"I AM constantly striving to improve my riding and the way I work and produce my horses. We work in a very dynamic sport and business and it’s forever changing and I think that we all have to work very hard to keep up!” said international show jumper Andrew Bourns this week.

The Galway native is competing at the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival in Traverse City, Michigan, where he picked up a host of three-star results last week. In fact, from five starts with three horses, he placed in the top 10 four times and finished 13th on the other occasion.

Irish Horse World readers will be familiar with one of his top mounts at the moment, Sea Topblue. The talented nine-year-old ISH by Chacco-Blue out of the Lux Z-sired Sea Top Lady was bred by John and James Meade, and purchased as a four-year-old at the sales in Cavan by Andrew’s mother, Deirdre Bourns. Under former Bourns Sport Horse rider Jenny Rankin, he finished third in the six-year-old final at the Dublin Horse Show in 2016, among other top results.

Bourns thinks a lot of the gelding. “I took over the ride on him early last summer. This winter in Wellington he competed up to CSI2* level. Since the break due to Covid-19 he has competed up to CSI3* level very successfully with top four placings in ranking classes. He is a dream come true situation for horse producers like us. He has been through our production system and is now living proof that we’re doing something right!” he told The Irish Field.

The other horse competing last week was the nine-year-old gelding Darquito, who is also owned by his parents, Deirdre and Richard. “We bought him in Germany as a seven-year-old. He was ridden by Jenny for one winter and I took over the ride on him last summer. He competed up to three-star Grand Prix level at WEF with me this winter and has been placed a number of times since the Covid-19 break. He is another dream come true!”

Andrew Bourns and Darquito \ Andrew Ryback photography

Big plans

Bourns has high hopes for the two nine-year-olds. “I plan to develop both of these horses to championship level and represent Ireland at five-star Nations Cup level and at major championships. I am also constantly striving to improve my own riding and the way I work and produce my horses. I also train some rising stars here in the US, like Ali Boone who placed in the U25 classes at Spruce Meadows last summer.

“I have started working with investors in the USA to source and produce horses for competition at the highest level and to sell. We already have a number of horses in our system that belong to several of our investors. Blackwatch Farm, based in Wellington, have bought two very exciting prospects – A Toi De Prim and Menko VD Wellington – and both horses are already competing very successfully.”

Bourns Sport Horses, which started at their home farm in Ballinasloe many years ago, now has bases in the USA, Holland and at home. “We have horses being produced and competing in three different countries on two different continents. I have eight horses here in the USA, my dad Richard and Ciaran Nallon are producing 20 horses in Holland with a great support team and we also have horses being produced in Ireland.”

Since leaving for America permanently in 2009, where he took a job working for Sligo’s Darragh Kerins, Andrew has managed the European leg of the business remotely, alongside his supportive parents.

He set up his own business in 2011 training riders, producing and riding at the highest level of the sport. 2012 was a memorable year when he jumped clear in the Dublin Grand Prix, every Irish rider’s dream, aboard the lovely Roundthorn Madios (Condios X Clover Hill), who was bred by Denise Gleeson, as well as jumping on the Irish team in Copenhagen, Lisbon and Hickstead, as well as the silver medal-winning team at Spruce Meadows in Calgary.

Madios went on to have a successful career with America’s Lauren Tisbo, and there are plenty more success stories to come from Andrew and his team. Among those to pass through Bourns’ hands are the prolific international winner Mark Q (Kevin Babington), Gatsby (Darragh Kenny), Diego (Cian O’Connor), MHS Attraction (Sergio Alvarez Moya) and recently, the Jenny Rankin-produced double World Cup qualifier winner Benny’s Legacy, now owned by Adrienne Sternlicht.