AS Master of the United foxhounds and an international event rider, Norman Van de Vater was well accustomed to crossing beautiful terrain. The Co Cork landscape was full of rolling landscapes and interesting features and Robert Fell’s scenic pastures at Ballindenisk House were no exception. Steeped in equestrian history, and the venue of the United point-to-point since 1926, the farm was a horseman’s dream.

One day while out hunting however, Van viewed it with an eventer’s eye, and with his imagination in overdrive, he asked his host if he could bring some friends for a gallop around. Having received an affirmative answer, Van then waited a few weeks before requesting if it would be possible to put a red and a white flag at a strategic point. A somewhat bemused Robert again agreed, saying, “If that is what your friends would like to do – then it’s fine!” Two weeks later in the spring of 1974, and with massive input from Van, the noted jockey Bill McLernon, Dick Foley, Claire (Ryan) and Mary Warlow and others, the first event at Ballindenisk was staged.

Sparked by their friends’ enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment, the Fell family soon took over the running of the events themselves. Fast forward nearly half a century and they have since hosted equestrian activities for almost every discipline. With the eventing to the forefront, the venue has accommodated qualifiers for the FEI world and Nations Cup series, and in this Covid-hit year, is set to stage Ireland’s sole international event fixture in September. It has also been the venue for numerous pony club championships, as well as for polo, polocrosse, showing, carriage driving and of course, the point-to-points which still run today.

Leaps and bounds

Now boasting a spanking new outdoor arena of two and a half acres, together with world-class cross-country tracks and highly acclaimed restaurant, the modern Ballindenisk is unrecognisable from those early days. “When the first three-day fixture took place in 1977, Robert was asked to measure the track,” recalls his wife Joyce. “However, he was never told how to do it, so he started at fence one and proceeded to wheel the course going in a straight line from fence to fence – and of course, everyone picked up cricket score time faults.”

In those days too, the results used to be posted every Monday morning, initially to Grania Willis at The Irish Field, and then forwarded on to the eventing offices. “It involved reams of paper, and woe betide me if they were late,” continued Joyce. “One Monday morning I probably woke up with a bit of a hangover, to find Grania on the phone to make sure I had done them.

"Not in the best frame of mind, I (jokingly) told her I was sick of this and that Ballindenisk would never run again. Imagine my horror, when the I opened The Irish Field on Saturday to see the headline ‘Ballindenisk never to run again’ – I nearly died. It taught me a lesson and even to this day I always say ‘off the record’!”

Another story from those times relates, how the Swedish cross-country ace Yogi Breisner set off as pathfinder on phases A and B. On returning, he reported back that he had opened the gates as he went around, because someone had forgotten to do so! It was certainly not all chaotic however, as Clare Ryan remembers, “My sister Mary and I acted as secretary, although the entries were never very big. The fences were huge however, and Van’s courses were very cleverly designed, and were nearly ahead of their time.” Some of these fences, including the main avenue crossing, were used in the first point-to-point back in 1926 and are still major features of the track today.

Ballindenisk has been in the Fell family since 1853, when Robert (Bob) Latham Fell bought the farm for the princely sum of £6,800. He also acquired his own pack of harrier hounds, and indeed the family have always been involved with horses. The current incumbent Robert, who is affectionately known as The Boss, was master of the United hounds for five seasons, while his wife Joyce’s family also loved their horses. Joyce memorably relates tales of her three uncles, who rode from Sligo to Enniskillen to join the first world war. They took their horses with them, and incredibly, all three returned home.

Heading the present generation, Robert and Joyce have raised four children, namely Andrew and Peter (twins), Katherine and Harry. As the only sibling not to be involved in horses, Harry moved to Vermont in America some 30 years ago, where he works as an IT systems manager. The equestrian link has not quite been severed however, as Harry’s wife Jamie is a dressage rider, as is their daughter Liz. “Harry never really liked the horses,” remembers Peter. “He passed his pony club C test, then looked at mum and said, ‘there you go I did it – and now I’m giving up!’

The remaining trio all hunted and attended pony club, progressing to event at international level. Indeed, Kate and Peter both represented Ireland at Le Lion d’Angers in 1997, respectively mounted aboard Simplicity Himself and Ayer.

Andrew took a similar route before moving to England to further his career. He is currently a British Eventing regional coordinator for the south west, as well as a technical advisor (TD) and a FEI level 3 course designer. His wife Helen, who is a former young rider event medallist, is also a FEI level 3 course designer in addition to her busy role as manager and organiser of the Bicton Horse Trials. The couple retain very close links to the Irish-based family, and indeed both return to help and design at the international fixtures.

Kate meanwhile has spent nine of the past 10 years travelling across Europe in her role as a software consultant. Holding an extremely high-powered position, she designs and implements automation for software deployments and vulnerability managements to most of the major financial institutions and telecommunications companies. Her workload is massive, and in one year alone, she boarded 168 flights, spending 195 nights in hotels working in nine different countries.

For the past 12 months however, she has opted to give herself a logistically easier existence, and now works remotely from her beautiful home in Glengarriff, overlooking Bantry Bay. Juggling this workload with her admin duties for the horse trials is quite a challenge, as she explains, “As I work full time (on the job that pays the mortgage), I am not involved in the day-to-day work at Ballindenisk, but I do run the office and do the secretariat for the events.

"I take a week off for each international fixture – so on my holidays from real work I’m still stuck in front of a computer! Basically, if something is computer or IT related I do it at Ballindenisk.”

Holding the fort at home are The Boss and Joyce, and also Peter, his wife Ailbhe and baby Robin. A doctor by profession, Ailbhe is currently planning to branch into general practice and is also very involved when the events are running.

Green light

Peter meanwhile, is busy making plans for the resumption of the sport. This year’s global pandemic has seen Ireland forced to abandon every international fixture to date, but within hours of this interview, Ballindenisk had been given the green light to press ahead with the one-day national fixture on July 12th and of course, the full international in September.

“The challenges will be immense,” admits Peter. “We have to keep everyone social distancing. We’ve got to keep personal contact to an absolute minimum. Technology will play a big part, and everyone will have to do their bit. In order to not have a secretary’s office, we will be asking riders to print their numbers at home before they come, while the programme and the results will be on the app. There will not be a prize giving, and following guidelines we will not be giving out rosettes or dressage sheets.

"There is talk about restricting numbers to 200 and while I would hope we would get that number, it remains so uncertain. The professional yards are busy, but will our amateur riders be able to afford to keep going? There is no doubt it will affect some people and not others.”

Another possible dilemma is that many of the usual helpers, and volunteers are classed as vulnerable and over the age of 70 – and indeed include some from those early days over 40 years ago. “It will cause some problems, but things are changing fast,” added Peter. “While the recommendation is for those over 70 to stay at home it’s not obligatory. We will take every precaution. We may have a virtual judge’s briefing while the fence judges’ packs will be in a box, cleaned and ready for them at their fence. There will be no need to collect score sheets either, as we will gets the results back in off the radios. It will be trial and error to start with, and it will be different, but we have to be Covid-19 compliant. We will find a balance where we are not putting people at risk; we want them to feel safe.”

Ballindenisk has evolved hugely over the years, and is a far cry from its origins as a dairy farm. In the intervening years, it has also been worked as a tillage farm, as well as a riding school and livery yard. These days however, it is purely a competition centre, and indeed the farming practices have been changed to accommodate this to the maximum. “Some 10 years ago, we decided to lease some of the grazing and for silage,” explained Peter. “We also have some sheep in over the winter, to graze back and prepare the ground.”

This move from hands on farming has freed up a lot of time for Peter, who together with his assistant Villius, work full time on horse trials related activities. “Villius has been with me for 18 years, and like myself can turn his hand to almost everything,” he said. “It’s very busy place, I’m a carpenter, roofer and stonemason and we try to do everything in house.”

The much-anticipated unveiling of the new all-weather arena will now take place in July. It has been a massive investment and, according to Peter, is “the biggest jump we’ve ever had in terms of improvement to the facilities.”

The years have nevertheless, seen plenty of upgrades, and looking to the future, Peter is hoping to install new shower units together with hard standing for the stables. “We like to keep chipping away, to keep upping the facilities all round,” he said.

Pictured at the announcement of a new all-weather competition planned for Ballindenisk in Co Cork, (l-r) Cathal Daniels, Paul Sutton (Senior Executive Officer Economic Development Cork County Council), Ros Canter, Minister Michael Creed TD, Valerie Murphy (Chief Executive of Avondhu Blackwater Partnership) and Peter Fell

Ballindenisk App

Another major innovation has been the launch of the Ballindenisk App, which Kate developed last year. In what has since proved to be timely hindsight, the App was up and running for all of last season and will be absolutely essentialin the present climate. “I had no App-building experience at all, so I decided to teach myself and spent all my spare time trying to do so in the most cost-efficient way,” she explained. “I wanted to make the competition information eco-friendly, up to date and easily accessed from anywhere in the world. I also wanted it to be user friendly for people from the ages of four to 90.”

One of the major pluses of the App is the consequential reduction in paper usage. “Just for the national and international events, we used around 48,500 pages of paper, whereas with the app up we used just 8,700 – a reduction of 82% in printing,” she revealed. “The feedback has been extremely positive and last year, the App statistics showed that interested parties from over 30 countries downloaded it.”

Looking back over the 40-odd years, both the good and bad times stand out. The worst was undoubtedly when Karen Rodgers tragically lost her life in a fall in 2008, while the best came unexpectedly in February 2012. It was an Olympic year, and the event was staged as a last-minute addition to the calendar and primarily to assist the home side gain a late Olympic qualification. It was huge gamble in terms of weather, but amid mutterings that holding an event at the time of the year would be nigh on impossible, the Fell family not only ran an efficient fixture under difficult conditions but also produced one of the most exciting CCI*** cross-country days ever seen at the venue. The field included a plethora of Olympic hopefuls from overseas and well as the Irish contenders.

“The February date certainly presented challenges, but fortunately the weather was on our side and it worked,” said Peter. “The riders got the points they needed and got to the Olympics, there was a great buzz about it.”

Amazing food

Ballindenisk, has for many years been famed for its hospitality, and the successful introduction of the restaurant a few years ago has enhanced this. It is currently capably run by Anne Marie Costello, but until then it was Joyce who tirelessly produced the food for the visitors. Beautifully cooked hams from the butchers in Ballylanders, were accompanied by an endless supply of salads and mouth-watering desserts, and no one returned home unfed.

Joyce Fell

“Ballindenisk has always been known for feeding people well,” reveals Peter. “It goes back many years and was, I suppose, a slightly country thing. When I was growing up, we had a housekeeper here called Hannah Holohan, and every time a delivery man came in, there was always food on the table. The workmen used to be fed, the silage workers and the contractors. I have memories of piles of spuds left over to eat when I came in from school, and I hated them for years!”

In the past few years, Peter has been spreading his wings in his capacity as a course-designer and a TD. So far, his skills have taken him on trips to India, China, Romania and Bulgaria, while last December saw him on duty at the inaugural Asian championships in Thailand.

“Going abroad is undoubtedly great fun, but there is a lot of travelling and of course it’s always difficult to be away,” he remarked.” With Robin and Ailbhe at home now, I try to limit myself, and of course with Covid-19 nothing much will be happening anyway.”

Time out from the horse trials is spent hunting and playing polo; the latter a hobby that has developed into a passion. “Ailbhe had played a little bit of polo when she was studying medicine,” remarked Peter.

“She enjoyed it, to the point that a mutual friend Jane Kennedy, offered us two ponies for the winter to try. We love it, and do it purely for fun – it’s our craic. I don’t want a polo business, but we do have a very good club that’s growing and we enjoy it for the fun it is. It’s the greatest secret in Ireland – it’s hurling on horses.”

With their combined unbridled enthusiasm, the varied generations of the Fell family are looking forward to the season ahead, as they have done for the past 44 years.