“IT’s unprecedented. I’d love to say we’ll be sound, but nobody knows.”

Vinnie Duffy, a self-confessed “very optimistic person” had just listened to Boris Johnson’s address on Monday night when the UK Prime Minister effectively shut down the country to stem the Covid-19 outbreak.

A fortnight ago, Vinnie was on top of the world when the Kannan five-year-old Kaiden Leva WD sailed through Horse Sport Ireland’s stallion inspections. Two weeks later, coronavirus dominates this and every conversation.

We talk about 2001. Another turbulent year between the Foot and Mouth outbreak and 9/11, although it had a semblance of a silver lining for Duffy. “I had an aunt in America and when foot and mouth happened, there was no shows and little trade. Myself and Tony Carrabine hit off to America just to see the horse world there. It was completely different and you learned a lot,” he said.

“On a positive side, we’ve seen a lot of good since coronavirus hit. People have taken a step back and gone back to old-fashioned ways, slowing down, enquiring about their neighbours. That’s brilliant to see, that’s the upside.”

Trading and horses go hand in hand in his DNA. “My mother’s father, Tommy King, had horses and by the time my parents married, there were horses all over the place! My father was a cattle dealer and he tried to cut back the horses a bit but they were always with us.”

“The place” is Knockmore, between Foxford and Ballina.

“I never remember anything but horses growing up. My father sold a horse at Westport Show to Ned Cash and when the horse went the next day, I was in the lorry with the horse! I spent two summers with Ned in Clane.

“He was a brilliant man with a great business. He sold more horses internationally than anyone else at the time. It was a great education, a great grounding with every sort, from trade horses right up to the ones young Ned rode on Irish teams.

“A lot of Army horses in the 1970s came through Ned; Castlepark was one. I’d say that half the horses that jumped at Dublin then on Irish, English, Italian teams were sold as young horses by Ned.”

Do your lessons

Having returned home, Vinnie is “delighted” his parents convinced him to stay on in secondary school. “Education is no load to carry and doesn’t go astray. You need it going through life. I’d encourage young lads to at least finish secondary school, if only for the social interaction.

“Life isn’t all about horses, we’ve learned that lesson. The horse world can be a cocoon but you’ll miss out on a lot in life if you stay in it all the time. Now, more than ever, brings this home.

“I was tipping about with horses when I came home. The Nilands were great owners, Tom and Nora Niland were just brilliant people. Tom was a gentleman, a visionary, he was the real Irish Draught man.

“The Draught people are so dedicated, they stick to what they’re doing. Cavan [inspections] brought that home for me, some Draught horses passed, some didn’t but they could take their ‘criticism’ constructively. You need that backbone.”

One of his favourite memories of Tom Niland was at Westport Horse Fair when trade was slack one year. “Tom was in the pub when someone said that trade was middling. Out he went, up one side of the street and down the other, he’d 20 foals bought by the time he’d finished. He lit the fair. Other fellows then started buying, that was Tom’s power.”

What happened to the 20 Westport buys? “He’d turn them off on the land, then break them and sell them on later. I suppose the biggest thing about Tom was he was very innovative. He was one of the forerunners of getting more blood into the Draught breed to make it more modern, he jumped stallions when nobody else did.”

Rathlin Star, Duleek Hero and Kingsway Diamond were three Irish Draught stallions produced by Vinnie for their Balla owner. “Kingsway Diamond was sold out of here to Thady Ryan who brought him to New Zealand. I remember Skippy too, he was a great horse. Whatever horses Tom had, they were different. Tom moved ahead into a different era, the day of the horse and cart was gone.

“We can be as traditional as we like but we can be modern-traditional. Everything changes. Take music, you can have rock, pop, punk...all music but always changing.”

Dear moments

Another change was the era of dealers such as Steve Hadley calling to Knockmore with an order book. In his 2012 feature in The Irish Field, Steve spoke with great affection about his Irish shopping trips and the great friendship struck up with Vinnie, saying:

“The Irish scene is very dear to my heart. There are lots of little things you remember that are just dear moments, irreplaceable really. I remember once buying a cracker of a Clover Hill horse from Willie Leahy and he asked where we were going next. ‘I think we’ll head up to Ballina to see Mr Duffy’ and he said ‘Ah, sound man, Vinnie’. I thought ‘That’s a good name for a horse!’ so we called that horse Sound Man Vinnie and he went on very well with [daughter] Lois.”

“That must be 35 years ago!” Vinnie said, laughing. “Steve and his business partner Pam Warren bought many horses, we’d a great relationship. Old school, he’d ride a horse down to a jump at the top of the wings and pay you there and then. Steve was a great judge, didn’t need a vet, he just knew horses. Max Hauri was another cut from the same cloth, another great horseman and customer.

“Steve is brilliant to my lads. He knew them from when they were babies. When he’d arrive, there would be another baby in the pram and he’d say ‘You’re busy, Sandra!” He knew every single child; Samantha, Audrey, Martin, Alex and Michael. When he talks about Michael on the Global Tour, he says how he knew him as a baby in the cot.

“He took commentary to another dimension. He’s so knowledgeable, the man is an encyclopaedia as well as a horseman. As far as Ireland is concerned, he’s the Jack Charlton of show jumping, the way he has promoted Irish horses and the Irish nation.”

An icon

Noel C. Duggan is another icon. “He brought Ireland into the modern world. It’s unbelievable what he has done at Millstreet. All he ever wants to do is improve the job for everyone, he’s so forward thinking. There should be a monument in Millstreet to the man for what he has done for both the town and Irish horse trade.

“People come to Knock on pilgrimages. For owners in the west, our pilgrimage, our holiday, is going to Millstreet every year! We live for Millstreet. Noel C. greets you with a shake of the hand when you arrive.

“He’s still as eager and keen as ever. I spent two hours with him at the pony show last autumn and he’s lost none of his enthusiasm, full of plans. I’d love to see the World Games show jumping, eventing and dressage at Millstreet one day.”

On the subject of ponies and facilities, Vinnie holds strong views on both. “We’re spoilt in the West, around here there’s Riverview, Ard Chuain, Tubberbride, Hanleys, Upper Mace, then Mullingar is a fantastic place, Cavan, Barnadown, Portmore. Show jumping is a thriving, vibrant sport in Ireland.

“If you can win here in Ireland at the moment, you can go anywhere. Lads are getting experience with Spring Tours and autumn leagues. Noel C, Robert Fagan, the Clarkes, Maurice Cousins...those self-employed men really need praise, they need to be recognised for the way they have invested vast amounts of money in centres, new fences...they’ve really brought us into the 21st century.

“Ponies are a vital industry. So many of the really good riders in Ireland and England came from the pony ranks but I’m awful disappointed how the FEI has reduced the height of ponies,” he continued, commenting on the height tolerance changes introduced in January by the FEI and its new maximum height (149cms shod, compared to 151cms previously) now allowed at FEI measuring sessions.

“I’m totally against it. The system that was there was working fantastically and I think that changing it was a very bad move and has to be revisited,” he stated.

Ponies and horses sell in near equal numbers now. “It’s very different now. People buy online and I suppose that’s okay but we sell nearly everything from home. Still the old-fashioned way where people come to see and jump horses. We’ve a lot of contacts made through the years and a lot of customers that wouldn’t buy anywhere else. We just like to provide a good service.”

A dream horse

One of his most famous buys, ironically never really for sale, was the Cruising-Clover Hill cross, World Cruise, bred at Waterside Stud. “Paul [Darragh] brought me out to the field and World Cruise was one of the bunch of young horses. We had a late night and I ended up buying five or six!

“When I got World Cruise, he was the most difficult horse. You just scratched your head over him at times. I remember lunging him in the arena and there was an oil drum in the corner. Every time he passed it, he’d look and spook.

So I started counting, ‘99, 100, 101...’ He spooked over 200 times at the same oil drum. That’s what made him different, he was quirky. He was famous for his front feet, yet he was the soundest horse. Between his front feet and his temperament, he wasn’t really saleable but he had talent and raw power.

“Stephen Egan broke him and gave him a great start. Padraig Judge, a fantastic rider and brilliant lad who was with me for a good few years, started him off, then Shane [Breen] got him and the rest is history. He changed everybody’s lives, he was a dream horse.”

Shane Breen, aboard World Cruise at the 2006 Dublin Horse Show \ Matt Browne Sportsfile

Making the Irish team for the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Spruce Meadows, an Aga Khan double clear were all part of the dream. “I remember Seamus Hayes, Tommy Wade, Ned Campion, they were my heroes. Then Eddie [Macken] came along.

"When you’ve grown up on a small farm in the West of Ireland and find yourself at the Olympics and World Games, you had to pinch yourself sometimes.”

Towards the end of his career, World Cruise proved a valuable schoolmaster for both Alex and Michael before retiring, up the road in Ballina. “Here’s how that happened. I was stuck for stables so I asked Tiernan Gill if I could leave World Cruise in with him for a day or two.

“It went on for a week, six months, he’s still there! Tiernan says it’s a 100% privilege to have him and World Cruise takes pride of place, looking after the young horses. As well as being a fantastic judge of a horse, that’s the sort of man Tiernan Gill is, he just loves horses. A gentleman, like his father.”

With two sons based in Europe, “Alex is in Switzerland with Niall Talbot and Michael is in Germany with Carl Hanley,” the current Knockmore stable jockey is Wicklow man Brendan Murphy, who has enjoyed a string of good results since last autumn.

Not all good days

“We’ve so many horses at home that I don’t get too much time to see the lads compete abroad. Sandra goes a good bit and Martin is Michael’s mentor for a lot of the foreign trips, so one or the other will be there.

“It’s nice to be with them because it’s not all good days, it’s good to be with them on the bad days too. Sometimes you congratulate them, sometimes you have to console them.”

He described the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, where Michael was on the gold medal team, as a “lifetime experience. And that’s where we met Jake Hunter and how an Aussie ended up spending five years in the west of Ireland! Jake is in Holland now with Alan Waldman, still on the phone every Sunday, so is Alex, Michael, all the news, videos and weekend results comes in.

“I’m very lucky to have Brendan. Young horses need producing properly and not to be messed around. He’s a fantastic young rider with a great attitude and work ethic. He’s a breath of fresh air in the yard.”

Vinnie, Michael and Sandra Duffy at the 2014 Irish Show Jumping Awards Ball, where Michael was 'Rookie of the Year' \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Kaiden Leva WD, the Kannan five-year-old sourced from Waldman, is their hot property now. “I sell all over but Europe has been good for me. You go through different phases, ponies are good and we had one – Little Smithe – at the Europeans last year with John McEntee.

“For horses, I’ve some nice youngsters we’d hope to produce and go on. That’s a slow burner but good horses are so expensive and scarce that we had to go back down that road. Kaiden is the oldest of the bunch and the plan is to produce him slowly over the next few years.”

He is full of praise for the Cavan inspection system. “You have to have a high standard. It’s always easy to knock someone and a system but I think it bodes well for the future. I also think Alison [Corbally, HSI’s Breeding Director] is doing a fantastic job and Ned Campion is a great judge.

“We were all high as kites with the result and the phone never stopped afterwards with messages. The lads are delighted and wondering which of them is the favourite son to get Kaiden in a few years time!”

The late Jack Dodd who grew up a stone’s throw from the Duffys, was part of the family too.

“Our lads and Jack, they were just like brothers. They could fall out in the morning and be best of friends by the evening. Jack was like another son to us.

“A phenomenal young man, he was everything; a fantastic rider, charming gentleman, great businessman, the complete all-rounder. Jack would have been successful whatever route he went down. It was one of the greatest tragedies what happened.

“I’ve the height of admiration for what Trish and David have done since in setting up the [Jack Dodd] Foundation. I’ve never seen such courage, they’re my heroes. They’re admired all over the world, from Belmullet to America, the way they’ve given hope to people and are just an inspiration,” Vinnie said about Jack’s parents.

Hale and hearty

Trish and Vinnie’s wife Sandra both grew up on the same road in Douglas and migrated northwards to Mayo to work with horses, with Trish working for both Vinnie and Philip Scott.

“Sandra came to work for Cormac Hanley. It was her that started off Cameron, she was the first one that got him on a pony. Would you believe, I first met Sandra at Ballinasloe Fair!

“Sandra was out in Spain on the Sunshine Tour and is self-isolating for another week in Dublin because her dad, Michael, lives with us. It’s important to just do what you’re told, you cannot put a twist on the advice to self-isolate. Michael is a Limerick man and was the Chief Veterinary Officer for Cork City. He’s hale and hearty at 95 years of age.

“It is a surreal situation now but the most important thing is to be aware and abide by what they’re saying. I feel really sorry for lads with yards and I’d encourage owners, if at all possible, to keep horses with them.

“The lights won’t be out forever. We all have to survive off the game and it’s important to keep the likes of the John Floodys, Damien Griffins and Richard Kerins in business.

“The green shoots are going to come. It’s a time to be positive and put our best foot forward. There’s no other way.”