THEY say greatness stands on the shoulders of giants - each generation effectively building on the achievements and knowledge gathered by the ones who have gone before.

Ireland is renowned throughout the world for its near astonishing record of producing great riders, right through from the pony scene, hunting and racing world, and international show jumping. It’s a question often asked of Irish show jumping chef d’equipe, Robert Splaine, on overseas trips.

“I get asked this question all the time by people from other nations. When it comes to producing great riders, Ireland is simply the envy of the world,’’ Splaine remarked.

Taking nothing whatsoever away from the achievements of our more senior riders, past and present, the early achievements of some of Ireland’s next generation of riders are in a class of their own right out of the gate.

Particularly noteworthy, from a horsemanship point of view, is that in many cases these young riders have effectively made young horses themselves and/or transformed the older ones to a new lease of life.

Barely 19 years old when he hoisted the trophy aloft for his win in the Longines Grand Prix of Dublin last year, Bertram Allen now comes back to the RDS a real force to be reckoned with after a whirlwind year of top drawer victories on the international show jumping circuit. The Wexford rider, who has just turned 20, has enjoyed something of a rollercoaster year, sparked off with his win in Lummen Grand Prix just before the Dublin Horse Show 2014.

Against some of the world’s most experienced riders and horses, the young Irishman went on to claim victory on the aptly-named Molly Malone V before the delighted home crowd in the biggest individual class of the week at the RDS – the Longines Grand Prix of Dublin.

Molly Malone V was bought by his father Bert as a five-year-old on the Sunshine Tour while recent Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix winner Romanov - now 17 - was secured from Cork rider Billy Twomey.

With the Dublin confidence-booster win behind him, the world proved Allen’s oyster with major international wins following. He made history when he won a second gold medal with Barnike at the Lanaken world breeding championships and more FEI top drawer wins followed at Verona and Bordeaux, which qualified the young Irish rider for the FEI World Cup finals in Las Vegas in April.

Against top riders over twice his age and more, Allen pulled out all the stops to come third with Molly in the final. Scarcely stopping to catch a breath, Allen and his crew were quickly off the mark again, scoring Grand Prix wins back on the European circuit.

Yet more was to come when Bertram and the 17-year-old Romanov won the Longines Global Champions Tour at the recent five-star show in Paris, picking up a cool €105,000. More success on the LGCT circuit quickly followed with class wins at the next leg of the Tour in Estoril, Portugal.

Offaly’s Darragh Kenny (26), the son of Michael and Catherine of Belmont Stud, was almost right behind Allen in Paris coming third on Caroline E. Lloyd’s Sans Souci Z just behind Portugal’s Luciana Diniz.

Darragh, based full-time in America and now running his own show jumping and horse sales operation, Oakland Ventures LLC, is already regarded as one of America’s most formidable show jumping talents with a host of top drawer American and European wins under his belt. (His meteoric rise stateside was profiled in these pages last year).

Another young Irish rider to distinguish himself on the international circuit this year was Tipperary’s Greg Broderick (25) who continued his landmark year on MHS Going Global, taking his first LGCT podium finish with third place on the homebred.

2015 has turned out to be the year the Thurles-based rider took his career to the next level. Broderick, who shone earlier in the year on America’s prestigious HITS show jumping circuit, has not looked back since, going on to earn his place on senior Nations Cup teams for Ireland (see pages 18-19).

MACKEN’S VIEW

Legendary Irish show jumper, Eddie Macken, told The Irish Field: “I keep up with all the Irish riders of all ages, I follow all the results. Bertram is a very good, educated rider with great family support behind him and he seems to have a solid plan going forward, bringing on a bunch of young horses at home that will hopefully keep him to the forefront of show jumping going forward. A lot of his good riding foundation I would put down to my former team mate, Con Power, who trained him from an eary age.

“Ireland has never had a problem producing talented young riders but the sport of show jumping itself has really gone to a different level completely. It’s all about communication now and attracting the support of people who want to be with you and who will stay with you.

“Riders of course have to have ability and self-education is very important throughout life. However, riding ability alone is no good unless you get along with people. The personality factor comes into it. Remember that this is a sport that has to sustain you over decades as a rider and that’s the future challenge going forward. All riders must have a good relationship with their owners. That’s why communication is so important now,’’ said Macken.

The Irish Field recently reported that the Joint Oireachtas Agriculture Committee discussed the possibility of a future tax break scheme to encourage people to invest in horses that would be available to the Irish show jumping squads. This was welcomed by Macken who also highlighted that more needs to be done for horse owners.

“I think it would be tremendous if the Dail would come forward with a tax incentive scheme to encourage people to invest in horses, but bodies like Horse Sport Ireland must also do more here. Owners generally get very little return for having horses, they are very much in the background and not credited with anything much. Yet if we have no owners, we have no team,’’ said Macken.

Horse Sport Ireland has recently engaged former Horse Racing Ireland’s Tamso Doyle to work with them on developing the ownership aspect of the sport.