BOUGHT as a hunter, Supreme Rock was the horse that surprised some who thought that the hunting field, not eventing, was the young horse’s place. Lindy Nixon-Good, the horse’s breeder, always had a feeling though that there was something unique about the horse.
And she was right, as the horse went on to become a dual European individual champion (1999, 2001), won Badminton not once but twice (2002, 2003), and was selected for the British teams at the 2000 Olympics and 2002 World Equestrian Games.
In just that one sentence, his competition record highlights how Supreme Rock has joined the ranks of horses of a lifetime.
Plus, a dozen years before his relative Mr Medicott recorded a top-10 individual finish at the London Olympic Games, ‘Rocky’ set that same family standard at Sydney, where he finished individual fourth.
Supreme Rock was foaled in 1988 and was by Edmund Burke, the Bord na gCapall stallion stationed at James Woulfe’s Stouke Stud in Ballydehob and out of the Bassompierre mare, Rineen Classic.
The colt foal’s thoroughbred percentage was 87.50%, not surprising considering the prevalence of thoroughbreds in his pedigree between Edmund Burke, Bassompierre, plus Awkward Brief, the sire of Supreme Rock’s second dam Golden Brief.
Patricia Good’s foundation mare Bodecia, bought from Barthy Scully with her Awkward Brief filly foal, Golden Brief \ Lindy Nixon-Good
The official pedigree stops at his third dam Bodecia, listed on IHR Online as an RID with non-recorded breeding. Lindy, however, has some possibilities about his back pedigree.
“My mother [Lindy’s late mother Patricia] bought Bodicea from ‘the man with the twinkling blue eyes’, as she always called him: Barty Scully of Limbo Stud. The mare was meant to be by a stallion called Ozymandias out of an Oxonian dam.
“Mum used to ride out with me and hunt Bodicea. She bred her to Awkward Brief and the result was Golden Brief, whom I rode for many years. Golden Brief was then bred to Bassompierre and produced Rineen Classic.”
Another of Golden Brief’s fillies was Rineen Classic’s half-sister Slieveluachra (Edmund Burke), the future dam of Supreme Rock’s close relative, Mr Medicott.
Awkward Brief, a Fair Trial grandson, stood with Dermot O’Donovan in Timoleague, while Bassompierre, line bred to a great eventing influence in Vimy (3 x 3), was owned by Denis O’Mahony in nearby Skibbereen.
Golden Brief with another of her fillies; Slieveluachra (Edmund Burke), the dam of Mr Medicott \ Lindy Nixon-Good
“Totally fearless”
Rineen overlooks the 4km Castlehaven inlet, although the scenery was far from the Good family’s thoughts on the eventful day Rineen Classic was foaled.
“Golden Brief foaled on top of the hill on our farm and the foal, while getting up, must have rolled down the hill into a large bramble patch. I suddenly felt that the mare was in trouble and went up the farm to find the mare standing on a tiny surface, all four legs together, doing her best to be with and help her foal,” Lindy recalled.
Having ran for help, she went back up the hill with a trailer and vets, Bertie Hourihane and Sean Hourihane, were soon on the scene.
“We managed to put her on the trailer with the mare following behind. The foal was very weak. Bertie and Sean tubed her and she was also put on a drip that had to be adjusted any time she lifted her head.
“The foal was very bad at this stage, her eyelids were inverted and all swollen from thrashing inside the brambles. My mother was convinced the foal would die, whereas I was determined she was going to live. So, I decided to buy her from my mother there and then. She readily agreed a price, so mum sold her to me.”
Golden Brief with ‘Fame’, or Rineen Classic, the foal, who had a rocky start, but later bred Supreme Rock \ Lindy Nixon-Good
A line from the popular hit ‘Fame’ proved prophetic. “That ‘I want to live forever’ part of the song, so I called the filly Fame as a stable name and Rineen Classic as her registered name. And, bless her, she lived up to her name and fought for life.”
Lindy’s impulse buy got round-the-clock care. “The foal was so sick and had to be stayed with, 24 hours a day, for well over a week. Vets, Bertie and Sean, were excellent and called daily to help her every way they could. Some very good neighbours, the Maguires, helped me and Mum by taking turns to stay with the foal, so we could get some much-needed sleep.
“Day by day, Fame got stronger. Golden Brief’s stable name was Heidi and she was wonderful. We milked her by hand and fed the foal through the tube until, over a week later, Fame got up and started to drink for herself.”
A few clicks on the keyboard will reveal the results of any modern-day performer. However, behind these statistics, there are realistic stories of blood, sweat and tears, that will resonate with many breeders.
The Good family’s experience was to have a happy ending, although Grand Slams, Badminton titles and medals were still a long way down the road.
Lindy kept Rineen Classic on and struck lucky. “When she was older, I bred her to Edmund Burke and her first foal was Supreme Rock. He was cheeky, strong and totally fearless.
Who’s The Boss: a young Supreme Rock with Kaiser the German Shepherd \ Lindy Nixon-Good
“Christy and Richard Berry, some good friends of mine, whom I used to ride for and show their horses, had always liked him. They could see as a three-year-old what a handful he could be. He literally used to rear up and lift me clear off the ground.
“They also had an Edmund Burke horse called Mr B, whom Eamon Wycherley used to show and show jump for them. Christy suggested that I bring Supreme Rock over to their yard and Eamon could break him and get him ready for Goresbridge Sales. Eamon did enjoy a good broncer and Mr B was also quite a handful, which Eamon loved!”
Punchestown reunion
Supreme Rock was entered for Goresbridge Sales, however, in a similar fashion to Eddie Corbett’s anecdote last week about Tipperary Liadhnan refusing to load on the morning of his intended Goresbridge outing, fate intervened.
“A couple of weeks before the sales, Eamon had taken him into the sea and, unfortunately, he got a slight injury from a mooring rope, which meant he wasn’t able to make the sales.
“Eamon wanted a horse that would go to the top and I felt that Rocky, whose old stable name was Bijou, had huge potential, so I suggested he should buy him from me, which he did.
“Eamon was only a young lad at the time, so it was a big venture for him. He had lots of fun with him and sold him as a six-year-old in Dublin to an English dealer, Susan Busby.”
Sure enough, Eamon and Supreme Rock were among the entries in both the middleweight geldings and six-year-old performance classes in the 1994 Dublin Horse Show catalogue.
Lindy on board the three-year-old Supreme Rock \ Lindy Nixon-Good
Hunted with the Grafton, ‘Rocky’ was spotted by Emma Pitt’s uncle Robert Tomkinson. “He told Emma about him, they bought him and had some fun with him before they sent him to Pippa Funnell, as he showed promise as an eventer.”
Both Emma (née Lewthwaite) and Pippa competed the strapping bay, who stood 16.3hh or 170cm, the same height as Mr Medicott. According to his British Eventing record, Supreme Rock recorded his first win in August 1995 with Emma in the novice section at Spring Hill.
The horse’s second three-star (now four-star) run of his career was at Punchestown CCI*** in 1998, where he finished 11th. Being back on home ground brought about a reunion with Lindy.
“Emma contacted me, as his breeder, to say she had bought him and was interested to learn about his back breeding. She always kept me informed of his progress and I went to see him compete in Punchestown. When I went to see him in his stable there, he knew me straight away!”
Sixth place on his Badminton debut the following year earned Supreme Rock a place on the British team at the 1999 European eventing championships, hosted in Luhmühlen in September.
He won both individual and team gold that autumn, a phenomenal feat repeated two years later in Pau. In between these European championships, a win at Chatsworth CIC3* in May 2000 clinched their place on the Sydney Olympics team, where the British team finished in silver medal position.
Supreme Rock was just outside the individual medals in fourth place at these millennium year Games and was on the British bronze medal team at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez de la Frontera too.
Full circle
Back in the springtime of 2002, Supreme Rock won his first Badminton, before making it back-to-back titles in 2003. His is the most recent win at Badminton recorded by a Traditional Irish Horse, although a case could be made for the 2007 winner Headley Britannia with her Jumbo-thoroughbred bloodlines.
Supreme Rock in action at Badminton
“Watching him win Badminton was so exciting for me and getting the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) top eventing breeder award was thrilling. I went to Italy for the presentation and this was the first time I was away from my daughter Emma, whom my friend Elaine O’Leary looked after for me.
“At the time, Emma was very young, so I didn’t get to see Supreme Rock in foreign shows and had a number of young horses at home to also look after. Of course, I saw most of him competing on TV or my friend Kate Green, who was then Horse & Hound’s horse trials editor, sent me photos and news about him on a regular basis.
“Christy and Richard Berry bought Supreme Rock’s half-sister, by Leapman, as a two-year-old. Emma was a baby at the time and I used to sit her in the feed-bowl, while I mucked out!
“The Berrys bred many foals from Vexon, so the breed is still going to this day and I’ve a photo of Emma up with Vexon over with the Berrys a couple of years later.”
Emma, Lindy’s daughter, meets Vexon (Leapman), Supreme Rock’s half-sister \ Lindy Nixon-Good
Show jumping was Emma’s calling. “We did the circuit for many years with ponies up to horses. Her favourite pony was Rineen Lets Rock and her favourite horse was Rineen Dream Cruise, which we bought from Paddy O’Donnell.”
Supreme Rock, by then 17, officially retired at Badminton in 2005 and returned to Emma Pitt’s Northamptonshire home and the hunting field for several more years. Time finally caught up on the perfect long-format horse with his phenomenal long stride and he was put down in April 2013 at the age of 25.
Pippa Funnell officially retired Supreme Rock at Badminton in 2005, as the age of 17
He had confounded some critics, who dismissed him as a hunter, won a string of gold medals, the iconic Badminton three-day-event twice and became one of the most popular horses in British eventing.
His backstory - of Bord na gCapall stallions leased around the country, the strength of numbers in both Rebel County and traditional breeding then - is also a sobering reminder of how some bloodlines have slipped away.
It’s also a testimony to his breeder’s resilience.
“To me, the story of his dam Rineen Classic, and what she went through as a foal, I feel contributed to the amazing horse he turned out to be. He had that [toughness] on his dam’s side.
“The Edmund Burke horses were very elite and the Bassompierres were also not the easiest of horses, both had a damn good buck in them and a strong attitude. The two combined made champions.”
Rocky is without doubt Lindy Nixon-Good’s very own champion and she also credits his owner for her part in the success story.
“Emma Pitt was every breeder’s dream owner. And yes, she also felt that Supreme Rock was her horse of a lifetime.”
Did you know
By the numbers
£89,095 – prize money earned by ‘Rocky’.
1,494 – British Eventing points notched up.
IR£200 – Rineen Classic’s price when Lindy made the deal for her.
75% – of the British silver medal team’s horsepower at the Sydney Olympics was Irish-bred.
52 – thoroughbred stallions owned by Bord na gCapall in 1982, including Supreme Rock’s sire Edmund Burke.
41 – thoroughbred stallions standing in Co Cork, according to the 1977 Register of Approved Stallions.
21 – years since the most recent TIH-bred win at Badminton.
13 – entries in the middleweight hunter gelding and 20 in the six-year-old performance classes that Supreme Rock was entered in at Dublin 30 years ago.
12 – offspring recorded for Rineen Classic.
Two x three – a pair of Olympic Games appearances, Badminton titles and European gold medals for Supreme Rock.