THERE has been a great reaction to a documentary that The Irish Field hunting correspondent Noel Mullins and lighting/cameraman Ken O’Mahony have made on that flamboyant horseman Aidan ‘Suntan’ O’Connell, who is known widely around the world of hunting, having hunted extensively on three continents, while also show jumping and racing. This follows previous documentaries that the duo has made on the Meath, Ballymacad, Wicklow, Galway Blazers, Grallagh, South Tyrone and North Galway Hunts, including another filmed on equestrian author, journalist and commentator Michael Slavin at his sporting and antiquarian bookshop on The Hill of Tara in County Meath.

The initial clips are of Aidan’s win as an 18-year-old in the Main Arena of The Dublin Horse Show on his show jumper Suntan, ahead of his idol and international show jumper Seamus Hayes. It was here he acquired the nickname ‘Suntan’, as the spectators did not know who he was.

A second clip is of Aidan’s race riding in the Aintree Grand National and his interview with Lord Oaksey for the BBC, when Oaksey queried the preparation of Aidan’s horse Our Greenwood hunting with the County Limerick Foxhounds. Asking Aidan how the horse would handle the formidable Bechers Brook, Aidan replied, ‘sure there is no wire in Bechers, unlike County Limerick hunt country with wire in every hedge, so it would present no problem!’ The clip has reached nearly 30,000 views so far.

Further clips will be released shortly on Aidan’s bespoke tailoring by Frazers of Hospital in Limerick, hunting six days in one week, getting a flight to Florida on a Friday evening still in his hunting attire where he hunted with The Live Oak Hunt, attended their Hunt Ball that night and flew back and was on a horse ready to move off with The Limerick Foxhounds at 11am on the Monday morning.

The documentary also shows him as a bloodstock agent, when he found an Aintree Grand National winner for a client on the morning of his wedding. Another clip covers wearing a three-piece suit and a dickie bow when he was known as ‘The guy with the propellor’, and driving a sports car when he was a student in University College Cork. Also included are details of his activities as a racehorse owner, travelling the world as an equestrian coach, as a raconteur and his association with European royalty.

The documentary can be viewed on Horsin’Around, and Noel Mullins’ Facebook site.