TURNING his confirmation money purchase into a profitable sideline – that’s how Tadhg Ryan first started off his multi-media company.

Both his father Chris and grandfather Thady were masters of the world-famous Scarteen hunt so was growing up in Knocklong a typical pony and hunting-filled childhood?

“Typical, to a point! A couple of photos still exist of me in the saddle, I pony clubbed and loved hacking around the farm. Growing up, it became clear pretty quickly how renowned the Scarteen ‘brand’ is around the world. You could find anyone from jockeys and international showjumpers to billionaires and rock stars in the kitchen.

“Summers were spent helping make haylage, getting the place ready for the puppy show or the ‘the visit’ every couple of years when Thady and [grandmother] Anne would make the journey from New Zealand.”

Another abiding memory was the drive home from Dublin Horse Show with his grandparents. “We hit the road on Sunday night with Granny’s navigational skills perhaps leaving a little to be desired,” he said, recalling the six-hour journey.

Having survived Dublin rush hour traffic, their journey “brought us through places I’d never heard of in Wicklow, Carlow and Kilkenny. Even now, when I’m on the road filming thoroughbreds, I come across places that I remember trying to find by torchlight on the map that night!”

Tadhg found his calling through assisting Thady with the handwritten notes for his famous book My Priviliged Life: With the Scarteen Black and Tans.

“As well as giving me an appreciation of our horsey, hunting and human heritage, transcribing notes and filing photos on the computer gave me my first ‘computer job’ and a small sense of ownership and pride when the book was launched at the Dublin Horse Show the following year.

“I was 10 when foot-and-mouth brought everything to a standstill. Mum [Sue] and Dad decided it was the perfect time to develop and build the Derby track at home. I was starting to feel like a square cog in a round hole,” said Tadhg candidly.

“I was realising that somehow the hunting and riding genes had passed me by and that being hands-on with the construction of the course, driving dumper trucks, grass cutting, painting etc. and the organisation of our young event horse qualifiers were the summer highlights.”

Redemption came in the form of that confirmation money buy. “We hosted the Scarteen Pony Club summer camp when I was 11/12 and I became more interested in taking photos with the camera I’d bought with my confirmation money than taking part. Especially when I realised that I could print and sell photos and use the profits to buy more equipment!

“That was the beginning of the end of my riding days, as I started to realise that I could still gain enjoyment from horses but standing on my own two feet. I looked forward to the arrival of Mary Davison and her camera to our FEHL qualifier every year and learned so much from her.”

Self-sufficient student

Another early assignment was documenting McKinlaigh, the future Hong Kong Olympics silver medalist. What does Tadhg remember about the Highland King chesnut, bought at the 1997 Goresbridge sales by his parents?

“I remember he was very big! Thom Schulz and Laura Coats, who bought him, left him at Scarteen to be produced and loaned us a video camera. It was my job to share his progress in the days before being able to email or WhatsApp videos.”

The Ryans have fond memories of his American owners thoughtful gestures. “Every Christmas we’d get a big hamper in the post with photos, newspaper cuttings and gifts! It was very exciting to stay up through the night following the cross-country action from Hong Kong in 2008 but funnily enough, it was his clear round at Badminton the year previous that still sticks with me. The buzz of seeing a horse that had been part of the yard at home performing effortlessly over such iconic fences was incredible.”

Tadhg Ryan with his father Chris Ryan (middle) and Danny Dulohery (right)

While Chris went to Glenstal Abbey, Tadhg opted to “go local” at John the Baptist Community School in nearby Hospital and then to follow a career in media. To gain contacts and work experience, Nicky Kelly arranged for him to spend time in 2004 shadowing the late Karen Rodgers who produced TV coverage from Punchestown three-day-event for RTE.

“At the same time, I was introduced to Gillian Kyle who got me interested in event organisation and administration and I was proud to become a part of the Punchestown admin team for the final few events of the international event. After the Leaving Cert, I took a gap year and benefitted from work experience, producing broadcast highlights from Tattersalls and Necarne with Caroline Moran.”

Tadhg also served his time with RTÉ’s outside broadcast unit at the Dublin Horse Show and Galway Races, as well as with Prime Time current affairs team. “I was lucky enough to sit in on production meetings with various programme teams for both TV and radio.”

Choosing a college course was the next step. Both Edinburgh and the IADT in Dun Laoghaire, with their well-established TV broadcasting courses were on the short list. However, Tadhg opted for the Institute of Technology Tralee after attending its open day on “a wet and miserable November day! Although a relatively new course, a qualification in TV, Radio and New Media Broadcasting would leave me with a broad education that I could then choose to further specialise in after the four years.”

Although confessing to probably spending more time developing the college radio station than on college work itself, Tadhg thrived in Tralee. “As chairperson, I led the society to their first national award win as well as multiple nominations at the National Student Media Awards.”

His resourcefulness is another reason Chris Ryan remarked on how proud he is of Tadhg. “Do you know he put himself through college after the second year?” his father said.

“Being based in Tralee meant that I wasn’t too far away from the Munster events I was involved with. I continued to develop my media business alongside college work to the extent that I was covering my college costs by the time I’d reached my second year,” Tadhg confirmed.

Video star

Why Bit-Media? “The name originates from the fact that we do a ‘bit’ of everything. When I launched Bit-Media, photography was at the core of everything I produced but video became my bread-and-butter pretty quickly as the event photography market became over-saturated.”

The Goresbridge Go For Gold sales concept took off too about this time. “I’m forever grateful that Martin and Mary Frances Donohue put their faith in me to produce the media content for the sale from the very start.”

The photographic and video elements have been fine-tuned as the sales developed and a ‘video day’, is now held three to four weeks after selection. “This has multiple benefits; more time to photograph and record each horse at their best, the content is recorded closer to the sale itself and the transformation in some horses between selection days and filming is remarkable.

“Video day comprises four video cameras capturing conformation, show jumping and cross-country while Laurence Dunne and his team take standing photos and action shots,” said Tadhg, adding how prospective purchaser can then browse each horse’s two-to-three-minute video showcase and six to eight still images beforehand.

Tadhg Ryan with Geoff Morgan in Bromont in 2017

“From a video perspective, I had about 8.5 hours of raw material to cut down and edit into individual performance videos, contrasting and comparing each take before deciding on footage that does each horse justice. A process that takes place over five to six pretty intensive days, requiring patience and plenty of caffeine!”

With lockdown measures in place for last year’s Go For Gold sale, selling power depended more than ever on videos and photographs. “The 2020 sale was of course that bit different in that travel restrictions meant that video and media for each horse played a far bigger role than before.”

“We’re lucky to be dealing with a lot of professional producers and it was refreshing to see so many submit their own updated ‘home videos’ in advance of the delayed sale in December, particularly of the three-year-olds that had been backed in the meantime.

“During the sale itself, the Bit-Media team produced live coverage of the performance elements at Barnadown which attracted plenty of international interest on the Goresbridge website and ClipMyHorse.tv. Livestream gave buyers a realistic impression of each lot on offer – there’s nowhere to hide with live coverage and I think that the slow-motion action replays accentuated the jumping technique, rhythm and balance of each horse.

“Chris never set foot in Barnadown for last year’s sale but few people realised this as his remote commentary worked seamlessly. That’s the power of technology and the exciting potential to produce more content remotely.”

Another glass-half-full character, he finds it somewhat ironic that it has taken “the desperate realities of a global pandemic to bring some elements of the Irish Sport Horse industry into the 21st century. Show centres are now working on a pre-entry basis and for the first time, we have comprehensive startlists and live scoring available across the three main disciplines.”

Tadhg was also involved with the introduction of the Goresbridge online bidding platform last year. “It was fascinating to observe what horses were attracting interest from those bidding online during the September sport horse sales. A surprising number of vendors still seem reluctant to showcase their animals online in advance of the sale, which I don’t understand when it is so easy to record, edit and send video clips with just a smartphone.

“I’d like to think that, reflecting on the sales returns from last year, some vendors will have made time during lockdown to learn how to put a simple video together. There’s plenty of good examples and online tutorials out there so it doesn’t cost anything, just time and patience!” he advised.

Coup

Another assignment is producing conformation videos for the Breeze-Up sale. “It keeps me on the road from March to May. When the sale was taken over by Tattersalls Ireland, Matt Mitchell retained our services. Last year, I was lucky to be able to produce a number of documentary pieces for Tattersalls, including a well-received feature on the Paddy Behan-consigned half-sister to Altior that subsequently topped the Derby Sale.

“It’s surreal working alongside Robert Hall whom I shadowed all those years ago. We also visited Johnny Murtagh’s Fox Covert Stables to record a piece on Champers Elysees, just days before she went on to provide him with his first Group 1 success as a trainer when winning the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown in September.”

His client portfolio also includes Glanbia, Plusvital and Horse Sport Ireland. “I love producing content but for me, nothing comes close to the adrenaline of live broadcast work – be it the events I’ve been lucky enough to commentate on here at home or abroad and in more recent years, Bit-Media’s live-streaming productions.

“The FEI Eventing Nations Cup leg from Camphire in 2019 was a multi-faceted success and I headed a small but dedicated team that produced more than 40 hours of live coverage which was distributed around the world on ClipMyHorse.tv, FEI.tv and the Olympic Channel.”

A major coup was Olympian Mark Todd’s retirement announcement from the Camphire podium. “It went viral, amassing 100,000 views online in 24 hours and resulting in media requests from several New Zealand breakfast TV programmes while I was trying to catch up on some sleep after the event!”

Another recent tasks was working with the River Lodge Equestrian team to produce live coverage from the Avonmore Stables Summer Classic Series. “The inclusion of 3D course visualisations and broadcast graphics, accompanied by studio commentary and interviews from the likes of Brendan McArdle, Kieran O’Donovan and Gerry Mullins brought a new dimension to Irish show jumping online coverage and contributed to the sale of a number of horses later in the season.”

Commentary

How did multi-tasking Tadhg start his commentary role? “I think I’ve got Joyce Fell in Ballindenisk to thank. She often found me at horse trials as a youngster looking for something to do and put me working as a scribe in the showjumping judge’s box alongside stalwarts like Deirdre Anthony, Brid Duggan and Noelle Reidy.

“One thing I have inherited from dad is a passion for the microphone. I progressed to announcing for the show jumping phase at a number of one-day-events.

"When I was 14 or so, Ballindenisk hosted an FEI Eventing World Cup Qualifier and I remember FEI judge Kate Horgan having to defend me against the visiting ground jury who could not quite comprehend how someone of my age would be covering such a prestigious class!”

“I went on to cover classes at Millstreet, Camphire and Tattersalls. Three years ago, I became part of the cross-country commentary team at Chatsworth. Further afield, I’ve been incredibly lucky to get to travel to Bromont Horse Trials in Canada each year and more recently, Plantation Field in the USA.”

One Bromont trip led to a ‘lab test’. “Pedigree had been the title sponsor and I’d a suitcase full of pet food samples to give to the dogs at home. It was just my luck that Customs were on duty in Dublin Airport’s baggage hall when my flight landed. Needless to say, a black Labrador took a real interest in my suitcase and I found myself with a lot of explaining to do!

“I’m a little more measured than my father in terms of commentary delivery but we do work well together in terms of doing homework beforehand. For me, I love recognising and highlighting horses that have come up through the grades in Ireland continuing to represent their breeders, producers and studbook on the world stage, regardless of the flag on their saddlecloth.

“On the home front, I’ve been part of the commentary team at the RDS for a number of years, primarily covering the Irish Draught and Connemara performance classes.”

Millstreet mission

Last but certainly not least, what about Millstreet? “My involvement with Millstreet started in 2010 when Thomas Duggan asked me to provide an audio service that provided the showgrounds with regular interviews and competition updates during their main show.

“In the years that followed, I worked to improve Millstreet’s online presence; website, traditional and social media content. I liaised with live-scoring and live-streaming providers to provide comprehensive coverage to all Millstreet fans, whether on-site or following the action from around the globe.”

Tadhg was also part of their team that staged the 2014 FEI European pony championships and as Millstreet entered the eventing sphere, he was the administrator for two more European junior championships and the annual international horse trials at Green Glens.

“I’ve learned plenty of life lessons working alongside Noel C. and Thomas,” he said in admiration. “None more so than during the process of producing the bid documentation for the 2022 world eventing championships – an undertaking in which we were sadly unsuccessful on that occasion.”

His sister Emma is another invaluable part of his Millstreet team. “She has a natural flair for the mad world of horse show administration where you can be dealing with a blocked toilet one minute and liaising with the Irish Russian Embassy trying to arrange athlete visas the next, while at the same time you’re trying to locate the owner of a loose dog that’s roaming the showgrounds!”

The anchor in the Ryan household is Sue. “She’s the glue that holds Scarteen together and keeps the show on the road. In a normal year there are times when Dad could be delivering a clinic in the US, I could be working in Millstreet and Emma tied up in Martinstown and yet we all know we have a home to come back to.”

Anything left on Tadhg Ryan’s to-do list? “I enjoy every part of my work. Perhaps produce a feature-length documentary (or two!) while continuing to expand the livestreaming side of the business?”

“As traditional broadcasting platforms and audiences continue to weaken, more and more sports coverage is going to end up online on the likes of Amazon Prime and Netflix. We need to realise the true potential of well- produced online coverage with knowledgeable commentators and the owner/rider/breeder stories behind the success.”

Just as everyone around a young Tadhg Ryan realised his true potential.