NICKI Russell didn’t enjoy attending the Dublin Horse Show. With Sizing Australia, the Cheltenham Festival-winning cross-country race specialist, whom she had taken on at the behest of Heather De Bromhead, she had contested the racehorse to riding horse class in 2017 and 2018. The combination had finished down the line on both occasions, but in 2019 their fortunes changed.

“That was a huge year,” says Russell of 2019. “When I started doing riding horse classes, everyone said I was mad, but he was supreme champion at Show of the East that year after winning the riding horse class there. He was reserve champion at the RoR championships in Aintree too. Anyway, I entered the riding horse class in Dublin and I know he’s pin fired, but I thought I’d be delighted if we just got a rosette.

“He got pulled in first and he rode like an absolute dream. He was even better up there on the Wednesday because it’s quieter, and he gave the judge a magical ride. I couldn’t believe we’d been pulled in first in Dublin, but we had to go before the conformation judge then and I knew the pin fires would drop us down the order; it was just a question of how much.

“While the judge was glaring at his legs, he asked me how old he was and I said 19. We got dropped down to third, but third in Dublin with a 19-year-old ex-racehorse; I was ecstatic.

“The morning of the racehorse class, Mia De Bromhead won the first ridden and I had been teaching her, so I really thought this week can’t get any better. I went into the ring thinking I’ll just show him off and enjoy him, and he was his usual self; he loves Dublin. We were pulled into the top six. Rachael Blackmore was the ride judge and she rode him beautifully. They pulled us in first, but then they said ‘these are only the combinations in contention; we’ll do a reshuffle’.

“But now I was like ‘I’ve got a rosette in the class that I wanted’ and my support crew were already cheering their heads off. They pulled in seven horses and then they walked up and down the line and shuffled some of the combinations lower down, and we stayed at the top. That was a great day, and then Georgia de Bromhead was third in her ridden class the next day, so it was a really great show.

“I love Dublin now, I go every year and we have horses there every year. My daughter loves it now too. She rode there last year for the first time, and she came out of the ring with a big smile on her face.”

Sizing Australia, produced by Nicki Russell, was the Racehorse to riding horse champion at Balmoral 2018 \ Anne Hughes

Zoned in on eventing

Russell’s career has included eventing internationally, winning in Dublin and working both in racing and education, but where did it begin? “My mother had me on ponies since I was six months old,” she says. “I did a lot of showing with Dartmoor ponies, and I was in the pony club as well. I did all the pony club stuff, including my A test, and that’s how I got into eventing as well.”

When she left school, the East Yorkshire native went to work for Annabel Scrimgeour in Wiltshire, where she stayed for three years. “At the time, Annabel was helping Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson on the flat, and she had horses in from them. I got to ride them and hack them out, and that kind of zoned me in on eventing. She was classically trained, so I learned the classical way and my whole dressage grounding came from her. I probably got a lesson a day, and she got me to do my BHS AI, which was a good idea.

“Annabel did a bit of jumping too. She had a few horses over from Ireland to do young event horse classes, and we had thoroughbreds in for breaking. She was heavily into watching and following racing, and that got me into it too. I was a bit fascinated with these yearlings coming in. We backed them, and I thought they were going to be wild, but they were quiet as lambs and we would be hacking them around the woods as two-year-olds.”

Dreaming of Ireland

Russell continued: “The thoroughbreds put Ireland in my head. I was even thinking I might like to be a jockey because I quite liked speed and I hadn’t got an event horse at that stage; I didn’t have enough money for one. When Annabel sold her yard, I went to work for Carol Gee and Paul Donovan in Sportsfield, and that’s how I ended up in Ireland.”

Russell stayed in the role at Sportsfield for eight years, and her time there was memorable for the partnership she formed with I’m A Sportsfield. “He was very quirky, and I got him because he had done a leg with his rider in England and we had to mind him. He won three open intermediates in a row for me and I did a couple of advanced tracks with him as well. I rode a good few others as well, but they were always getting sold. That was the business we were in though, and I got a buzz out of them selling well.”

After a brief period being self-employed, Russell moved on to work for racehorse trainer Pat Flynn. “I loved the buzz of riding out and I would say Pat is the best person I ever worked for. I liked the way a racing yard was run, with regard to rules which support the staff.”

Russell admits however that the novelty of only riding in the mornings began to wear off, and that eventually boredom set in. Her next challenge was a role in Stonehaven Equestrian Centre, where she helped to develop and run an eventing business and a busy riding school over the course of the next six years. Then the draw to racing returned.

“While I was still in Stonehaven, Heather De Bromhead rang me. Rose Connors had been doing flatwork with the racehorses there, but she had been injured and they needed somebody to come and fill that gap. I was there for three months until Rose came back, and I realised I really liked working with the thoroughbreds and I didn’t want to leave.”

A cancer diagnosis

Russell stepped in again the next time Rose was injured, and eventually she became a full-time member of the team. “When Rose came back, one of the lads got hurt, and I ended up staying on because they all kept injuring themselves.” She returned to her role after she had her daughter Lucy, but the juggle of a newborn baby, coaching and a full-time job proved to be too much.

“When I was back there seven or eight weeks, I got sick and I was struggling to do the job, teach and look after a child. My husband suggested looking for a part-time position instead, and then Joan Lenihan suggested I apply for one covering maternity leave in Kildalton College. It was a big change, teaching a classroom full of students, but I really enjoyed it.

“When COVID hit, I was doing a lot of teaching at home and we had just put an arena down in our new place. It was a difficult balance to manage working in Kildalton in the winter and running my yard all year round, so I said ‘right, I’ll run my yard full-time’.

"The business was going really well. It was hard, but I was happy enough, and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I really only ended up taking a few weeks off. I was back teaching Heather O’Connor just two days after my surgery. I’ve mentored her throughout her career [through which she’s won medals at eventing youth championships] and she’s actually teaching in Kildalton now, which is a nice full-circle moment. I started teaching her when she was doing the minimus in the Waterford Pony Club!”

Now, Russell is fully recovered and working as a student supervisor on the yard in Kildalton, which she combines with her coaching commitments. “I just do two hours in the morning, and that leaves me free in the afternoons, which is great because my teaching has exploded. I teach a lot of children between the ages of nine and 16 and I really enjoy it, because I find they absorb things so quickly.

“I like teaching the stable management side of things. I like helping young people learn about business. I like showing people how to groom a horse properly and muck out properly, and that’s what Kildalton is about too.”