ONE Kodak Moment that captured Chance Encounter’s character was the Instagram hit of him nudging his laughing rider Robbie Kearns during the medal ceremony presentation at this year’s FEI European Eventing Championships at Blenheim Palace.

“That’s something he used to do all time, it was like ‘Pay attention to me!’ He would just knock you over and that’s why I’m laughing so much, because I was like, ‘Of course you did that in the prize giving.’ It is just utterly charming,” said Robbie.

The charismatic grey undoubtedly holds the horse of a lifetime title for his connections: breeder Robin Johnston, Robbie and his devoted groom Maxine Rae.

Longtime owner Richard Ames, who turned down numerous offers for the traditionally-bred grey, ranks ‘Harry’, Chance Encounter’s stable name, up there alongside last year’s Badminton runner-up, the home-bred RCA Patron Saint.

“It’s a difficult one [horse of a lifetime choice], because we have lots of really nice horses that have achieved a lot. At the pinnacle of what he did this year at Luhmühlen and Blenheim, you would probably have to put him number one and the other one right behind him would be Patron Saint,” Ames said.

“Harry, to me, would be at the very top at this moment in time, especially because we had him for 12 years. Loads of people wanted to buy him and I’d never sell him.

“Two reasons: one because of how much we loved him and secondly, if I did, Maxine would have left! They also had a very, very special bond.”

Maxine agrees, saying: “He’s the one horse that got away with absolutely anything in the yard. No other horse would get away with what he did. I was very lucky to be able to look after him for all those years.”

Foaled 16 years ago outside Carryduff, Chance Encounter was bred by Robin Johnston (featured in last week’s Breeders’ 10). By the Irish Draught stallion Creevagh Grey Rebel, his thoroughbred dam Camedia was by Lord Americo, making the grey the quintessential Traditional Irish Horse (TIH).

“He was brought over to England from Ireland as a four-year-old by Caroline Powell’s partner [Greg Kinsella] and his mother Gwen Kinsella was the person who found him. Obviously, I liked his breeding. You wouldn’t really think he was by a Draught stallion, he always looked like a blood horse.

“Obviously with lots of young horses, they look nice, they move nicely and you think ‘Oh, this could be something’. But you don’t know until you start working with them what you’re going to get,” continued Richard.

“Harry went with Caroline to Le Lion as a six-year-old, finished in the top 10 and so you knew you’d got something reasonably special, but we’re never in a position where we need to rush our horses. We will let them do what they want to do. They’ll tell you what they want to do although yes, occasionally you have to tell them a few things. Generally, when we’re looking at moving up the ranks, if a horse can naturally jump, it can naturally jump.

“In the eventing world, dressage plays a very big part and from one level to the other is quite significant. That’s why you have to give them that bit of time. Just because you’re a good 400-metre runner at 16 years old, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get to the Olympics until you’re 24!”

Ready for the big time: Chance Encounter and Maxine Rea at the 2025 FEI European championships \ Irish Horse Board/Irish Eventing Times

Kilkenny changes

Chance Encounter was amongst the herd when Richard and his wife Tanja moved to Belline Estate Equestrian in Co Kilkenny, where Maxine, who had started off working with Caroline Powell, was reunited with her yard favourite.

His other jockeys included Daniel Alderson and US rider Gillian Beale King before Robbie joined the Belline team. What were his first impressions of his future Irish team horse?

“He was hairy and muddy, had no shoes on, he was probably 16.2 but had a high wither. He was a compact little thing but he was lovely, there’s just that look of him that instantly said ‘Irish’. He’s exactly what every Irish eventing breeder should try to breed and he was just a typical TIH.”

“Obviously he was a big favourite of Chris Ryan’s because he’s a big supporter of the TIH and he’s done an awful lot for them, he really has,” Richard commented.

The attrition rate up to five-star level is high. “To go on to be a good five-star horse... you just never know, you really don’t. And horses can make fools of you in that respect, but Harry was always very special. Everybody loved him. I suppose it was his colour, good looks and he was an incredible jumper. He really was. He didn’t like to touch anything. As his life went on, so does the advent of how cross-country courses have evolved from being just big and bold to very technical.

“The one thing that was always his big advantage was he had the most amazing engine. When he finished cross-country, you could almost give him 10 minutes and he’d go around again, his heart rate was back to normal. But he had a lovely temperament as well,” Richard continued.

“When Robbie came here, he was a decent rider, he’d been trained by Kevin McNab, but the great thing is Robbie’s got a brain. He was an educated guy that you could talk to and he would listen to his coaches. He spent hours and hours with all the horses. All he did was ride the horses here from morning to night and, obviously, all the different horses we got enabled him to learn.

Robbie Kearns with Chance Encounter during the cross-country at the CCI5* Longines Luhmuhlen Horse Trials 2025 \ Pam Cunningham/Irish Eventing Times/EquusPix Photography

“There was another horse here - Ballvillane OBOS - and he actually took Robbie to the top as he did his first five-star [Luhmühlen, 2024] on him. It’s an immense thing to say how well Robbie has done and how he came on from where he started to where he is at this moment in time. It was a joy just to watch it and of him getting a tune out of the horses.

“Harry couldn’t do flying changes or anything like that when Robbie came here. He found a very good dressage coach in Lisa White in the UK and she and Robbie got their dressage sorted.”

The pair worked their way up to five-star, having their first run at a rain-sodden Pau CCI5*-L last year before their breakthrough five-star result when they finished 10th at Luhmühlen in June.

To the last fence

Back to Robbie for his thoughts on the transition to five-star level. “You have to know your horse inside out. They have to trust you and you have to trust them, because you depend on them and vice versa completely. The step up to five-star is hard, it’s intense and you’re thinking all the time. What was beautiful about Harry was that he literally gave you every ounce he could give at any given point. He was so agile and felt like he could read the fence.

“You turn the corner to a combination and it was like he knew all parts, how many strides he had to do. He was just really intelligent, the quick-thinking Irish brain.”

That German result meant a call-up for the Irish team at Blenheim in September and, not surprisingly, Team Harry collectively nominate the silver medal result as his career highlight.

“My mum and dad (Trish and Gerry) came over, my auntie and uncle, there were loads of people I knew from my time at Kevin’s and, of course, [partner] Bella (Isabel English), who was actually competing in the eight/nine-year-olds there,” said Robbie, recalling the fan club’s presence.

“Had to be Blenheim. That was such an exciting competition, it really went down to the last rider to the last fence. The atmosphere was immense and Harry loved atmosphere. He had so much adrenaline going through him that before he went cross-country, he was shaking with excitement in his stable. Before the show jumping, Robbie had to walk him around the car park just to calm him down because he knew what he was there for,” Richard recalled.

Team Ireland: Ian Cassells with Millridge Atlantis, Padraig McCarthy with Pomp N Circumstance, Aoife Clark with Full Monty De Lacense, Robbie Kearns with Chance Encounter after winning Team Silver at the FEI Eventing European Championship Blenheim Palace 2025 \ Irish Eventing Times

Heartbreak

The highs and lows of the sport were never more apparent when the following month, colic struck. “We [Maxine, Richard, Robbie] were in Le Lion and I have to thank Tanja, as she was left to deal with it and she was amazing. She was with him right to the end. He had sepsis and colic, so which came first? I can’t tell you, but we tried everything. We still took him to Fethard in the hope that we could save him and this is all happening while we’re in Le Lion. I’m trying not to tell Robbie as he has to go cross-country, but I’m sure he thought something was wrong because Maxine knew and you could tell something was off.”

“It was so, so sad. I can’t actually quite put into words how much that horse meant to me,” said his rider.

“We were thoroughly enjoying Robbie’s partnership, as were a lot of the eventing community who wrote afterwards about how sorry they were about Harry. At least he went out with his European silver and the big thing is we’ve got some lovely photographs of he and Robbie. There’s another horse in Harry’s box now, one I bred which is actually Patron Saint’s brother but you know, not seeing that grey head out over the door is still gut-wrenching,” Richard went on.

“We wanted to take him to Badminton in the spring which would have been feasible and then obviously the world championships, but we are where we are. Would Harry have got to where he was without Robbie? You don’t know, but I would have to say I don’t think so. They were so special, I suppose a bit like John Whitaker and Milton, wasn’t it?

“Everybody has one very special horse that does everything for them. And, without a shadow of a doubt, you know that was his favourite,” added Richard, summing up Robbie’s opinion of Chance Encounter.

BREEDERS start a horse’s career, owners, riders and those often unsung grooms continue it. Maxine Rae, Harry’s devoted groom, is a central part of his story, having known the horse since he came over from Ireland as a four-year-old.

“I actually looked after him his whole competition life, apart from the three years I went and did a normal job. Did I miss horses? Yeah, I really did and then it just happened that Richard needed somebody here, so instead of going home, I ended up here and have never made it back to Scotland!” Maxine commented.

“Harry was already here and I’d previously been to Le Lion with him as a six-year-old, that would have been in 2015. He was really dark grey then, a lot of people wouldn’t recognise him if I show them pictures. He’s like top dog because, even when he was younger, he sort of just got away with everything. He knew he was good and you were never allowed to tell him off!”

The European championships are her highlight too. “When everybody sees him nudging Robbie in that video, they’re like ‘Oh, that’s so cute!’ He could send you flying if you weren’t paying attention! He was in really good form all week at Blenheim. Just before he went and did his dressage test, he spooked because they started clapping as the previous horse came out and I was like, ‘Oh, could go either way now, he’ll either rise to it or he’ll say ‘Yeah, yeah’. And he really did rise to the occasion, he’s really come a long way in his dressage. He knows it’s cross-country day. I have to tack him up five minutes beforehand as quickly as possible, because he gets excited as he knows what’s coming” she continued.

“As soon as Robbie’s on, he stops shaking, he knows his job and he’s like ‘Game on’.

“Even in Luhmühlen, when he did the five-star, he was just the coolest horse. We knew what he could do, but there’s so many people having problems on the cross-country and he just bopped around. He pinged around like it was nothing. He just loves the sport and he’s one of the easiest horses you could ever have to look after.

“When I used to go get him in, I just put his headcollar on, the lead rope over his neck and he followed like a dog. Richard would be watching from the house and he sees me walking in with Harry just following. He was so laid-back at home with this cute ‘butter-would-not-melt’ face and he knows that he can get away with it.

“He would graze with other horses, just didn’t like being too close to them, but he got better. When he went to Luhmühlen with Robbie’s horse, Pisco Sour - he loves to scratch other horses - and he got closer and closer to Harry, starts scratching him and the next thing Harry starts doing it as well.

“It was the first time I’ve ever seen him like do something like that and I sent Robbie a photo of the pair with a, ‘There’s been a breakthrough Robbie!” message, because Harry’s never done anything like that,” Maxine reminisced.

“Harry was really fussy because he didn’t like treats, didn’t like Polos, only apples if they weren’t too sweet, he’d eat carrots more than anything else. Everybody who came across his path was so fond of him. I think when the team finished second at Blenheim, it just showed... just everybody got to see what he could actually do and what he was.

“Yeah, slightly biased, but he was my horse of a lifetime.”

2023 - the year Robbie took over the ride on Chance

Encounter.

€10,226 - the grey’s prize money since 2015.

10th - place at Luhmühlen (2025).

8th - place result in the 2015 WBFSH young event horse six-year-old championships at Le Lion d’Angers.

5 - countries where Chance Encounter competed: Ireland, UK, Belgium, France and Germany.

3 - wins from two-star upwards, including the two-star at Waregem (Caroline Powell), Millstreet CCI3*-S and Kilguilkey CCI3*-L (Gillian Beale King).

2 - upper-level eventers produced by Camedia: Note Worthy (four-star) and Chance Encounter (five-star).

1 - TIH on the Irish silver medal team at Blenheim Palace: Chance Encounter.