PHOTOGRAPHER and journalist Siobhan English hasn’t moved too far from Carrick On Suir, Co Tipperary, where she grew up and where her parents still reside, to Dunlavin, Co Wicklow, where she now lives. However, there were many miles travelled between times.

Siobhan has also met some very interesting people along the way including in her early years when, aged eight, she learned to ride on the farm of Paddy Clancy of Clancy Brothers fame. She then progressed to Kennedys Riding School where among her fellow pupils were Kevin Babington and Anne-Marie O’Brien (then Crowley).

“After doing the Leaving Cert my first real job was at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket. I worked for several other farms and racing yards between Ireland, the US and Italy, and did stints on the sales’ circuit too. My brother Kevin used to own a pub in Key West, Florida called ‘Irish Kevins’ and that fun town was my base for several years.

“I returned home to study photography at DIT Kevin Street in the mid-1990s and it was while there that I got a part-time job with The Irish Field. My first role was compiling all the equestrian results. It was back in the day when there was no digital filing and everything had to be input manually. It was time-consuming to say the least.”

English acquired a permanent position as assistant editor of the Irish Horse World in 2000 and, three years later, took over as editor from Grania Willis who is now communications director with the FEI.

“I clearly remember the weekend I started the editor’s job in September 2003. The Irish Field had been taken over by the Agricultural Trust and, within a week, we had moved from The Irish Times’ offices in D’Olier Street to Bluebell. It was the weekend of the European Eventing Championships at Punchestown and it was complete chaos trying to produce a paper with only three or four staff. Over the next few years, I increased the IHW pages from an average of six to 25.

“At the time I was renting a house in Naas but, two weeks after starting, I put a deposit on a new house in Athgarvan near the Curragh (bought off the plans and which I still own). For the next seven years, I commuted to and from Dublin daily which, before the Red Cow upgrade, would often mean a 90-minute commute morning and evening.

“In 2010, I made the decision to leave The Irish Field. It was a tough job with long hours and I felt it was time to go. I had no major plan in place, but I wanted to get back into photography which I had missed while being editor as it was impossible to do both during my tenure.

“Over the next few years, I did various part-time jobs, including freelancing for the Farming Independent where, sadly, the horse pages were discontinued earlier this year by the new management. I don’t miss writing as much as I thought I would, as life is so busy now without it, but I still have an ambition to write a novel one day.”

Work assignments and holidays have seen English travel the world. “I’ve attended numerous Olympics, World and European championships and have been lucky to write about riding holidays in places such as Puerto Rico, Cuba, Tanzania and Botswana. I was even tempted to move to Africa at one stage, but, having met my partner Robert Storey in 2014, I moved instead to his home on the family farm outside Dunlavin.

“It was time to settle down. We were both in our 40s when we met and had no children, but in 2018 Robert Jnr arrived and changed our lives for the better. My priorities changed too as I concentrated on the family, setting aside my other interests for a while.

“Robert Snr is a full-time sheep and beef farmer and I help out whenever I can, especially at lambing time. Life with a toddler is fairly hectic. However, as are both self-employed and have Robert Snr’s family nearby, child-minding duties are juggled between us. Our son really has the best life growing up on a farm, feeding the cattle every morning, etc. He has just turned two and for his birthday we got him a gorgeous little pony called Foxy; we hope he will have many years of fun with her. Another rider we are keeping an eye on is my nephew James (English) who is an amateur jockey. He rode a winner at the recent point-to-point in Rathcannon.”

And, as if they hadn’t enough on their hands, Siobhan and Robert decided to branch out into a new enterprise late last year. “We renovated a cottage on the farm (called Decoy Lodge) and decided to start Airbnb. It was very busy over Christmas last year and into the spring, but sadly the pandemic hit hard. We lost a lot of business as we’d received numerous bookings for wedding groups at nearby Rathsallagh.”

During the summer, a well-known Irish bookmaking firm provided a bit of light relief as English explains: “We had a bit of fun one day in late July, just before the Galway Races, as Paddy Power had requested the use of the cottage for an advertisement they were filming. Ruby Walsh spent the morning here and they used the cottage and gardens – even Peaky the peacock got a cameo role!

“The cottage is great for those who want to experience life on an Irish farm – the lambing season especially – and we’ve had lots of families here already who’ve enjoyed seeing all the animals. We have several bookings now for Christmas, so I am hopeful that things will pick up again early next year.

“It has been a bad year for anyone doing accommodation and I feel so sorry for those with many employees on the payroll, especially family-run hotels. It has been soul destroying to see these lovely places empty for much of the year.”

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SIOBHAN English’s stunning photographs of horses, hounds and other animals and birds have brought her to the attention of a wide and appreciative audience, especially when marketed in greeting card form such as in this run-up to Christmas.

As mentioned earlier, the Co Wicklow-based photo-journalist studied photography in the College of Technology, Kevin Street in the 1990s but parked that talent when her job as reporter, then editor of the Irish Horse World became increasingly busy.

She returned to photography on leaving the employ of this newspaper in 2010 when one of the first things she did was invest in new cameras. “I now use all Canon equipment but you really need to upgrade regularly. Cameras are a bit like cars – they go out of fashion fast.

“I’ve always loved horses, dogs, etc. so one of my first loves is fox-hunting. I’ve photographed a lot of packs around Ireland and a few in the UK, but there’s still so many more to do. Hounds make the most fantastic subjects and the relationship between them and the huntsman is quite special. They have a great respect and love for each other. Hound portraits would be among my favourite subjects.

“For a few years after leaving The Irish Field, I covered shows and events but soon realised it really doesn’t pay to sit in a field for 12 hours in the hope that you’ll sell enough photographs to cover your costs. I’d sooner be in the hunting field doing what I really love, knowing that some of those images will sell on merchandise in the future.

“I hunt myself when I have time but you can’t really mix photography and riding. If I was to cover a meet, I would do so on the ground; you get far better shots on your feet.”

Social media

English has strong views on the effects social media has had on photography as a career.

“I’ve seen several photographers go out of business because of it. The improved quality of photographs taken on some phones leads people to think they are saving money – by not paying for one from someone who does it for a living.

“Social media has also seen so much theft of copyrighted images the world over. I’ve often been made aware of photographs that were not purchased with my copyright splashed all over them – or worse, with my name cut out. These culprits have no regard for photographers’ time and expense in what they do.

“Commissioned work is the only way to go as you know you’ll get paid. I do regular work for some stallion owners around the country, as well as taking photographs of foals who are for sale; I have a pool of regular and loyal clients. An archived image could be sold at least once a week for advertising somewhere around the world.

"One of my favourite images of all time, Scarteen's Chris Ryan with Racey at the end of a hard day's hunting. To me it shows the love and respect huntsmen and hounds have for each other" \ Siobhan English Photography

“Before I had my son Robert, I exhibited my work at various shows and the RDS was always the big one where I could sell cards, prints, etc and make new contacts for work. It was also a great opportunity to meet a lot of my loyal customers face-to-face. Its cancellation was a big loss this year but everything, including my Christmas cards, are available online (www.siobhanenglishphotography.com).”

English has some advice for those engaging her services. “When setting up a job I stress to the owners to have their horses looking their best, wearing decent headcollars or bridles, and have foals handled at least. There’s nothing worse than arriving at a yard to find horses not ready.

“I’m also surprised at how little effort some stallion owners put into advertising their animals. It doesn’t cost a fortune to get good photographs taken and I cringe when I see stallions being advertised using photographs from phones. One covering fee would more than cover the cost of getting them done properly to entice a prospective breeder.”

During the first lockdown, English was grateful in more ways than one for the support she received from Isabel Hurley, editor of the Irish Horse World. “Not only were many of my foal photographs published each week but, as taking them was work, I had the freedom to travel beyond the 5km restriction!

“The cancellation of hunting at the moment is tough on everyone involved and I miss it terribly. I managed to get in a few mornings with hounds before everything came to a halt again but I hope that we can resume in some capacity early next month.

“This pandemic is not going away anytime soon so we will all have to work together and help each other out so that our livelihoods can survive, however long it takes.”

Breeding boost

Siobhan readily agreed to be the subject of this feature, little knowing it would result in an addition to the number of horses she and partner Robert Storey run at their mixed farming enterprise in Co Wicklow.

“I thought I would compile some information for you in advance but got sidetracked,” she explained. “I went looking online for the family of a mare Rob owned at one time who bred a reserve champion at Dublin and I found a daughter of hers breeding in the UK. It turned out she was for sale and you can guess what happened next!”

Over the years, Siobhan has owned a few horses of her own, mainly sport horses. One of the earliest of note was Malibu On Ice, a 2002 daughter of Prospect Pride she purchased as a three-year-old.

“She bred two foals for me by Lakeshore Road but sadly I had to sell her around 2009, after which she went to Co Clare to James Nash. He had more luck than I did and bred several show winners out of her. Among these was Bloomfield Bespoke (by Future Trend) who went on to be hunter champion at Balmoral in 2017 for Daphne Tierney and Jane Bradbury.”

Robert had also owned a few broodmares including Ballinabarney Mandy.

“Mandy had bred several useful horses for her previous owner, Angus Woods, and produced three colts for Robert. One of those was Loughmogue Miracle Star (by OBOS Quality 004) who, as a five-year-old, was reserve working hunter champion at the 2017 Dublin Horse Show for Ado and Mikey Moran.”

Following her move to Dunlavin in early 2015, English and Storey decided to purchase a few youngsters between them with a view to producing them for the show ring.

The chesnut Hio Choc A Lett Surprise (by Crosstown Pride – Hio Choc A Lett, by Clonakilty Hero) was one of the first young horses to win for the couple when, in 2016, she was crowned Irish Draught yearling champion at Gorey Show. “As it happened, we never got back to the show ring with her, but she is currently in foal to the RID Grandpa’s Rebel and is now for sale.”

A chance meeting with renowned breeder David Cosby in early 2017 led them to buying Ballycreen Kings Mistress. By Kings Master out of the Orbis mare Ballycreen Anouschka, the now four-year-old is a full-sister to the event horses Ballycreen Milord (CIC3*) and Ballycreen Queens Orbit (CCI2*-L), and to the show horse Ballycreen His Lordship.

“We both love genuine Irish bloodlines so, given her pedigree, we purchased her as a prospective broodmare,” said Siobhan. “We didn’t show her as a yearling as she needed the time to grow, but she did win for us as a two-year-old. She was placed a few times also in 2019 and we had her backed last January.

“Paul Dwyer did a lovely job breaking her and advised us to leave her off as she was still immature. She spent the summer on good grass and then went to event rider Christine O’Donnell in August for some education.

Siobhan English pictured at home with the four-year-old Ballycreen Kings Mistress

“She was coming on really well in the 10 weeks she was with Christine and we had hoped to take her to the Autumn Development Series in Barnadown and Wexford Equestrian. However, when that was cancelled in this latest lockdown, we took her home. She will be left off now until next spring when, all going well, she’ll be aimed at the Stepping Stones League. We think a lot of her so there’s no panic.”

The Co Wicklow breeders strongly believe in letting horses grow at their own pace, rather than push them prematurely. “Over the years I’ve seen far too many horses stuffed and rushed at three and four and then vanish off the face of the earth by the time they are six,” stated English. “Their legs just can’t take the pressure.”

Fate

As to that recent addition to the Co Wicklow breeders’ herd, Ballinabarney Mandolin.

“By sheer chance – or fate you might call it – I was browsing the web for information for you and came across a very old Facebook post about Mandolin,” said English. “She was out of Rob’s old broodmare, Ballinabarney Mandy, but had been bred by Angus Woods and ended up in the UK.

“As Mandy had produced three colts for Rob before sadly dying of colic, he had nothing out of the family, so we were thrilled when we heard Mandolin was for sale. In fact, she had just been advertised, but I was unaware of it until I spoke to her owner, Helen Smith, in Wales.

“She’s by Orbis and goes back to Minstrel Bouncer, so boasts a full Traditional Irish Sport Horse (TIH) pedigree which is becoming harder and harder to find these days. She’s now 14 but we are delighted to be bringing her back to Ireland for her last few years’ breeding. If we get even one or two foals from her, it will have been worth it, but a filly would be the icing on the cake.”

Pandemic impacting industry

Commenting on this year, English concluded: “The pandemic has affected horse breeders and producers badly. The cancellation of so many events in recent months has really hurt the sport horse sector the world over.

“I honestly don’t believe enough has been done in Ireland by the powers that be to protect the thousands of people who produce and sell horses for a living. I don’t understand how racing can continue while show jumping and eventing can be just forgotten about. These are vital for jobs too.”