I AM eternally grateful to Clare for finding my horse of a lifetime in Master Crusoe,” Aoife Clarke’s heartfelt testimony to the God-given talent of Clare Ryan in matching up horses and riders is one often echoed by her clients worldwide, ranging from Olympians to one-horse owners.

The Lilywhite Syndicate-owned Master Crusoe was sourced by Clare, as were two more 2012 London Olympics event horse in Kilrodan Abbott and Ringwood Magister and like all good stories, characters and events criss-cross throughout Clare’s life.

One such example is the 2012 Horse Sport Ireland awards where she was honoured for her support for the Irish sport horse, alongside Master Crusoe’s breeders Phyllis and Michael Doyle, from Oylegate.

That year’s Lifetime Special Achievement award was made posthumously to Iris Kellett and by happenstance, Clare is yet another Kellets Riding School graduate.

Those awards and Horse Board AGM, held at the Amber Springs Hotel in Gorey, coincided with the 2012 Go For Gold sales, of which Clare is one of the selectors. In normal years, this should be ‘Go For Gold week’, however Covid-19 and the latest lockdown measures have seen the sales move to December 7th-8th.

The postponement though has given Clare time to leaf through photos albums, catalogues and diaries to gather material for the next part of the Warlow sisters story. In last week’s issue, her sister Mary Wilson sketched the backdrop of their parents Eric and Sheila Warlow’s move to Mallow and how they settled into country life.

“Our background in horses comes from our mother’s side of the family, Sheila Warlow. In the 1960s, when we lived at Ballymagooly House, she bred ponies such as Sparky, Oyster, Lobster, Shimmer and Scampi. The dam, who went back to the brilliant Heather Honey’s sire Moidore, was called Shrimp!” Clare begins.

And last but not least, Prawn. “She was first ridden in the RDS by Trish Moran, from Deelside Stud in Askeaton and then she was with the Quinlivans in Kanturk, another wonderful pony that gave so many children pleasure and success.”

Catching the train

Sheila was also responsible for launching the showring career of The Irish Field editor Leo Powell, when she loaned the veteran pony Nasenda to her Mallow neighbours.

“Their parents were friends with my parents and Mrs Warlow provided me with my first, and only, show pony, Nasenda. I think we won the first five shows we went to. The mare was responsible for starting many young riders out over the years. Mary and Clare are two special people, and their parents were absolutely delightful,” Leo recalls.

“Yes, Leo was a little 11-year-old boy when he rode Nasenda! We’ve very fond memories of the Powell family when his dad Benny was with Liz Nelson in Waterloo House Stud, Mallow,” remarks Clare.

“Nasenda, by Naseel, certainly had some well known people associated with her! Around 1960, my mother entered her in a class at Cork Show. We had no trailer at the time so Mother and Nasenda got on a horse wagon on the train at Mallow station to Cork, where the wagon was shunted through the city. Mother then ran from there, leading the pony, out to the Showgrounds. I think Terry Horgan, (Harry Horgan’s father) rode Nasenda that day,” says Mary, who discovered photographs in the family albums of two more Nasenda jockeys in Arthur Comyn and Edward O’Grady.

“From the age of three years old, Mary and I were sitting up on ponies, which followed into showing ponies, often riding for other people like Col. and Mrs Grubb, Rosita Seldon-Truss, Lady Cotter, Mrs Cosby in Stradbally Hall, Mrs Mansergh, Mrs Margo Dean and the Stanleys,” Clare says, before listing the shows pencilled in on their calendar.

“The Spring Show, then Bandon, Midleton, Newmarket, Cork Summer Show, Clonmel and Dungarvan, all before Dublin Summer Show and then after Dublin, Kanturk, Limerick, Bansha and Iverk.”

Renowned for producing ponies, the sisters sandwiched in school between shows, hunting and Pony Club, although the arrival of the versatile Sunshine delayed Mary’s departure to boarding school.

“A four-year-old skewbald by Naseel, from Miss ‘Nelo’ Armitage in Horse and Jockey to school and sell on at Dublin. Luckily, Mother bought him and let me stay at home to hunt him that winter instead of going off to boarding school, which I had been booked to go to that September!”

“I had a mega time hunting with the Duhallow on him that season. He was very fast and bottomless and could easily keep up with the horses. After I outgrew him, Clare rode him side-saddle in Dublin in a showing class and won a flapper on him.”

Mary was also tasked with driving Sunshine in a gig, “taking Jonjo O’Neill through Castletownroche village, which is up a very steep hill, to celebrate his first National Hunt jockey championship win. He said to me afterwards it was more frightening than riding in the Grand National!”

Racehorse trainer Edward O'Grady and Clare Ryan chat at an opening Tipperary Foxhounds meet in Fethard \ Radka Preislerova

Sunshine to Monsoon

Clare dabbled in pony racing too, “when I was 10 years old on a part-Arab called Sunshine. I remembering one day winning at Plassey House in Castletroy which if one passes the venue now, is a housing estate.”

Both sisters attended Hillcourt boarding school in Glenageary, (now part of the amalgamated Rathdown School), where the “very kind and understanding headmistress Miss Richards” allowed the pair out of school for the Dublin Spring Show and Cork Summer Show.

Hillcourt’s Dublin location also conveniently meant that Tuesday afternoons were spent at the Dudgeon family’s iconic Burton Hall. Both Col. Joe Dudgeon and his son Captain Ian Hume Dudgeon were officers in the Royal Scots Greys cavalry regiment, (mounted only on grey, often Irish-bred, remounts). Ian went on to compete in three consecutive Olympic Games: Helsinki (1952) with Hope; Stockholm (1956) with Copper Coin, later Grasshopper and then Rome (1960) with Corrigneagh.

“Tuesday afternoons was a special time to go riding at Burton Hall where we were often instructed by Olympians, Penny Morton and Ada Matheson. On St Patrick’s Day, Burton Hall would hold a show jumping competition for all the schools that attended there. Two riders from each school would represent their school. It was always a proud time to win the cup for your school,” Clare says, recalling the annual inter-schools event.

After Mary left school at 16, she continued breaking in ponies and horses for clients. “The first being Monsoon, a super 14.2 pony by Catherston Crepiscule, owned and bred by Lady Cotter from Castle Wyndham in Castletownroche. Clare won the championship at Cork on him and he was sold to Mr Irwin of Portadown for his daughter Helen Troughton, who won a lot of on him and he was adored by her.”

Her younger sister took up a career with horses too after her schooldays were completed, going on to take her B.H.S.A.I exam at Kelletts Riding School. “That led me to instruct at Duhallow Pony Club rallies, which involved the mounted games teams.

“They qualified for the RDS for a number of years and were a real fun squad, including Nancy Cogan, Imelda Harding, Sheila and Una Hannigan, Bets Coleman (then O’Brien), the O’Sullivan brothers Eugene and William – since Cheltenham Foxhunter heroes – and Brendan Powell of Grand National winner Rhyme n’Reason fame.”

“Clare left school and came to join me, we were instructed by Jock Ferry and Mrs Patty Clarkson,” says Mary, who has an amusing story about finding her good jumper ‘Knockie.’

“Neil O’Connor asked me to bring a saddle to the Duhallow meet at Greenhall and while we were trotting up to the first draw beside Dan Coleman, he leaned over and said, ‘My cousin bred that. ‘Tis only a two-year-old.’ I did not have time to think as hounds spoke and I had one of the best days hunting of my life!

“Mother came up trumps again by buying him the following spring. That was Knockaroura, by the thoroughbred Tynwald out of a substantial Irish Draught mare, The Bet. She also bred a horse who won the Guinness show jumping final and ‘Knockie’ and I were fourth in Simmonscourt one year.”

Moving into the ‘70s

Agricultural shows and show jumping were both well established around Ireland in comparison to eventing. The Dudgeon family of Burton Hall fame were amongst the founders of eventing’s governing body as Clare explains how it evolved. “Eventing in its earlier age was known as the Irish Olympic Horse Trials Society (IOHTS), then changed to the Irish Horse Trials Society (IHTS) and to, as we all know it now as, Eventing Ireland.

“My sister Mary and I broke in most of the horses together, (we worked together, she was on the ground as I was the dummy on board)! Then in the early 1970s, we were asked by Van de Vater to be joint secretaries for a new event called Ballindenisk, by kind permission of the Fells.

“Billy McLernon and Dick Foley were also on Van’s team to help build the cross-country course. It is wonderful to see that event is still running now with the Fell family, over 40 years later.

“Interestingly, I once took a rough count of all the different horse trial events that I rode at (and some I didn’t), that have been and gone and the total came up to near 60. So that is a large number of cross-country courses gone throughout the country.”

Mary and Clare got married just over a week apart in 1979. “On May 23rd, Mary married Robert Wilson, a farmer from Wiltshire and so she departed to England. A few days later on May 31st, I married Vincent Ryan, a farmer from Co Tipperary, so I departed too. This was quite a jolt for our parents.”

Clare Ryan at the welcome reception at Tattersalls International Horse Trials \ Equus Pix Photography

Within a few months of moving to Loughkent House in New Inn, near Cahir, Clare found herself drafted into helping organise another fledgling event. “I was asked to come on a committee to help run a new event near Cashel, called Ballinamona. Owned by the Gilbey family, the farm was in the care of the steward Paddy O’Neill and during the years the event was held there was in the ownership of the Clifton-Browns. Our committee was P.F. (Pat) Quirke, Mary Carroll, Rosemary Clifford (O’Donnell), and myself, with the late Tom O’Connor and Eugene Martin in charge of course design and building.

“This led on to being involved as secretary of Ardsallagh in Fethard, the property of Mrs Betty Farquhar, where Van was now living, and in charge of running this new event. Ardsallagh had a name of having a very good, strong cross-country course. The competitor numbers were growing rapidly as this sport of eventing was becoming increasingly popular.”

With the hunting season ahead and these new eventing fixtures on the calendar, life was good for the young newly-weds until Saturday, November 14th.

“Five and a half months after Vincent and I got married, life had a dramatic change when Vincent broke his neck out hunting with the Tipperary Foxhounds. His head hit a branch as his horse was jumping off a bank out over a ditch. From then on, he was my responsibility as he was a quadriplegic.

“We managed to cope with a strict timetable and a management plan each day for over 39 years,” Clare says, detailing how she looked after Vincent, who sadly passed away on St. Stephen’s Day, 2018.

“Eventually I went back to eventing and often competed on young horses for Frank and Liz O’Connor to sell on, as Austin was still too young to compete in eventing.

“This way of life of putting people in touch for potential eventers, hunters, and pleasure horses seemed to be the road I went down then and, of course, looking after Vincent.”

Boots

Owners often have that special horse and for Clare Ryan, it was a small chesnut mare named Highlight Lady. Or as she was know to all, Boots.

“When I got married and moved up to Co Tipperary, my beloved Highlight Lady came too. The previous year, Jerome Cotter who lived near Millstreet, brought her to me to be broken in. The first day I had her on the lunge, I realised that I was looking at a very special mare that moved exceptionally well.

“I bought her and broke her in. A full 15.2hh chesnut thoroughbred by Carnival Night, her jump wasn’t classic but she jumped huge, as she didn’t want to touch a fence.

“Her C.V. was amazing: She won in the showring and working hunter competitions all around the country, plus three times at the RDS. Boots evented up to Open, going clear cross-country at Punchestown International and being nearly always at the top or near it in dressage. Van de Vater won his last Open event with her, as he kindly stood in for me as I was attending my Granny’s funeral. She hunted with the Duhallow and Tipperarys and gave Carol Hyde Swan a good start at Pony Club and junior eventing level.

“Her temperament was good enough to teach a beginner to ride, which she did,” continues Clare about the equine paragon. “Nearly every time I competed on her, somebody would ask me if she was for sale. Having had six foals and then retired, she lived to the age of 28 and is buried on the farm.”

Highlight Lady was bred by Clongeel Stud’s late owner Denny Vaughan. He stood her sire Carnival Night alongside another thoroughbred that found his way to Mallow courtesy of the Warlow sisters.

“This leads into a phone call from Stan Mellor one day, who was asking if I knew of a stud in Ireland to place a stallion called Mr Lord, by Sir Ivor, which had just retired from racing. Stan trained him for his owner Simon Tindell. I rang Denny and he accepted the stallion. Mr Lord had run on the flat, with a course record at Goodwood, and also ran over hurdles.”

“His progeny included the Mark Pitman-trained Monsignor who won the 1999 Cheltenham Festival bumper in an excellent time, ridden by Brendan Powell (and won again at the Festival the following year for Norman Williamson); the show horse and eventer Fox In Flight and Mo Chroi, the show jumping mare bred by Claire McDonnell – her dam, Into The Blue, is by Mr Lord. These are three that come to mind with Mr Lord connections.”

The link with Stan Mellor came about as Mary had worked for the trainer and his wife Elaine for two years. “She had given Stan my phone number so as to contact me about Mr. Lord. We get on very well and she has been a very thoughtful, older sister to me,” says Clare in high praise of her sibling. Which leads to another anecdote about Minibus, the legendary hunter. Mary mentioned in last week’s article how Timmy Hyde had loaned the Gold Coin-sired gelding to her son Edward for a summer and the Roe family was another to go hunting via Minibus.

“Fairyhouse Racecourse manager Peter Roe also featured in The Irish Field last Saturday. He, as a schoolboy, rode Minibus and won Pony Club hunter trial championships and I had sold him to his father Robert Roe. Minibus was an excellent hunter which I had many a good hunt on in Tipperary! It’s a small world.”

Next week: Part II: The Olympic trio.