NO better brain than a Maths teacher to figure the odds of becoming an Olympian. Or another fact for Clare Abbott to work out: how many HOYS prizewinners, just like herself, later competed at the Olympic Games?

Clare is another teacher to balance the classroom with an all-weather arena. As the on-fire Jessica Burke did, hitting the ‘pause’ button on her teaching job is in Clare’s plans too. With the Paris Olympics in sight, a career break is booked for 2024 to focus on the best team of horses this part-time Maths teacher has gathered to date.

“School was a blast, not normally what you read in rider interviews! I went to the Royal School, Armagh and then to Queen’s University in Belfast. The Royal was big into sport. Hockey was my second favourite thing as a teenager and I played on the first XI for four years.

“I have two Ulster Schools’ Cup winning medals from hockey days and two All-Ireland school finals. We went to Holland too for the school’ European finals. We had a brilliant school team, brilliant craic.”

Again, the constant in Jessica Burke, Alicia Devlin Byrne and now Clare’s story is supportive parents. In the case of this five-time Badminton competitor: Catherine and Ronnie.

“My parents had no eventing or show jumping experience at all but Mum became a very good horsewoman. When she started working, she got into showing and hunted so that’s how my sister Stephanie and I started. Dad learned to ride after he was married and then hunted for 25 years. Steff rode until she was 18 and lives in Australia now. She follows all the horses results and groomed for me at the Olympics in Rio.

“I grew up in Richhill, Co Armagh and spent a lot of time riding my ponies at Richhill Riding School. We had a small arena behind the house, so twice a week I hacked up the main road there. They had a fantastic cross-country course that I spent a lot of time riding around! No matter what I was riding, show pony or not, they got a good taste of cross-country schooling! I was pretty fearless, I guess.

“I remember helping Mum break a nice 15.2hh she bred when I was 10. After that, we always had a young pony in to school or break and Mum’s good friend Margaret Miller sourced a lot of these. As a kid, I mainly hunted and rode show ponies, did some working hunter, began eventing at 14 on a schoolmaster called Genuine Article and never looked back.”

Both sisters were members of the local Iveagh Pony Club and their Mandalay Only Love, “a 13hh show hunter pony”, won championships all over England.

Twice a supreme champion at Ponies UK, Mandalay Only Love was also third at the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), a show that produces future Olympians from its showing classes too. Take Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Collett, both HOYS winners with Ardenhall Royal Secret and Penawayn Ryan respectively.

“Those showing days were brilliant, so competitive and they instilled a trait for having a pony turned out to perfection!” said Clare, reflecting on her show ring apprenticeship. “Mum had a good eye for a pony and made sure our ponies were well schooled. There was no cop out on riding your pony every day!”

A sensible salary

Although schooling ponies vied with homework, there was ultimately one career choice for Clare. Why a Maths teacher?

“I did consider studying Veterinary Science but I went for a Maths degree. Maths was a subject I liked, it was right or wrong and didn’t require writing essays or making projects.

"A few rider-teachers I knew recommended it, so I thought, ‘let’s give this a go.’ I had taught at Pony Club and had helped a few riders, so teaching wasn’t too alien to me!”

It proved a degree that dovetailed neatly with eventing and as call-ups for European junior and young rider championship teams ran parallel with school and college.

“I was in college for three to four hours in the middle of every day during the week and the yard was 30 minutes away, so I could keep the horses going easily enough. I didn’t miss too much student partying either!”

Was she ever tempted to take the plunge and work full-time with horses? “Absolutely. I’ve produced some lovely horses recently and they’ve gone on to be stars with their new riders. I also have some super, supportive owners so we will see how the next couple of seasons go!

“I took a gap year between school and university, and again between getting my degree and doing the year-long PGCE teaching qualification.

“After going to some Pammy Hutton clinics here, she offered me a scholarship to train at Talland for a week. This was a dream opportunity - the teaching, level of riding and advanced schoolmasters to train on… it showed me how good you had to be! I spent six months riding and competing at Tiny Clapham’s yard when I finished my degree and also a year at Craig Anderson’s Northumberland yard when I left school.

“By the time I’d graduated, I had fitted in a hefty amount of yard experience too. I enjoyed every minute of it and it motivated me to work hard.”

After all that valuable cross-channel experience, it was decision time. “My parents were VERY keen I didn’t pursue riding full-time. I had some lovely owners and anything between six to 10 horses to produce or compete, but I wasn’t sure I could turn down a sensible salary and accepted a three-day Maths job in Dromore High School in 2011.

“Fitting everything in had become a way of life. I’d managed to achieve the goals I’d set for the horses and myself in between studying, so I thought I could keep the ball rolling and step up the eventing game while holding down my three days of teaching. I have a career break booked for next year to focus on the horses.”

The dedication, multi-tasking and work ethic required to effortlessly combine three days in the classroom with a three-day eventing career is surely a positive example for her pupils.

Not surprisingly for this Olympic role model teacher, the best part of teaching turns out to be her pupils own success stories, whether academic, sporting or personal goals. “Those success stories and the funny things that can happen are the best part. There isn’t a minute spare when you enter school - it’s totally full-on!”

Driving forces

So what’s a typical day like?

“I go to school three days a week. On these days I start at 5.30am on the yard until 7.30am and then it’s a 10- minute drive to school at around 8.15am.

“I write up the diary for my groom Rachel Rendle who starts at 7am and then I’m back on a horse by 4pm to ride until 7 or so. On a normal day I do pretty much the same as any other full-time rider.

“We would normally have around eight horses in work, so I would ride four on school days and Rachel will work the others. Sometimes I will have a late day with meetings, so the horses have a hack or lunge day. School paperwork is done in the evenings after we finish the yard.

“I’ve always tried to do the horses as well, if not better, than the riders who work with horses ‘full-time’. The toughest part is organising travel around teaching and getting to internationals with as few days off as I can.

"Dromore have been super-supportive, they are very behind my being away competing and know I don’t ever be off sick.”

As well as a supportive workplace, there have been numerous others involved in her success story. Without her parents’ support, would any of this have been as possible?

“Definitely not. They have been my ultimate driving force, driver and groom. They are both super-competitive, have worked hard for all the opportunities I’ve had and like the sales part too. They found the best people they could to give us lessons and Mum made sure we rode well enough to be able to produce a good pony.

“I try and do my fair share of the driving to events but Mum has done most of it over the years. I’ve had great girls grooming for me past and present. Gareth, my partner, is my main eyes on the ground and drives too, and Rachel is my second rider and home groom. There is always someone in the yard working, doing jobs in my absence.

“John McNally, the owner of Richhill Riding School, said a lovely 15.2hh junior eventer he got in to sell would suit me perfectly. Genuine Article was just that and luckily my parents were able to buy him. Ian Olding was based here too and I got to know and help out a legend!”

Clare Abbott and Euro Prince during the show jumping round at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games \ Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

And then there was the father-and-son team of John and Cormac McKay, whose homebred Euro Prince went to Rio with Clare. Sparky’s pedigree contains another Olympic link as he is by Lougheries Quiet Man, whose own Touchdown sire High-Scope, owned by Cormac, competed at the Sydney Games with Trevor Smith.

“The McKays were unbelievably supportive and still have a horse with me now. The first horse they sent me was a small chesnut horse called Euro Prince. They kept show jumpers with Gabriel Tunney and it was him who helped me in the early days with Sparky.

“He wasn’t easy: he had tonnes of ability but, in the early days, his behaviour wasn’t exactly great and he knocked too many poles to be owned by showjumpers!

“If it wasn’t for Gabriel, the eventing world would never have seen Euro Prince. Gabriel still trains me now and was instrumental in helping us qualify our four-year-old for Dublin and helping us there. He has done more for my career than he would take credit for.”

Fast lane

As a youngster, Clare never missed watching Badminton and Burghley on TV. “Pippa Funnell, Andrew Nicholson, Mark Todd... those riders were my heroes. Going to our local event Scarvagh International was amazing because we got to see these guys in real life!”

With his five Badminton starts and one apiece at Burghley and Pau, plus the Rio Olympics, (where her heroes Funnell and Todd also competed), Euro Prince is the horse that launched Clare’s five-star career.

“He was class, a horse with the biggest personality, mountains of talent and lived life in the fast lane! He has ticked most of the bucket list that riders dream of: going clear cross-country in horrendous conditions at our first Badminton (2014) and getting our first completion plaque.

“The five-star events are all so different but one thing that makes Badminton stand out is the stables and how well looked after you are. It is a fantastic experience from start to finish.

“One of the proudest moments was loading him at home to head on his journey to the Olympics. He is 20 now and lives with us in retirement.”

Stepping up to fill Euro Prince’s shoes are a team of promising youngsters, including Clare’s European championships horse Jewelent. “For the first time we have a team of both young show jumpers and top level eventers to look forward to!

“I’ve had some great results riding a small number of horses but things really started to take off in 2021. I had five international eventing wins and a double clear at the European championships and in 2022, I was crowned national champion in two classes with DHI No Fear and Mr Mighty.

“I qualified MT Luxaan for the Dublin four-year-old show jumping and got some great international results eventing.”

Jewelent, an 11-year-old owned by Barbra Allen and Lisa Rosbotham, and bred by their father Woods, was her European championships pick. He is by the Rosbotham’s own stallion Valent, incidentally the sire of Piggy March’s Le Lion d’Angers silver medallist last year: Dassett Arthalent, bred by Clare’s “hobby breeder” mum Catherine.

“Jewelent is back in work and will return to competition later in the year, his main goal will be to get his Paris qualification.

“A four or five-star autumn run will be his target. He’s an outstanding cross-country horse and has glided up the levels. Double clear at the European championships at nine-years-old and clear around Badminton five-star last year, ‘Frankie’ has shown he is a true five-star and championship horse and I’m really looking forward to competing him this year.”

Two sports

“The next eventer is Mr Mighty (Gatcombe), a nine-year-old who is aiming for Blenheim and Boekelo. He is very talented but quite inexperienced for a horse of his age. I hope he will get qualified for Paris and get enough experience that he can be my back-up ride. He has all the attributes to lead the dressage at four and five-star level and is one to watch when he comes of age!”

Among her show jumping string is Caltra Classic (Sligo Candy Boy). “Owned by Sarah Riley, she is aimed for seven-year-old classes this year. She switched from eventing to show jumping last summer and going great!

“She’s currently jumping 1.30m and we hope to do Balmoral qualifiers, the HSI series and maybe Dublin qualifiers.”

MT Luxaan (Cazaan) is owned by Clare’s partner, Gareth Carlisle. “She is proving to be an unbelievable talent in both disciplines. Show jumping, she finished fifth in the Dublin final and was second to the Dublin winner at National Balmoral in July. Eventing, she did two four-year-old development classes, winning the qualifier and the final! She will start her season with the HSI five-year-old jumping classes and hopefully return to Dublin in the show jumping section.”

The couple, for whom a rare night off consists of eating out or planning their house build, have added some new horses to the ranks. “Two very well bred five-year-olds have just arrived and a MT Luxaan four-year-old half-brother. They’ll do some show jumping in the spring and we’ll see how they progress. They have all the makings of top-level horses, so we’ll take time to educate them properly and hope they will be competing in age classes later in the year.

“Gareth and I are buying foals and breeding from MT Luxaan, via embryo transfer, so we’ve our own horses coming along to produce. It’s a massive advantage if they are reared well and started properly from the word go.

“Gareth is very driven and competitive and wants to reach the top with our horses, whether that’s with me or another top rider. It is exciting what we can achieve in the future.”

It’s a busy three-day life for Clare Abbott. “I hope it inspires other young people that if there is a drive to succeed you can do it!”