CLAREMORRIS School of Equitation (CSOE) was established in 1980. Prior to that Cormac Snr owned a department store and pub in Claremorris town. He decided he had enough of the pub business when Charles was a dab hand at playing pool at the age of nine.

Instead, in the mid-1970s, he purchased a two-year-old Connemara locally for £90 and a horse for himself at Ballinasloe Fair for £375. While hacking out on the road one morning as usual before work and school, they met local stallion owner Jim Burke, owner of Bloomfield Bobby, who advised them to take some lessons.