“WHAT started off the whole thing was when my parents brought me to the Dublin Horse Show one year. We sat up in the stands and watched Eddie Macken jump a clear round and they won the Aga Khan that year, and I remember saying to my parents coming home in the car, I definitely want to do that some time.”
That day triggered Shane Breen’s dreams of riding on an Aga Khan team in the famous RDS arena. And he has conquered that dream, twice.
“You need something to start you of and that was it for me. Sitting up in the stand, seeing that atmosphere, loving it and thinking I want to do that myself. So it’s special to be able to see it, feel it and then do it,” he told the Dublin Horse Show Magazine.
Breen’s stand out moment in Dublin is his double clear in 2006 aboard World Cruise, when the Irish team finished in third place. Dublin has been a happy hunting ground for the Tipperary man since.
In 2016 he won the Land Rover Puissance with the wall specialist Cisero and placed second in the Longines Grand Prix aboard his top mount Golden Hawk. He has been leading rider and a winner of the speed derby on numerous occasions. And while it is one of his favourite shows in the calendar, there is one other that competes with it for the top honour.
That is of course Hickstead, owned by his wife Chloe (nee Bunn), and the place where they run their very succesful business, Breen Equestrian.
Breen Equestrian celebrated 10 years in business in 2017 and Shane and Chloe their 10 year wedding anniversary. The couple first met 21 years ago when Shane was jumping in Hickstead. Almost 10 years later they met up again and in March 2007 moved to England to set up base at Hickstead.
HOME FROM HOME
Along with their four kids Lorna (10), Darcy (8), Dougie (3) and Wolfie (2), who are “mad keen” into horses, they live on the beautiful grounds of the All England Jumping Course, Hickstead in West Sussex. The brainchild of Chloe’s late father, Douglas Bunn, the famous show grounds will celebrate 60 years in 2020.
Nowadays, the youngest six of the Bunn family co-own and manage the grounds. “As an owner I am very involved in the running of Hickstead, but day-to-day I’m not as I have Breen Equestrian, but we all met once a week and make all the important decisions together,” Chloe said of the premier equestrian venue.
Darcy, Wolfie, Dougie and Mia (Trevor's daughter) Breen (Photo: Charmajesty Linens)
“It’s very very much a family concern. Lizzie and Edward are the managing directors so they look after the day-to-day and they do a fabulous job, it’s in safe hands.”
The main international arena, with the famous Hickstead derby bank, underwent a £500,000 refurbishment in 2011 to ensure the turf footing could cope with every element of the British weather. With two international shows a year, as well as national shows, festivals, concerts and much more, it was a worthwhile investment.
“The new surface has made a huge difference. It got to a point where it needed doing. If the weather was good it was perfect, but there was always the worry that if there was a torrential down pour that it wouldn’t hold up to the level and amount of jumping we have on it, so it have given us peace of mind, its guaranteed to be good.”
Chloe herself has represented Britain on the international stage from ponies to senior level and like her husband is a former winner of the Hickstead Speed Derby. She had a 10 year break from competitive riding to raise their children, before getting back in the ring in 2015 and finishing third in the Amateur Grand Prix at Liverpool International. A longer term comeback is on the cards.
“I got back in the ring but I haven’t ridden since August of last year. That is pending. Wolfie, our youngest, is nearly three, so it’s getting a bit easier, and Dougie goes to school in September so I should have more time then.”
Chloe Breen winning a 1.35m class at the 2016 Spanish Sunshine Tour (Photo: www.moisesbasallote.com)
The 45 stables at Breen Equestrian are full all year round between competition horses in the summer and younger horses in the winter time. As well as the competition and sales yard, the Breen’s run a breeding yard, managed by Greg le Gear, with 20 broodmares due to foal this year and stallions standing at stud.
Breen welcomed up to 35 from Team Z7 in July, and they have already made impressive strides.
One of the standout stallions on the yard is the exceptionally well-bred Golden Hawk (Vigo d’Arsouilles x Chin Chin). A regular on the Irish team this season, with a brilliant double clear in the La Baule Nations Cup, the 12-year-old has been shortlisted for the European Championships in August.
Fussing is not in Shane’s nature, and whatever decision chef d’equipe Rodrigo Pessoa makes, he will go with the flow.
“Hickstead is on the cards, and then it’s either Dublin or the Europeans after that. To jump on the Aga Khan team is amazing so either or I will be happy.
“In the past we have had our Championship horses jump in Dublin because everyone wants to win Dublin, but we have proven time and time again that that doesn’t work. Still, I think we will have a very good team, possibly two lads will get their first cap in Dublin and that will be very nice for them,” he said.
“The Friday for the Aga Khan is unbelievable. When you are in there jumping, you can feel the tension, there is total silence. It’s a cool feeling. And if you jump clear, you’re a hero. I just love it, everybody who has a horse or anyone who is involved in a ho rse comes to Dublin.”
The entire Breen clan will be in Ballsbridge on the second week in August. “It’s already a fixture of our kids calendar and they are only 10 and below. So the obsession starts young and it stays with you for life I think,” Chloe said about the special show.
THE BREEN ACADEMY
Multiple Irish riders have passed through the Breen/Hickstead acedemy on their quest to finding their feet in international show jumping. David Simpson, Derek McCoppin, Michael Duffy, Paul Kennedy and Liam O’Meara are just some of the names to learn for the Breen mastermind. “They all kind of come, and they have their own goals to have their own yard and business and they come here and spend a bit of time seeing how it works. It’s great to see them all doing really well. David Simpson came for two months and he ended up staying seven years, and now he lives just 10 minutes down the road now.”
THE BREEN TEAM
There are 16 full-time staff and three residential pupils at Breen Equestrian. Shane’s fellow Tipperary man Michael Quirke, born and raised at Ballymureen Stud, is a vital cog in the wheel. “He came for four days and has been here for five years,” Shane laughed. “Quirkey is a big part of the team. He has his own business here, Quirke Sporthorses Ltd, so he is very much a partner in our team but he has his own identity as well.”
Shane’s brother Trevor and his wife Caroline, who run their own Breen Sport Horses, live just three minutes down the road from Hickstead in West Sussex, with their children Mia and Ollie.
This is an extract from the 2017 Dublin Horse Show Magazine, published July 2017
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