I GREW up in a typical Irish family where we always had horses and ponies. I started show jumping when I was around 10 years of age and loved it, and stayed at it all the way through college.

I studied Law in University College Cork and as part of that, I worked in a corporate law firm for a while. After graduating, I felt it wasn’t what I wanted to do at that point, so I decided to take a year out. During that time I worked in Ireland at Ballypatrick Stables with Greg Broderick where I learned a lot about working in a professional yard.

After that, I interviewed to go back to a corporate firm but decided again it still wasn’t for me. Instead, I went and worked with Tholm Keane who is a very good friend and who had always helped me with my own horses. I always wanted to come to America, but looking back now, the experience I gained in Ireland was invaluable.

In 2016, Richard Bourns from Galway approached me about a job. They were building the new farm in Wellington and he asked if I would I go over and manage it. I jumped at that opportunity. I was with them for three years; it is a big business spread between American and Ireland and I learned a huge amount there.

Global stage

I went back to Ireland again in 2019 and I was contacted by an agent who was looking for a manger for Rodrigo Pessoa’s Amethyst Equestrian.

When I started with Rodrigo, he was still manager of the Irish show jumping team. We were operating in USA with a smaller number of horses and just one client. When he finished with the Irish team, he went back into the sport full-time and got a large group of horses from Artemis Farm who are now his main owner, as well as taking on more training clients. So this year, we have over 30 horses at WEF and 10 of those are for Rodrigo, owned by Artemis Farm.

I do all the management for all the clients’ horses and for Rodrigo’s horses. The business has really grown and it is nice to be part of that.

Rodrigo has some very good horses so it should be a good year. We are based between two farms. The clients and Rodrigo’s family are based at a farm in Palm Beach Point, while Artemis have a farm right beside the horse show which is very handy.

Busy days

A typical day for me actually starts the evening before! The start lists go up online and I start to make the plan for the following day.

I figure out what time each horse will show, what ring they need to be at and where everyone needs to be. I will work back from that and myself and Rodrigo make a plan; some horses will need to be flatted (ridden on the flat) in the morning, some will go on the lunge.

Then in the morning, I check in at the rings and make sure we are organised for the day. I usually start riding early and will be back and forth from the show while Rodrigo and the clients are showing. If we have timing conflicts where Rodrigo is competing, either myself or Alexa (Rodrigo’s wife) will be with the clients.

In the afternoons, I try to spend a couple of hours in the office catching up on paperwork. There is a lot of logistics and moving parts, it takes a lot of people to run this operation but we have a very good team.

For me, the best thing about being in Wellington for WEF is I like that all the horses are in one location. In the summer, we have horses in Europe, Canada, travelling through North America for shows… a lot of moving parts. Once we are here, everyone is within 10 minutes of each other.

At the end of the day we get to go home, so it allows for a bit more balance. Overall it is pretty positive.

Summer plans

Home for the summer months in New York. The Pessoas have a beautiful new farm in North Salam. It is really nice horse country up there; the farm is right next door to a nature reserve and it is close to some good shows.

I didn’t go to the Olympic Games in Tokyo [where Rodrigo was part of the Brazilian team with Carlito’s Way 6] because of Covid travel restrictions. A lot of what I do in the summer months is done from home. While the horses are travelling, all the logistics - shipping, flights, hotels, etc., are done from home.

Rodrigo has a very good group of horses at the minute, some who are experienced at Nations Cup level and some moving up to five-star. The big goal will be the World Games in the Herning in the summer. We are heading straight into another championship year so everything is aimed at that and we work backwards from there.

While the circuit here is so busy, there is not much time to get home to Cork, but I was at home for a good bit during the pandemic. Because there were no shows, I could do my work from home, so had a good amount of time, which is something I love, I am a bit of a home bird really!

Lisa O’Sullivan was in conversation with Judith Faherty.