WITH the centenary this year of the founding of the Irish Army Equitation School in 1926 much will be written on its mission and success around the show jumping and eventing world. But early recognition by Judge Wylie and General Michael Hogan was that the riding officers, who were from a hunting and racing background, had a style of riding that had to change if they were to be truly successful on the world stage.

Enter Col Paul Rodzianko (1903-1993) who is credited with coaching the Irish Army show jumping riders into successful competitors. Little is published about Rodzianko’s connections with the prominent Irish writer Anita Leslie whose family hailed from Castle Leslie in Co Monaghan and she later settled in Oranmore, Co Galway.