THE GIFT

“HE was such a perfectionist.” It’s the Monday after the Irish Showjumping Awards Ball and David and Trish Dodd are speaking proudly about their late son Jack and the foundation the Foxford couple plan to set up as his legacy.

Just as friends rallied around after Jack passed away in June after a road accident, the same generosity instantly resurfaced to support the Jack Dodd Foundation benefit auction at the awards. David is still incredulous about the ‘Just name it’ response when he phoned contacts looking for prizes, while Trish is equally overwhelmed by the support. “When Nicola [FitzGibbon] and April [Allen] approached us, we instantly recognised the opportunity to introduce the Foundation to its relevant audience. We were so proud to see how united the show jumping and horse racing worlds were in supporting that night.”

In one of the many serendipitous stories involving Jack, it was his friend Michael G. Duffy who received the Jack Dodd Rookie of the Year award last Saturday night. “When Jack started show jumping, you had Richard Howley, Michael Duffy from Galway, Jonathan Gordon, Cormac Hanley, Treverr Gray..it was a different person who won the 12.2 Open every single Sunday,” said Trish about the competitive western circuit. “And look how many of them are Nations Cup riders now,” added David.

The Duffy family in nearby Knockmore are practically part of an extended family. In addition to Michael G, Jack also “had two big brothers in Alex and Martin Duffy and he dearly loved Samantha and Audrey like sisters. Both Sandra [Duffy] and I were from Cork, so not having any other family close by, Sandra minded him the day David and I went looking for cobs. Jack was maybe four and when we went back, Alex said ‘He still can’t get that rising trot but come and look at this!’ There was Jack cantering round the arena on his own.

“Sandra and I lived on the same road in Douglas and she had come up here working for Cormac Hanley. No-one in my family was horsey. I went to the local riding school, Jill Twomey, Billy’s mother and Avril Busteed were very, very good to me and gave me ponies to ride at shows and Pony Club.”

Team Jack Dodd at home: Ed Dodd, Daniela Costa, Jack's parents Trish and David Dodd with their dogs Storm and Divo. Photo Susan Finnerty

Trish made the move to Mayo too for her BHSAI exams, dividing her time between the yards of Vinnie Duffy, Sandra’s future husband, and Philip Scott. “You learned in Vinnie’s about young horses, I was used to hunters and riding school horses, so you really hardened up there and Philip put the polish on. I remember he used to bring out a white hanky to make sure a horse’s coat was really clean.”

David lived nearby as his father Luke, the local vet, had bought Coolcronan House in 1964. It was once owned by the Knox Gore family, well respected in the area because they looked after their tenants during the Famine. Latin, then compulsory in school, proved to be a stumbling block in following his father’s profession. Instead he studied hotel management at Rockwell, followed by assistant manager posts in Dublin and Munich hotels before returning to Mayo to run Coolcronan as a guesthouse.

“Why give a place in veterinary to a guy with 700 points, why not give it to a farmer’s son with 400 points? They’re the ones with the instinct that will look at a calf in the field and think, ‘There’s something not right’. My dad and I took over the North Mayo Harriers, so he’d often say to a farmer on his rounds, ‘Don’t forget, we’ll be coming this way. REPS has had an impact on hunting though.”

THE ACADEMY

The couple now live in a new house built 18 years ago after selling the main house. “You didn’t have enough rooms in the summertime, you didn’t have enough guests in the wintertime. Nowadays B&Bs have to be as nice as hotels, then you’ve AirBnB and the Failte Ireland registration,” said David.

They found the same red tape with their riding school business. “We don’t have an indoor, so people would cancel if it was raining and then there was the insurance premiums. Now, with all that’s happened, I’m glad that we had spent those weekends at shows with Jack, than running a riding school. They’re the years you never get back,” said Trish.

David was a keen show jumper, having competed against Francie Kerins, Liam Devaney, Ollie and Monica Flanagan, plus Vinnie Duffy and Paddy Howley. “If my dad was working, I hacked to shows in the Dark Ages! I competed a couple of times over the old banks course in Dublin and won the Bord na gCapall national league in 1975 with Airport. Rockbarton, then Buccaneer, was fourth that year.”

“I remember when Jack had 12.2hh ponies, Swedish people wanted to buy his favourite pony. He didn’t want to sell but I said, ‘Remember that bike you want to buy?’ So the pony was sold and Jack got his bike,” said David, recalling how Jack learned at a young age about dealing.

School was a “necessary evil”.

“In fairness, Jack went and got his leaving cert but in transition year, he went to Shane Breen in Hickstead for a month and stayed a year,” he continued. “The year he got his leaving cert, he qualified three for Dublin; a four-year-old that belonged to Gerry Quinn, a 1.20m young rider’s horse owned by Paddy Burke and a 1.30m young riders horse that we owned a half-share of with Richard McDermott. He won a team silver medal in the Children on Horses championships in Istanbul in 2007, he was on the Young Riders team at Arezzo in 2014 and got his senior Nations Cup cap in Lisbon in 2016 on Wrangler II. Jack got a tune out of that horse.”

TOP TRAINING

Before setting up his own yard, Jack’s ‘apprenticeship’ was spent at some of the best yards in Europe. “Shane [Breen] taught Jack to ride at the next level, Cian [O’Connor] taught him the business, Cameron [Hanley] put the polish on him and Bertram [Allen] taught him how to win, how to take that turn,” said David proudly.

And then there was the Young Riders Academy.

“Jack was on a mission to get a place once he heard Bertram was in the Academy the first year it began. He was in the third year. The Young Riders Academy is a brilliant concept and they were so good to Jack. He loved the whole sport. There are some that just want to ride, he wanted to be part of the whole business. Eleonora Ottaviani, the YRA president, said to me that they’re picking people that will ensure the future of the sport.”

The Academy also arranged for Jack to go to Jos Lansink’s yard. “He saw the system Jos has in place and that was the final learning curve. For Jack, Jos had the business model he wanted, the rider he aspired to be,” continued Trish.

Returning home wasn’t part of the business plan. “It wasn’t viable. We didn’t want him to come home because he wouldn’t have made a living. Jack and I had this conversation, ‘how would you justify it?’” said David.

“They have to go away,” agreed Trish.

Instead, Jack set up his own yard in Belgium in September 2017. “Jack’s real ambition was to have a centre of excellence where the aim was to produce the best young horses to Grand Prix level and compete for Ireland. I said, ‘You have no mortgage, no wife, give it a go.’ He shared a yard, owned by Emma McIntosh, with Denise Wilson and Graham Gillespie in Balen. Shows like Lier, Bonheiden, Sentower, Pilburgen are nearby, Aachen is 1.5 hours away,” said David, describing the Belgian base.

Even while Jack was based abroad, the close family network continued. Trish did the paperwork and accounts while David was often consulted, via the internet, for advice. “I’d watch Clipmyhorse or the shows live streaming and Jack would call and ask what do you think about the course.”

And then came the phonecall on May 30th. “It was Alex Duffy at eight o’clock in the morning and even though Alex would often ring, somehow I just thought ‘Jack’. I knew,” David said quietly. “He said Jack had been in a car crash and I said, ‘Is he alive?’”

“Jack worked too hard,” said Trish. “He was the one everyone would phone, he never took a day off and wasn’t home a lot for Christmas, he’d let the staff home instead! He fell asleep at the wheel and hit a tree. It was a time when he was on top of the world in mind, body and spirit.”

ACTS OF KINDNESS

The couple, plus countless friends kept a bedside vigil and two waiting rooms filled at Maastricht University Hospital for several hope-filled days. “We had time to get around what had happened and even though we knew how serious it was, we thought we can’t throw in the towel. The hospital was outstanding and their top neurologist Marcel Aries was in contact with the top neurologist in Germany, thanks to Geraldine Allen,” David disclosed.

When the heartbreaking decision to turn off Jack’s life support machine was made, his parents had already made another one. “Marcel asked if we would consider donating Jack’s organs. It was something Jack had spoken about and there were three successful organ transplants afterwards.

"About two weeks later, Marcel phoned and said, “I want to compliment you, Trish and Jack’s friends on your behaviour in the hospital.’ Nobody ever put a foot wrong, people were very respectful.”

No less than four private planes were offered to fly the family home to Knock Airport. Meanwhile, friends had swung into action at Coolcronan. “We got here on the Friday, the removal was arranged for Monday as some of Jack’s friends were jumping at shows that weekend, only to find the house had been painted – they were even painting the front door at half one in the morning by car headlights – a marquee was put up, Liam Lynskey had put in a carpark and there was a new shower in the guest room. The Irish are great, that can’t be stressed enough,” said Trish, in gratitude for this and so many other acts of kindness, including a guard of honour provided by riders on horseback from Foxford to Coolcronan.

Almost seven months later, the couple are getting on with life. “We were three strong, individual personalities. We were very, very close to Jack and when you’re that close, you know how we’d react and behave. If Jack was alive and I’d had a car accident, he’d be phoning David at seven o’clock in the morning and giving him jobs to do,” said Trish. “Being busy, that was a help, we didn’t have time to be looking at the four walls.”

“We’re not doing too bad, we hit the occasional pothole. Part of what gets us up in the morning is we have animals to feed,” pointed out David.

Amongst the young horses in the yard are two Quintero La Silla foals, both with the Coolcronan prefix, both with a nod to Jack in their names. “‘Walk with me’. That’s what Jack would say when he was working in the yard and someone asked him a question. Then we have Coolcronan Class, because if Jack really liked something, he’d say ‘Class’. We’ll keep them and the other youngsters and go a bit of the road with them,” explained David.

Trish Dodd with the foal Coolcronan Walk With Me

Stepping up to help out, particularly since David had a hip replacement three weeks ago, are his nephew Ed and Daniela Costa, a nurse from Portugal, who combines her job in a local nursing home, with the Coolcronan yard. “Ed gets up at six in the morning, works at his job until three, then comes here and on his days off.

“I don’t know whats going to happen about finding staff. I could open my own employment agency and get six jobs for good Irish grooms abroad. Sean Vard has one of the best jobs with Martin Fuchs,” said Trish. “We’ve gotten to the point that a good event horse or show jumper is worth the same as some racehorses but when you see what happened with Ballydoyle and employment regulations, it’s going to get harder to find and afford staff.”

THE NETWORK

Then there is his parents’ other driving force; the Jack Dodd Foundation. “We want to make him proud and we want to give something back,” said Trish, outlining its two aims; to fundraise for three charities and provide a practical support network for young riders.

“The Maastricht Brain Battle Fund is for a research centre of excellence that is constantly fund-raising; then there’s the Showjumpers Club Injured Riders Fund and Irish Kidney Foundation. We really want to thank the Showjumpers Club and especially Nicola FitzGibbon and April Allen for giving us the opportunity to raise the funds that will be needed to start the Foundation, everyone who donated to the auction and all the bidders. Also a huge part of the Foundation is down to Andrea Drakulic and Denise Wilson, two of Jack’s greatest friends and business partners.”

Sitting in the warm kitchen on Monday afternoon, as the rain pelts down outside, both David and Trish’s phones are constantly pinging with emails and messages, while Ed fields callers to the front door. The couple want to return that non-stop support. “As a sport, we need to have a structure in place so young riders can pick up the phone if they need advice. Being a rider can be such a ‘Me Fein’ job and I think when you’re young, in the prime of your health, and starting out in business you still need to be aware of what could happen and be properly educated.

“For example, being registered in the country you work in, that you need insurance,” continued Trish. “We were very lucky that everything was done right and hopefully the Foundation would be able to give that advice to others. I’m not saying don’t go and lose out on a job but I have to be quite clear about this. I do feel there’s a responsibility to educate people, there’s so many strings to the business now and to know that the buck stops with you.”

Jack’s fan club, “He had friends that were Brazilian, Dutch, German, Turkish, so many countries,” is legion. Even as a youngster, that wide smile charmed many. “He’d climb up on the bench beside Philip [Heenan] and chat away to him when we brought mares there,” said his proud father.

Call it coincidence, but Jack’s name crops up in several success stories this year. Scrolling through 15 pages of his FEI records, there’s Cas 2, ridden by Jack during his spell with Cameron Hanley, that recently earned the Dodd’s good family friend Tiernan Gill an award.

GC Chopin’s Bushi, the horse that Jack rode in his last Grand Prix class at Lier on May 21st went to the World Equestrian Games with Portuguese rider Rodrigo Giesteira Almeida.

Richard Howley, his good friend since their Moy Valley Pony Club founder member days, won the Gijon Grand Prix in September, neighbour Michael G. Duffy is a constant now at top level and during Dublin Horse Show, Dutch rider Frank Schuttert scored his first five-star Grand Prix win at the Global Champions Tour leg at Valkenswaard on Chianti’s Champion.

“He said to me at Jack’s funeral, ‘I’ll win a big class for Jack.’ He rang to tell me he’d won the Grand Prix even before the presentation. Good begets good,” David remarked.

Another anecdote was told “right here in this kitchen, during Jack’s wake,” by one of his schoolfriends, who’d flown back from London. Being bullied in school, because he was English, ended when Jack returned for fifth year. “He had no more hassle, he said Jack sorted it. That’s a story we never knew.”

Another of Jack Dodd’s gifts.