring. This was Diamond Exchange again, though not the scope, not the carefulness of Diamond Exchange. He was a gentle giant. She was a tiger.
“I remember when she won the Grand Prix in Dublin, I’d walked the course in the jump-off and it was 13 strides down to the last. And I said, “If I can just nip down there in 11… and that’s what won it.”
“I remember going in, the crowd screaming, and you just say, ‘Right, come on, Libby.’ And that was it; she was so special.”
She believes that a Dublin Grand Prix homeground win has immense significance for an Irish rider, calling it “the one you really want to win. It’s so necessary for an Irish rider, so necessary. It just seems like it burns inside everybody that that’s the one they really want to win.”
Jessica Kürten riding Castle Forbes Libertina to win World Cup Qualifier at Zurich in 2009
The best of stressful times
Pony championships, two winning Nations Cups, her own Grand Prix win and numerous other Dublin results successfully ticked off, Jessica has now moved on to the vital role of maintaining Ireland’s international show jumping fortunes.
A “spinning plates” life on the international circuit means being constantly on the move and Jessica is en route to Rotterdam for the Dutch city’s round of the Longines League of Nations qualifier when we speak. Dublin is just around the corner.
It’s not ‘just’ Dublin, though, as the 2026 FEI World Championships take place in Aachen immediately afterwards.
“Yeah, I’m very much looking forward to both. Of course, it’s difficult for us because obviously, we won’t be able to field our WEG horses in Dublin because it’s too close. At the same time, as important as the week in Dublin, we are in preparation towards WEG.”
“There’s a lot going on, and of course we’ll be wanting to win. I mean, who doesn’t want to win in Dublin? The riders at Dublin will be carrying a lot of pressure to perform, and I’m very excited to come home.”
“For sure, it’s a stressful time, but it’s also very, very exciting. This is what we live for, and it will be a good send-off for WEG.”
Diamond Exchange, the giant Irish bay, and his blonde ponytailed rider became one of the most iconic images in Irish show jumping history.
He’s one of three, along with Quibell and Castle Forbes Libertina, that delivered that magical achievement for an Irish rider: an Aga Khan Nations Cup victory lap and a Sunday afternoon Grand Prix victory.
The ultimate Dublin success story. This article is taken from The Irish Field’s Dublin Horse Show Magazine 2026. Order your copy HERE