“STRIVE for excellence in everything you do” was the advice given to a group of over 30 young sport horse enthusiasts at Barry O’Connor’s showpiece yard in Malahide, last Saturday, as he laid out a pathway to success.
As part of the Teagasc Young Breeders training programme, the youngsters got an insight into how the leading producer and agent works and runs his north Co Dublin training facility.
If they took one snippet of guidance from the day, O’Connor hoped it would be to master the small things first, on their way to achieving excellence.
“Look for the highest standard and copy it. When you travel to a yard, pick out the best people and emulate what they are doing,” he said. Attention to detail is very important to O’Connor, as is evident when you walk into his yard.
“Note everything down and pay attention to every little detail. You need to have a diary and you need to look at every horse closely, plan every show carefully. Not every horse likes indoors for example, so pay attention to that and plan somewhere different for them.”
He continued: “I asked Cian O’Connor last year about his plan for the year ahead. He told me he put the Olympics in his diary and worked backwards for a year, worked out what he needed to do and where he needed to go, in order to be in the best shape for Rio.”
O’Connor believes young people with a dream of being successful in the industry must educate themselves young and commended the Teagasc Young Breeder programme for providing them the opportunity to visit the top yards across the country.
“You have to be smart and educate yourself now. It is the simple things that will help you achieve that. Things like having the yard clean to impress customers, knowing what to feed them and having a plan.”
He emphasised the importance of travelling and the effect that spending time in Europe had on his career early on. Coming from a family with no background interest in horses, O’Connor started out in a riding school at the age of 11 and his parents bought him a pony for £200. He attended the Pony Club, went hunting and tried his hand at every discipline.
As he moved up the ranks, he travelled to yards in Holland and Switzerland and trained with the best people he could find, before returning home to Blackwood Lane where he has been based for the last 20 years, 10 of those which he shared with his then business partner, Conor Swail.
“Travel as much as you can, it’s one of the most important things and it is how I gained my experience. I went to train with Ted Edgar in the UK and when we came home from a show, no matter what time of the night it was, we had to muck out and polish the truck, everything had to be perfect. He told me that the attention to detail was the most important thing and I have carried that with me,” he told the group.
IMPORTANCE OF FLATWORK
If there is one element of his career that O’Connor wishes he had perfected earlier on, it is his flatwork. Now in the process of completing his HSI Level 3 national coaching course, O’Connor places huge emphasis on working his horses on the flat.
“If I was young again, I would be going for flatwork lessons all the time, it will stay with you for the rest of your life. Your job when riding a horse is to help them build muscle, it is all in the flatwork.”
O’Connor doesn’t jump his competition horses much at home, unless there is something that needs to be corrected. The visitors however were lucky enough to see O’Connor’s rider, Philip McGuane, jump three exciting young horses, all of which he thinks a lot of.
When warming up the horses, he drove home the importance of a ground line to nurse the young horses along. “Ground lines, ground lines, ground lines – we never jump without them. They teach the horse to canter down and make a shape.
“I see people trying to jump a big vertical with a ground pole stuck right in underneath before going into the ring – that’s stupid! They have a much better chance with a ground line – the horse can judge his place to take-off and set himself up correctly.”
LVS Wizard (ISH), the winner of the opening round of the seven-year-old ISH Studbook Series at Louth County recently, was jumped at home for just the second time ever since joining O’Connor’s yard two years ago, and he couldn’t hold back on his admiration for the horse.
“He is a contradiction to what I would normally buy but he is my favourite! He doesn’t flick his toes and needs more elevation in the hocks but he gets 11 out of 10 for attitude and temperament and he keeps proving everyone wrong.”
So what does he look for when buying a young horse?
As O’Connor doesn’t breed horses at Blackwood Lane but instead buys them as two and three-year-olds and keeps them until they are proven, a good attitude is one of the most important traits.
“As a youngster I like to see height in the body, attitude and balance. I want them to know where the pole is.”
It is important for O’Connor to keep evaluating his young horses in order to help them reach the pinnacle of their ability. “I need to look on at every horse with a critical eye for a selling point of view – you have to be critical to help them improve and reach their limit.”
With only seven acres at his base in Malahide, he brings his horses hacking somewhere different every 10 days, to keep their minds fresh. He has also recently installed an Aqua Equine Treadmill after seeing it at Aidan O’Brien’s yard at Ballydoyle. The water is kept at a temperature of four degrees, contains epsom salts and magnesium and his horses spend 20 minutes on the treadmill up to four times a week.
“You can sit and watch a horse move, you will be able to spot any injuries as they need to be fairly sound to walk on it. The odd time you will spot a horse miss a step if they are not 100%.”
He continued: “What I really like about this is the horse lifts his legs high in front and behind and that action does all the work – it works the muscles up high. I also like it because the horse walks in straight lines. I have had a walker here for 20 years but constantly turning on a bend is tough on them as youngsters.”
So after three hours of judging young horses in one of the top dealing yards in Ireland, the young breeders left Barry O’Connor’s stables with a very important instruction – have a dream, set out a plan of action and be the very best version of yourself on the way to the top.
FACTFILE
Name: Barry O’Connor
Position: International horse agent, producer and equestrian coach
Location: Blackwood House, Blackwood Lane, Malahide, Co Dublin
Number of horses: 18
Rider: Philip McGuane
Facilities: Seven acres, sand arena, large grass ring, six turn out paddocks, Aqua Equine Treadmill, horse walker, office and client viewing area
TOP Horses that passed
through O’Connor’s yard
Rivaal
(Monico x Henrica)
Rivaal was campaigned by O’Connor’s then business partner, Conor Swail, up to five-star level racking up Grand Prix wins at Gijon and Athens. He went on to compete at the Hong Kong Olympic Games in 2008 with Saudi Arabian rider Kamal Abdullah Bahamdam. “Everyone’s dream is to breed, sell or buy an Olympic horse and we are very lucky to have had a good horse like Rivaal produced here.”
Lansdowne
(Guidam x Wolfgang)
O’Connor and Swail purchased the Dutch Warmblood stallion in Holland for long-time supporters Chinook Valley. He was then sold to leading Canadian owners Sue and Ariel Grange and was named Horse of the Year in Ireland in 2013. “Lansdowne was produced by Conor. They went on to compete at the Europeans and he was ranked the fifth best horse in the world in 2013.”
Dougie Douglas
(Ard VDL Douglas x High Roller)
O’Connor purchased the Irish-bred gelding for a record-breaking €1.4 million at the Goresbridge Supreme Sale of Show Jumpers in Barnadown last November on behalf of American rider Katie Dinan.
“They didn’t care about how he moved or what his breeding was, they just looked at the video and knew they wanted him. I videoed the entire vetting for the client – he had a funny walk behind and didn’t track up behind but that was about it. Now he is winning for his new owner.”