THE name of Chris Ryan is synonymous with all that is good about foxhunting and the famed Scarteen Black and Tan hounds.

He is the eight generation of his family to carry the horn, a tradition that goes back all the way to the Flight of the Earls in the late 1600s.

For all that, bloodstock and racing were his first loves and on leaving school, Chris spent a year in the bloodstock world. The sedate world of bloodstock was never going to be his calling and his quest for speed and excitement took him to Lambourn and the yard of famed trainer, the flamboyant Tom Thompson-Jones who had trained the great Tingle Creek.

Chris spent two years there, much of it as second head lad, and had numerous rides as an amateur in point-to-points. The learning curve for the young aspiring trainer was very sharp as Scarteen had never been a racing yard. Lester Piggott was a regular and Chris remembers him as being just as competitive on the gallops as he was on the track.

So anxious was he for rides that he would remain around the jockeys’ room waiting for fraught owners of moderate jumpers who could find no jockey willing to take the ride. More often than not, he returned from these outings in the back of an ambulance. Eventually the boss called Chris in and in no uncertain terms told him that the yard was not a recovery station and that he was needed on the gallops and not in the ambulance room.

After two years, Chris returned to Ireland to take up the role of head lad for the great Jim Bolger. “My job was to have 70 horses ready and able on the gallops every morning.”

Among the charges was a filly they thought the world of but had failed to live up to expectations. The filly was Stanerra, owned by Frank Dunne of Dunnes Stores fame. She never shone in Coolcullen and it was decided to bring her home to be trained privately in Hamwood, Dunne’s fabulous yard near Dunboyne. “Frank was a genius in genetics and training methods, nevertheless he remained behind the scenes.” So it fell to Chris to make the day-to-day decisions as well as acting as the main work jockey.

The Japan Cup

Stanerra’s form in 1982 was sufficient to get an invite to run in the then fledgling Japan Cup. She ran well - coming a creditable fourth - but it was just a portent of the brilliant year that awaited in 1983. Stanerra put up a scorching performance in Royal Ascot winning the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on day one. Coming back to the winner’s enclosure, Chris was approached by Lester looking for the ride later in the week. However, they remained loyal to their jockey, Brian Rouse, who duly completed the double by winning the Hardwicke Stakes in record time on the Friday.

The best was still to come. They were again invited to the 1983 renewal of the Japan Cup and the intrepid pair, with their entourage following, made the trip to Tokyo. Stanerra didn’t travel well and in the quarantine yard, she locked up and couldn’t do any fast work. Chris would walk her in-hand for upwards of six hours a day. As raceday approached, she loosened out but it was only on the eve of the race, that she was able to be given some really decent fast work. On the day she was generally judged not to be at her best but it was good enough to get her nose in front. To this day, Stanerra remains the only Irish winner of the Japan Cup.

While Stanerra was fifth in the Arc (from a bad draw) and having won the Joe McGrath Memorial at Leopardstown, the owners decided to retire her to stud. While she bred plenty, her stud career was not a success. It was while Chris was in Hamwood that he met his wife to be - Sue McCullen - who was then working for Lady Cleague in Collinstown Stud.

Chris decided it was time to return to Scarteen and he set up as a trainer and enjoyed some decent success, particularly with a horse called Townablase who won two useful races in the Curragh. After an unpromising start in Ballinrobe, the Mrs Myles Valentine-owned Rustic Glen won the two-year-old handicap in Leopardstown by two lengths.

Meanwhile, he enjoyed some success as a jockey winning two bumpers - one for Jim Bolger on Some Nerve, and another for his cousin Geoffrey Thompson in a hotly contested race at Ballinrobe.

In the blood

For all that, hunting was in his blood, and in 1986, Chris decided to relinquish his licence on being invited to take up the role of master and huntsman in Scarteen by his father Thady, who had hunted hounds for well over 40 seasons. These were never going to be easy shoes to fill. Thady had been looked on as Ireland’s premier huntsman as well as being chef d’equipe to no less than two Olympic teams, Mexico and Tokyo. As if that was not enough, he was a much sought-after judge of both hounds and horses and had filled both roles with distinction all over the world.

All the greats (Martin Molony and Lord Oaksey were regulars) had all, in their turn, come to hunt with master Thady and to a man, had gone home wondering just how he did it. So the bar was raised very high indeed for the debutant master huntsman on his first day in Knocklong.

Chris Ryan leading the Scarteens' opening meet at Knocklong in November 2017 \ Catherine Power

There were many who said Chris was both too young and too inexperienced and indeed he was both, but he had one secret weapon at his disposal and that was the long-time whipper-in and kennel huntsman, Tommy O’Dwyer. A lesser man than Tommy might have resented the young pretender who could not even blow the horn properly, but Tommy became his mentor, never imposing his opinion but always on hand to offer advice and steady the ship in choppy waters of which inevitably there were plenty. An outstanding horseman and even better houndman, he was a crucial part of the team. Also, on hand were the three joint-masters who remained on in a supporting role - Semon Wolf, Ian Hurst and Bill Hobby of Texas, whose day job was Lt Governor of the Lone Star State.

Chris had inherited his father’s favourite hunter Jacko, but the veteran steed didn’t take kindly to the demands made on him by the dashing master whose approach to a bank - with more wire than an ESB station - was to gallop at it and let impulsion and luck take them to the other side. Hunting is all about hounds and Thady had just got a stallion hound called Hyder whom he had seen hunting on Valentia Island. He produced the great Highlight who became the governing sire of the modern pack.

His second bit of good luck was coming by Keelo, a horse of outstanding ability. He had been bought from Maurice Coleman by Semon Wolf as a hunter who, not surprisingly, found him difficult.

No brakes or steering

Chris takes up the story. “Keelo was fantastic, but he had to be in front, if he wasn’t you neither had brakes or steering. I recall a day out of Cullen when hounds found in Breen’s covert in Ballinacree. It was a screamer and Keelo just took everything in his stride. A well wired up bank he would just power up over the wire, somehow get a leg down on the bank and be gone over the other side. As the day progressed, the field got less and less and we eventually finished on our own with hounds.”

Personally, I recall another day from the same meet when, after a quiet morning, hounds found in Burns Bog and absolutely flew. There aren’t many walls in Scarteen country but as we galloped down Longstone Hill with the hunting vista looking from Co Tipperary into Limerick, I saw this wall well wired up but the wire wasn’t the problem, rather the wall itself as it measured later at over 5ft, recalling the hunting verse;-

Hard and tall stood the rasping wall,

That lay below us yonder

It had to be taken at speed or not at all

Better to fall than to ponder

Chris and Keelo took it as if it was the final fence in the Hickstead Speed Derby and were gone, closely followed by Tipperary solicitor Niall Kennedy (riding out of his skin on the day) on a retired Grand Prix show jumper.

Things just went down hill from there on with Tommy (not on his best horse) took it from the roots and was absolutely planted. Undaunted, he remounted and pressed on but as a result of the delay, the field were struggling to stay on terms after that. Four or five miles further on such were the number of causalities that our distinguished veterinary surgeon, the late Des Barnwell, decided to set up a field dressing station and Niall Kennedy was seen leading his horse back for attention. On enquiry as to what had happened, the reply simply was: “He did 20 minutes with Keelo.”

Making their mark

There were many great days and through the good offices of joint-master Roger Dungworth, contemporaneously joint-master of the Cottesmore in Leicestershire, an invitation arrived to bring horses and hounds to hunt High Leicestershire. It was something of a military operation with many meetings often going on late into the night. Eventually 30 horses and 13 and a half couple were loaded up and the adventure began.

There were one or two introductory days but the big one was going to be Goadby Marwood near Belvoir Castle. The style was only fantastic as huntsmen from all over England came to see how the first ever Irish pack would hunt in the Shires. Charlie Gordon Watson as field-master was in trouble from the get-go as the Irish delegation led by our field-master Val O’Connell with Enda Bolger, Shane Breen and Tom Byrnes VS plus many others in a supporting role, all were determined to show how it was done. Early on, as Niall Coleman and Martin Thornton, Cottesmore and Belvoir huntsmen were struggling to open a difficult gate, Chris and his new horse Jake, the flying grey, popped out beside them and were gone. At second horses as the English hunt staff were changing, Chris was asked did he need a change? “Well, my fellow is barely rideable yet”, came the answer!

Shane Breen takes up the story. “Chris is the best huntsman I’ve ever had the privilege to follow, a fearless, sensitive, caring horseman. To see him ride across the amazing natural Scarteen country and the most awe-inspiring banks, always on a perfectly balanced stride, shows the horseman he is. To follow him into a big gate wondering if you can hit the stride as he had is something else again.”

Ted Walsh reminisced: “Chris would ride a horse out through the eye of a needle. He is just the complete package, a diplomat, a horseman and above all, a huntsman. It’s a good job he never became a jockey or he would have put most of the top lads out of business.”

Chris admits to being frightened only once and that was with the Wards from Stamullen, riding a horse of Paul Carberry’s. Paul describes the day, “I was on my best horse who would jump anything and we came to this bank with wire everywhere and a big trench to the rear. There was nothing for it but to gallop at it. My fellow made it and amazingly, Chris also. Not surprisingly no one followed. I’ve had some great days in Scarteen particularly on a horse of Shane’s that could only be mounted in the stable.”

Around this time, Chris was joined in the mastership by John Ferguson and Sam Bullard, both closely associated with Darley, and they enjoyed many great days with the ‘tans.

As Tommy O’Dwyer was winding down, young Michael Ryan (Minor) became second whipper-in and during the off season, rode the Scarteen eventers. In due course he moved on and represented Ireland in the London Olympics.

“Chris just has an instinctive link with his hounds and even still, they will go to him before anyone else.” Michael still hunts as often as he can with Scarteen acting as second whipper-in while his brother Hughie occasionally hunts hounds. As Michael moved on, the role was taken up by Joe Taylor from nearby Knockcarron. Joe was generally judged to be an outstanding cross-country rider and an excellent houndman to boot. Sadly, Joe passed away after a short illness.

Future secure

Chris no longer rides to hounds and the baton was passed first to Mark Ollard and now to Raymond O’Halloran, who was brought up withing earshot of kennels. Chris describes him as, “the most talented huntsman of his generation’’. Frisk Jones, always beautifully mounted, acts as whipper-in.

Hunting isn’t all about adrenaline-fuelled days. Chris is very proud of the fact that Scarteen is essentially a farmers’ hunt and he has built up a rapport with the farming community, rarely missing a funeral and calling personally to as many farmers as possible pre-hunting, often resulting in copious cups of tea and general farming chat. Nowadays, Chris spends his summers at the microphone commentating all over Ireland, USA and even faraway Poland.

Kate Jarvey has stepped down after many seasons as master and the current masters are Chris, Oliver Ryan-Purcell (his cousin), Roger Dungworth and Daniel Crane, and have been joined by Shane Breen of Hickstead with two of his friends - Jane Millan and Lee Midleton.

The future looks secure.