RECENT extremes in American Midwest and Australian climates have provided plenty of fuel for the most popular topic of conversation: the weather. It’s the one variable that can make or break an outdoor show and weather-wise, West Clare Horse Show probably could not have experienced two more contrasting show days in recent years.
Back in 2017, the Wild Atlantic Way lived up to its name when horizontal rain pelted in from the west on a ‘soft day’ that had few customers queueing at the forlorn ice cream van. Last summer’s heatwave saw the show field resembling a scorched prairie, umbrellas used instead for shade, exhibitors in short sleeves and the sight of some Belted Galloways standing in a nearby lake to stay cool.
“The weather has to be on your side, which doesn’t always happen. But you soldier on because you have to, even though it makes you frustrated, makes you disappointed and ask ‘Why us, we deserve a good day?” said Bridgette Coghlan, one of the dozen ‘disciples’ who organise this revived show.
Not that the committee spend much time fretting about factors beyond their control. They breed them tough in West Clare and they also breed good horses.
Many parts of Ireland can stake their claim to a strong equine heritage and this area is brimful in history too.
From the era of Kilrush Horse Fair, stallion masters like Stevie Russell, PJ Nolan and Cyril Conway; gifted showmen, including the late pair of Paddy Downes and Jim Hayes, to horses associated with this area – the Olympic full-brothers Shear L’Eau and H20; the 1994 Hickstead Derby winner Kilbaha, named after the Loop Head landmark, and Leapy Lad, the 1984 Aga Khan hero, this corner of the Banner County is renowned for its horses and horsemen.
DEDICATION
Held on the Kilrush outskirts, near Tullabrack Lake, the local show has been lucky too. Recent lifelines include benefitting from the Department for Rural and Community Development financial package to agricultural shows and an opportunity to host one of The Irish Field Breeders Championship qualifiers.
Which is all proverbial manna from heaven for the West Clare Show secretary, Bridgette. How did she get involved with this tough task? “In 2003, I was asked to join a newly-formed committee, who were resurrecting a show after a 40 year-lapse.
“I was nervous but excited too and the pressure was on. That first show I think I lost a stone in weight!” she said, recalling the inaugural event and rookie moves, such as volunteering to make the show programme. “Big mistake!” she ruefully remarked.
Bridgette with Michael Hughes and Aer Lingus flight crew member Geraldine Lynch, who flew the Shannon-Boston routes that week and still helped out at West Clare Show last summer. Photo Susan Finnerty
“Being a show secretary is not an easy job but if you have a good committee, if you have that, you can achieve a lot. We’re a small, dedicated committee of 12. Gretta Malone looks after the show jumping judges and is my go-to lady; Mary O’Dea is the treasurer, Laurence Meaney, Martin O’Dea, Nicki Johnson, Michael Kelly, Gerry Burke, Anthony Malone, Michael Meehan, Martin O’Dea in Tullabrack and Pat McInerney.
“Then we have the support of the Tullabrack and surrounding community. These people are saints, without them we could not run our show.”
Pride in being involved in a local show and the area go hand-in-hand and Bridgette, a self-confessed “townie”, grew up in Kilrush.
“I can’t remember a time I didn’t want to be near a horse, or on a horse or just anything to do with a horse! My best friends Jenny Glynn and Nicki Johnson had ponies and we all hung out together, mucking around with the ponies. I was hooked.
“Mum refused to buy me a pony, we had no land to keep one but that wasn’t going to stop me!”
DERBY DAYS
A compromise was a donkey bought at Kilrush Horse Fair in 1989 for £25. “Jenny and Nicki had donkeys too; Bray and Jerusalem,” she said of the aptly-named trio.
“We rode in all the local donkey derbies. One way to get a good seat is ride bareback on a donkey, especially one that likes to buck when she’s flat out in a gallop!
“Mine was fast but had steering problems. Once, we were competing in the Kilrush Derby and flying up the middle of the main street. I was four or five lengths ahead but she decided ‘No, not this way’ and turned a sharp right into the post office!”
Her ‘racecourse’ detour days over, Derby was put in foal. This led to an entertaining incident during Bridgette’s schooldays at the local Convent of Mercy.
“One of the nuns called me out of class and said there’s a gentleman looking for you outside. That gentleman was Jim Hayes, may he rest in peace. Jim had heard I had a donkey foal and wanted to buy her. He did buy her and all the girls had great craic, looking out the windows to see what was going on.”
Her wish of owning her own horse finally came true when her mother relented and bought a four-legged 21st birthday present. “Jenny and Nicki did a summer in Paddy and Linda Downes’ yard and it was there I spotted this beautiful liver chesnut mare of about 16hh, by Colwyn. I asked Paddy if she was for sale.”
Assured that her owner Mikey Mescall would sell her and with Jenny’s generous offer to keep the mare at her yard, Bridgette got her first horse. “I still have that mare, Josie, still going strong at 27. We had many years of fun and frustrating times too! She jumped but didn’t particularly like staying in the arena. A machine to hunt though.”
Jenny (right), who was working for Joan White at the time, was on hand to offer advice. With no transport and in different times, Jenny often hitched to Patrickswell to get to work. “This is where she met Tom Casey on the milk lorry runs. Tom gave Jenny a few ponies to break and I would help her. Then, over the years, we got more liveries and advanced to horses, including a few three-year-olds to prep for sales,” said Bridgette, describing their sideline.
“Then we started going to the shows with Tom. At first, we were the grooms, then we started to show them. I remember one year we went to Ennistymon with Kildysart Royale when she was a three-year-old. She won everything and came home with a lot of money. I thought ‘Jaysus, this is great!’
“Tom called one weekend and said ‘Come on for a spin, we’re going to look at a filly.’ Off we went to Quilty to Patrick Hogan’s yard to see his Lux Z yearling filly out of a Cruising mare. She was a big, scopey-looking filly and had some step when Patrick let her off in the ring. Tom bought her and she came to Kilmurry.
“That filly, Ronnie, now known as LCC Crystal, is the most memorable for me as I showed her for three years and she won the All Ireland yearling filly final in Scariff.”
Sold on to Linda Courtney, the mare had a successful jumping career before retiring to stud. “Linda keeps me updated on her,” mentioned Bridgette, before listing more favourite horses.
“Other horses that stand out in my memory are Liam, or Bloomfield Tetrarch, owned then by Michelle Fox and Tom. He was third in the RDS Future Event Horse class.” Bred by the Seymour family in Nenagh, there’s a link to another horse and friendship.
“I met Edel Burke Curtin in 2012 when she moved to West Clare. She had Corgrigg Joules, a smashing yearling filly by Lancelot and I showed her for a time. That was the start of a great friendship with Edel. Funny enough, both of those horses were bred by the Seymours.”
BREEDER’S PRIDE
“Another horse I had the privilege of working with was Big Tom, owned by Mary and Pat McInerney. Now named Max McInerney, he won the British five-year-old championship at Osberton International last September. Last year was a brilliant one for the McInerneys and it was super to see their success in the Breeders Championship when they were reserve champions.”
Bridgette, who works as a special needs assistant in Kilrush Community School, passed on an important commerce lesson to her daughter, Shauna. “I bought a smashing pony in 2008 for Shauna from Pat Russell, Stevie’s son. She jumped him for a year and we sold him in Goresbridge where he made €6,300, which went towards the next one!”
The following year saw a lifetime dream turn into reality. “In 2009 I moved in with my partner Brian Johnson, in Kilmurry McMahon. Brian has a suckler and beef herd and he built an American-style barn and put in a sand ring. The feeling of having your own yard for your own horses... I was ecstatic.”
The couple have three broodmares: Baskin Jewel is by the thoroughbred sire Last News, from the Good Twist line. Cillrois Joni is by the local Shannondale Stud’s Hannibal V Overis Z, and the third is a Colin Diamond mare, all in foal, to Sligo Candy Boy, Deloughtane Pio and Ascalon, respectively.
“We enjoy breeding a few every year and we have some youngstock too. The partnership with Jenny continues and we work as a team, producing a few horses during the summer holidays. Fergal Hennessy, our vet, has some lovely stock. Every year we get a horse to produce for him and in the past number of years, we qualified a couple for the RDS three-year-old loose jumping.
“One particular filly was Fado’s Purser (later renamed Cooley Make A Move). She sold in Monart and did very well in the RDS event horse class the following year with John Bannon.”
Bridgette next spotted an advert for an Elusive Emir colt foal. “He was out of Nova’s Pride, by Gortfree Hero, I love the traditional breeding. Myself and Jenny took off one day to see him, landed in Louisburgh to Tommy Bennett’s yard and I bought him that day.
“I showed him as a two-year-old last year and we had some great days out. Tommy checks in regularly with me and it’s great to see a breeder taking pride in what they breed and following them. Elusive Hero is three now, so we’ll do a bit of showing and then I’ll aim him for a sale this year.”
Another youngster she has successfully shown is the Kannan filly Clarehall Kannanball. “Michael Slattery gave me her to show as a yearling in 2017 and we had a very enjoyable year. It was Cyril Conway that first introduced us and we have become great friends. He, like Cyril, is a gentleman. Cyril has a lovely blood two-year-old Denounce gelding that we might do a bit with this year.”
Bridgette was on hand when Jenny, her partner-in-crime in their donkey derby days, received a special award last year. “Jenny’s mare Lucky Crest is by Lucky Gift and she has bred some serious performers, most notably Capel’s Hollow Drift, by Shannondale Sarco. He was second in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses eventing championships in Le Lion d’Angers in 2018.
“Jenny and I went to the HSI Breeders Awards in Newbridge last December and it was a great day out. It was because of Jenny’s mare that we first met John Walsh, who owns the traditionally-bred Clover Flush stallion Deloughtane Pio.”
The Waterford Sport Horse Breeders group member had bought Capel’s Hollow Drift from Jenny as a foal before selling him to Millie Webb.
“We’ve become great friends with John. His knowledge of breeding is outstanding and he has been a great support to us. Being involved in horses, there are plenty of highs and lows but the highs outweigh the lows any day and the memories you make and people you meet are for life.
“You meet so many people through the horse industry and you make friends for life. It’s a community like no other.”
THE €20 NOTE
Another community is the agricultural show world and Bridgette had some wise heads to turn to. “You need people you can go to, you phone them at all hours and ask for advice. I don’t know how many times I phoned Michael Hughes. He was a great help and Michael Purtill too,” she said in praise of the Irish Shows Association representatives.
“One year, we had a really bad storm. I got a text at 4.30am from Francis Connors ‘Is the show still on?’ I looked out the window, phoned Gretta asking ‘What are we going to do?’ We met at the field to find the tents had all blown away, jumps fallen down and the place was a mess.”That was when the West Clare spirit showed through.
“We rallied round and got new tents. Gerry Burke drove in his silo trailers and parked them to shelter the catering and entertainment area. We went ahead, it was a blustery day but we got through it.”
Many top Irish show jumpers have competed at Kilrush with the local Credit Union providing the Grand Prix prizefund. “When you think of show jumpers, you think of Cian O’Connor, Shane Breen, Edward Doyle, Francis Connors, the Army Equitation School, Greg Broderick and many more. Olympic riders and horses, they all competed at West Clare Show.
“Waterford Crystal was there, Going Global was a boisterous youngster who decided to dump Greg, jump the ditch and go for a swim in the lake!” she said, naming the two Olympic horses that came to Tullabrack.
“Competitor numbers differ every year. It’s very hard to compete against the big equestrian facilities. Riders want to jump on all-weather surfaces and the one question asked every year... and I’m sure all country shows get the same... ‘How’s the ground?’”
What about attracting sponsorship?
“We have our loyal supporters that come back year after year and we are very grateful to them. The majority of our sponsors have been there from the start. Most are local businesses and some are local farmers that’ll hand you a €20 note every year and say ‘Here, that’s for the show’. Well, let me tell you that €20 goes a long way, so thank you.”
A ‘heritage night’ of talks on the West Clare equestrian heritage would lend well too as a show fundraiser.
QUALIFIER BOOST
An unexpected boost happened two years ago. “I got a phone call from Fiona Sheridan to say that Galway County was cancelled, did we want the Breeders Championship qualifier? Oh my God, I ran out of school to take the call. ‘Yes, yes, we’ll definitely take it. Woohooo!” This was HUGE! I phoned a few on the committee and they were thrilled.
Despite the bad weather, the ever-cheerful Bridgette in conversation with judges Luke Morley and Bernie Stack at the 2017 West Clare show. Photo Susan Finnerty
“I got Pat Hutchinson and Madeline Gervais to judge the qualifier and was a bit nervous about numbers, would we have enough? We did, we had six and that was fine. People will travel for that golden ticket.”
A new addition to the 2017 show schedule was a new memorial cup. “Sadly, Paddy Downes had passed away and his family arranged a cup to honour this great horseman. We decided to award it to the best three-year-old horse, as when I think of Paddy, I think of Dromelihy Imp and we thought Paddy would be smiling down on show day, knowing his memory goes on.”
Winning the Paddy Downes Cup is now becoming a goal for his fellow exhibitors and Tipperary showman Michael Lyons was particularly proud to win the cup last year, saying: “I was privileged to win this cup, Paddy always helped me when I started off.”
Her show secretary’s role must be daunting at times as exhibitor numbers drop and spectators are spoiled for choice with weekend events, but Bridgette is unfazed by her show secretary’s role, saying: “Running a show is a community effort. You need help, you need support, you need volunteers, you need patience, a lot of patience! You need sponsorship and you need the people to come on show day.
“For me, being secretary, the most rewarding is a good show day, good numbers, a good gate, good weather and great people. Nicki and I run the show arenas and with Simon Clancy, our very entertaining and talented PA man, and Geraldine Lynch stewarding the show ring, we have the dream team.”
Long may the West Clare show dream continue.