A PASSION handed down through the generations. A line to describe how showing rider Jennifer Kennedy feels about carrying on her family’s tradition of producing top-quality animals.

“My late mother Gabrielle Kennedy, who passed away just two years ago, always had horses. She jumped, she showed a bit of everything I think. She trained with Iris Kellett way back when she was in Sandyford; which I think is Sandyford Industrial estate now.

“When Iris Kellett moved out to Kildare, mum would have gone out there. That’s where it all came from. We miss her terribly, and are sure she follows us around as rainbows on show days.

“My maternal grandfather (Rickard Nally) always had competition horses. He was one of the patrons of Dublin Zoo. He used to take the ponies from the zoo home to his place for the winter, back when the zoo used to close at winter time, so that’s probably where my mum got her start with ponies.

“My mum’s family place was, funnily enough, in Blackrock, back when there was space there.

“My father was originally from Limerick, he was an engineer in Ard Na Crusha, he designed the electricity plants back in the day. He wasn’t horsey at all. Sailing was his passion. My mother dragged him into it. He has a very good eye for a horse these days. Whenever we are considering a horse to buy, we always have him cast an eye over it.

“My mother didn’t enjoy her experience in the pony club as a child, so she decided that we should start with showing, so that’s what we did. We were brought up through showing. We had some very nice ponies, but we also had several rescues.

“My mother had a habit of rescuing anything that looked like it needed saving. She would occasionally go into Smithfield Market and come home with a pony and we had many Dublin rosette winners, who came from Smithfield market.

“We went straight into the Irish Pony Society as children. We did first ridden, ridden hunter, hunter ponies and all that. My younger sister Karyn did a lot more of the lead rein classes than I did, it wasn’t such a big thing when I was a kid. We also have a brother Greg sandwiched between us, who wasn’t into ponies at all.

“But we do have David Kenna, and he is very important. He is not our brother, but we adopted David. He is very much our brother. He has his own family now and a ‘real’ job, but he came to work for me when he was 17 and, thankfully, has never left us. Our branding is JKD showing and the D is David.

Successful start

“We had plenty of success with the ponies. We showed in the UK also and spent a lot of time travelling. Mum wasn’t a pushy pony mum, but she was incredibly immersed in it.

“We were lucky to have some super ponies. But two that stand out would be Lincool Chive, a 14 hand show pony who was prolifically successful and Kaduna, an intermediate show pony who was pretty much invincible.

“We graduated into the horses, small hunters and we’ve been very successful with them. Karyn would be more the producer at home. She does a lot of the ground work, the lunging, the driving, all of that and I do a lot of the competition riding. She says I got all the nerve and she got none of it.

“We try to buy horses unbroken at three years of age, so we can put our own stamp on them. That said, one of my most successful horses, Sir Amadeus, we bought as a five-year-old.

“He was in terrible trouble when we got him, and he, pretty much, went on to be unbeaten as a small hunter. He won in Dublin and Balmoral. I completely credit that to David Kenna. He spent an entire winter just getting that horse to trust humans. He lived until he was 29 and he was an absolute superstar in the ring.

“Another one I bought from Philipa Mansergh Wallace as a two-year-old was called The Earl of Grenane. He won Dublin three times and Balmoral four times. He went to HOYS. I’ve had lots of talented horses. The small hunter is kind of what I do. We’ve had a lot that have won in Dublin.

Connections

“I’ve had a very strong tie with the Assagart Stud and owner John Roche. I’ve bought a lot of successful horses from him including Assagart Angel and Assagart Fairy Tale. Angel has just retired at age 10 and she’s going to go into foal, hopefully this year.

“I currently hunt with the Carlows and my amazing mare D’Arcy, who was formerly a show hunter until she decided she didn’t want to do it any more aged six, lives with Jane Davis and Willie Corigan in Lisgarvan and is still going strong at 19.

“My family’s farm is in Killiane, Gorey, Co Wexford. After my mum passed away, we decided to move the horses down there. There are two properties on the land. Karyn and her family moved into the main house and my dad took on the fabulous bungalow attached to it.

“Last winter, we decided we needed more space, so my dad took this upon himself. We got the barn from the North of Ireland, flatpacked. My dad said we are putting up this beautiful barn. We want beautiful stables in it. Myself and Karyn were like ‘Dad we just need workman-like stables, where are you going with this?’

“This is the Engineer in him; he sat down and began researching these beautiful fancy stables. He saw Karlswood and was inspired… this is what we want. He went online and discovered that all the steel for the stables comes from China.

“He found three or four companies and began talking to them. We eventually, after a lot of back and forth, picked a company called, funnily enough, J Stables. All praise for the yard must go to my dad and my sister’s partner, Simon. They did a super job and designed the most fantastic yard.

“We now have an amazing yard including a Carr, Day and Martin cocktail-style wash bay, with inverted bottles, just like drink optics in a bar, for all the shampoos etc. We have a big feedroom, tackroom and areas for hay etc. It is gorgeous.

Full yard

“There are five boxes which are, of course, all full. Over the years, I have taken horses in from other people and produced them successfully, this year is no exception. For this year, I have a lightweight cob, a maxi cob, two small hunters and a small riding horse. We own them all bar the maxi cob.

“My lightweight cob, Moneycross, has been a huge winner for me. Champion at Balmoral and second at Dublin; the only show he hasn’t won… yet! I also have our home-bred mare, out of a winning small hunter, named Catrina Blue. I will compete her as a working hunter, hopefully.

“Professionally, I have worked in talent acquisition for the past 20 years. I’ve worked for pretty much all the large tech companies and all over the world. When I’m not riding, I would often be found on a plane. Something has to fund the horses.

“Over the past year or so, I’ve kind of hung up my flying wings. I want to work a bit more with the horses and spend time developing the barn. We didn’t build the barn to look at it. We want to use it! We also resurfaced our arena, John Ormond did an amazing job with that.

“About three months ago, I was at Overlander with a friend of mine who was buying a box and I was lassoed by the owner Pat Carson, who has many business interests and is very connected to the equine industry; his wife Rosemary is a dressage rider, he brought me into his office and said ‘I want you to come and work for me’.

“I need someone who knows the product and is involved in the horse industry. As a result, I now work for Overlander. I am helping reorganise the business, looking at the marketing, sales etc. Working with the brand ambassadors.

“I’m absolutely delighted. This is a completely new departure for me. We are so lucky, we have great people including Sue Black in the yard with us. We are all busy. Karyn is a clinical psychologist and has her own children. But it seems to work for us. There is a whole team involved, thankfully we seem to be going from strength to strength.”