HAVING relocated to Devon in 2012, Padraig McCarthy’s life changed direction in more ways than one. On a personal level, he and his wife Lucy started a family, while his progression through the eventing ranks broke boundaries.

Just one year after landing his first event win at Bicton, Padraig represented Ireland at the European championships at Blair (2015), and 12 months later, rode at the Rio Olympics. His mount on both occasions was Lucy’s former ride Simon Porloe, a horse with championship form under his belt.

Simon Porloe was however in the twilight of his career, and as Padraig’s success increased so did his string of horses. Among his notable new rides was the smart Bernadette Utopia, as well as the talented Mr Chunky.

“I first competed Mr Chunky at Barocca, in Portugal in 2016,” said Padraig. “Lucy was planning to compete him, but her father, Hendrik, had passed away suddenly the day before she was due to fly out. He had terminal cancer but his death was sudden in the end. Lucy did ride again that spring, but with our son Tomás a baby at the time, she wanted to step back from top-level competition and asked the owners if they would agree to giving me the chance to ride him. Thankfully, they agreed!”

The partnership with Mr Chunky gelled almost immediately. In that same first season, the pair won a three-star at Chatsworth, before progressing to pick up a top-10 placing at Badminton 12 months later. Unsurprisingly the duo then received their call for the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, where they memorably returned with both an individual and team silver medal.

“There is not much to say about Tryon other that it was a near perfect week,” recalls Padraig. “The preparations had been great. Chunky and all the team horses had really good form that spring/summer, and there was a great sense of belief among the riders and support team. I was in seventh individually before show jumping and Sarah (Ennis) fifth or sixth. In our minds we were jumping for a team medal and when I jumped clear, I knew we were almost certain of a medal. That was the most unbelievably good feeling.

“I had such a sense of elation, relief and pride for the team and country. At that stage I never imagined that five of the six riders ahead of me would knock fences, and I remember standing in the pocket watching the last few horses jumping and thinking ‘this can’t be real’.”

Padraig McCarthy and Mr Chunky on the cross-country at the 2018 World Equestrian Games at Tryon, USA \ Tomas Holcbecher

Highs and lows

Regrouping after Tryon was not all plain sailing. “In some respects, 2019 was as low as 2018 was high, especially in relation to Mr Chunky. I think in hindsight I struggled to deal with the success of Tryon and all that went with it. I went to Badminton in the spring with a feeling that I could have a real crack at a top placing, and there was a near palpable air of expectation around the horse, given his result the previous year and his silver medals.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t deal well with the pressure I put on myself, or the perceived expectations of others. Our dressage was worse than it was the previous year, even though I felt that both myself and the horse were ready to do much better. To make matters worse, Chunky suffered a suspensory ligament injury on the cross-country which very sadly ended his eventing career.”

One positive to emerge that season was the start of new relationships with both people and horses. With the support of Nick and Mandy Boyle, Peter Catell and Di Brunsden, Padraig acquired and qualified a new ride, Fallulah, for the Tokyo Olympics, and on the retirement of Sir Mark Todd, was also asked to ride his championship mount Leonidas.

“Leonidas had been hugely successful with Mark, so taking on the ride after such a phenomenal rider was pretty daunting. We’ve had our ups and downs, but we managed to finish sixth in the CCI4*S at Millstreet in our first competition together and early last year he gave me my – and surprisingly his – first long format four-star victory. He is still in very good form, so we hope to have some more good days on him.”

Away from competition, the development of facilities at Warren Farm was gathering pace. The farm, which had been Lucy’s home for the past 20 years, is somewhat remotely situated in Devon between Exmoor and Dartmoor.

“We’re very much off the beaten track,” explains Lucy. “It’s rural, it’s relatively unspoilt and laid-back. It was a dairy farm when we bought it so we’ve built all the horse facilities from scratch and there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears gone into it. This winter we finally got the roof on our indoor, a project that has been at least 10 years in the making.

“We did it all ourselves; Padraig and a couple of our lads were out there in all weathers and even I drove the telehandler a bit! I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved but we’ve still a way to go yet to get all the facilities as I would like. We’ll probably have it all done by the time we retire!”

Family life: Padraig McCarthy and his wife Lucy Wiegersma and their children Tomás, Gus and Mirin (Mimi) at home \ Courtesy of McCarthy family

Busy yard

The growing business at Warren Farm is multi-faceted combining competition, sales and breeding. All three complement each other, and whether bought in or home-bred, every horse at Warren Farm is for sale.

“We have a big yard and a lot of horses, so we need to keep selling,” said Padraig. “I also enjoy that side of the business, and while I am now fortunate to have the support of some good owners and have some very nice horses to compete, selling horses is something we will always do. It gives me great pleasure to have the trust of many professional riders, who come back to us each year to purchase young horses.”

At the moment the couple have around 80 horses including broodmares and youngstock resident on the farm. “We have normally about 30 horses in work,” states Padraig. “We have five full-time people with us at the moment and two girls who work between them five days a week.

“We also have a handy man who comes in three to four afternoons a week to deal with upkeep and help with various projects I have going on. Daniel Brown from the north of Ireland has been with us about a year now and he hopes to compete at four-star this year with his good young mare Fleur de Lys.”

When buying, Padraig admits he likes to start with a good model. “If the horse is put together correctly, it will increase its chances of standing up to the demands of the sport. I like horses to have quick reflexes and show a natural willingness to work. I’m very interested in pedigree as well, but often, a horse’s breeding will put me off purchasing, rather than influencing me to buy.

“Of course, you can never judge a horse on paper, but over time you often have built up a certain amount of knowledge about sires whose offspring, while looking like promising youngsters, don’t go on to perform in the top sport. Ultimately one has to be aware that there are no perfect horses, and you have to balance up the weaknesses with the qualities you feel that he or she may possess. Patience and correct work go a long way after that.”

Padraig and Lucy have great record for recognising raw talent, and among the many young horses they have produced and sold is Pippa Funnell’s 2019 Burghley winner MGH Grafton Street (OBOS Quality).

Sourced from Ger O’Neill as an unbroken four-year-old, and broken by the late Johnathan Fitzpatrick, he was, according to Padraig, “A nice athletic sort, but I couldn’t say he looked like a horse to win Burghley at that stage. When I first rode him however, I had a super feeling on him. He felt more athletic and felt like he had more power and scope than I had seen from him on the loose.”

Featuring among the many others to pass through Warren Farm are the enigmatic but brilliant Cillnabradden Evo (Andrew Nicholson and Oliver Townend) as well as Vendredi Biats (Kitty King) and MGH Regents Street (Millie Dumas).

In recent times, the horses at Warren Farm bear the MGH prefix, and I asked Padraig its origins. “It’s quite arbitrary really,” he remarked. “My home village in Tipperary is Grangemockler, which on the ordinance survey maps is frequently called Mullenaglogh or Muileann na gCloch – hence the MGH is just an abbreviation of Mullenaglogh.’’

Lucy Wiegersma training residential show jumping rider Sophie Stockdale at home in Devon \Courtesy of McCarthy family

Breeding

The breeding side of the business has blossomed and Warren Farm is now home to eight broodmares. Padraig also breeds from some of the young fillies every year, and none of the breeding herd are “heavy” or old-fashioned types. Padraig tries to use stallions that he feels could produce for both disciplines, and by doing that, he hopes that there will be options for the foals he breeds.

“We use a mixture of proven and younger sires every year. There are a few reasons that we sometimes use younger stallions and one is that younger stallions are generally speaking less expensive, more fertile (many older sires are only available via frozen semen and often don’t have good terms), and more available to use.

“In the past we have often used three-year-old stallions, but now we are less likely to do this and like to see the young stallions in competition. It just gives you a more complete picture of the horse, his attitude, and his rideability – a trait which we put quite a lot of weight on when choosing a stallion.

“Of course, the big disadvantage of using a young sire is that you often won’t have any information on how their offspring are, and what traits he is likely or unlikely to pass on. Sometimes a good performer won’t be a good breeder and vice-versa.

“Other times you will notice that a popular stallion will cover a lot of mares early in their careers and then they may lose popularity if people don’t have the best impression from their youngstock. This perception may or may not change as time goes on. Sometimes we know that a sire will not produce a standout foal or the best loose jumping horses, but as the youngsters develop they can become very good sport horses later in their careers.

“There are also stallions whose children look good at the beginning of their lives but don’t go on to the top of the sport. As a stallion gets older and has a lot of offspring, as well as knowing how good his children jump or move, we also know a lot more about the type of mare that suits him best. This takes a lot of the guessing out of the equation.”

Above all the stallions are chosen to compliment the individual mares. “We don’t aim to sell foals, so we are not concerned by results of foal sales from previous seasons. These are often a poor marker of what later turn out to be good horses.”

In common with many specialist breeders, Padraig has invested heavily in acquiring some top-quality show jumping mares, together with some very well-related blood mares that breed eventers. “Where possible we try to add blood at least every three generations,” he explained. “I have in the past brought all my three-year-old mares to Ireland to be covered by thoroughbred sires, which will not be easy now with Brexit!

“I have also used Herald III (Heraldik x Lorenz), as I think he has the qualities to become a very good sire. He show-jumped at the very top level for several years with various riders and having over 70% thoroughbred blood, he offers a very interesting alternative to breeders aiming to inject blood into their breeding programme. He produces very light-footed, sporty foals and I will continue to use him on both jumping and eventing mares this season.”

Discussing the much-debated subject of thoroughbred quotas in the pedigrees, Padraig comments: “I do like the positive influence that the thoroughbred brings to sport horse breeding. One doesn’t have to look for too long or too hard to see the huge importance of thoroughbred blood when it comes to being to the fore of championship and five-star events.

“Mr Chunky’s dam was a very hot little thoroughbred mare, and while he himself in phenotype looks more like his Irish Draught sire, Jumbo, he has enough gallop and stamina to win a point-to-point.

“In show jumping, many breeders and riders also recognise the contribution of the thoroughbred in producing top horses. The modern sport has become so competitive and the courses so technical, that along with scope, modern show jumpers need to be light-footed, quick, and intelligent; traits that the thoroughbred can add to heavier mares.”

Padraig McCarthy with his young daughter Mirin (Mimi) \ Courtesy of McCarthy family)

Changing dynamics

While the original business plan was to keep the home-breds until they gained competition form, Padraig has found that he is selling more and more young horses from foals to three-year-olds.

“The market for top-quality young horses has been getting stronger over the past few years and for many people purchasing a top-class four- or five-year-old is no longer affordable,” he explained. “So, they are choosing to buy the best quality unbroken horses they can find.”

Padraig is not a huge fan of loose jumping, and while the youngsters are given the opportunity to jump a small fence as yearlings, the impression they make at that early stage does not govern their future.

“It’s nice if they make a really good shape, but if they don’t we are not concerned,” he said. “We will take another look at them when they come back in the autumn and they often look very different. We may or may not see them jump again until they are three, but even then, we do very little loose jumping. For me, these early loose jumps are more about getting an idea of their attitude, cleverness and footwork, than seeing how big they can jump.”

Selling horses in 2020 was not without its challenges, and while Padraig utilises social media, he has a measured attitude towards it. “I have a fairly uncomfortable relationship with social media on the whole,” he comments.

“But I do try to keep a little presence through both my personal pages on Facebook and Instagram and on our MGH Sport Horse page on Facebook. We have managed to keep selling some horses through 2020 and while we don’t sell huge numbers, we have worked hard to be very open and honest with our clients which has meant that satisfyingly, many are repeat customers.”

Family life

Away from the horses, the McCarthys enjoy a very active family life, which is centred around their three children – five-year-old Tomás (Moss), Augustin (Gus) at two and half, and 17-month-old Mirin (Mimi).

Meal and bath times are must attend events if at all possible, for Padraig, while Lucy – with help from a local lady Kim Locke – still finds time to ride. Indeed, she competes many of the young horses, but has put any aspirations to move back up through the grades, firmly on hold. “Never say never,” she said with a laugh.

“I crammed four pregnancies into five years and at nearly 44, I’m not in my first flush of youth! I’m just starting to get back into riding with a bit more consistency, and when we have lights in our beautiful new indoor, I will no longer have any excuses not to find time to ride at home. I run the business, the farm, teach, oversee the yard and cook for everyone and keep house and it’s challenging with the kids as young as they are.

“I don’t want to be an absentee mother and to be honest there’s very little I miss about driving around Europe in a horsebox. I really enjoy working with the young horses at home and I get a kick out the fact that, as old and out-of-shape as I am at the moment, I can still get on most horses and fix problems.

“Every now and then I get on a young horse and get genuinely excited by its potential, and if one of those comes my way that doesn’t get sold or bagsied by my husband, then maybe ambition will start to take hold again.”

Tokyo Games

Looking to the Olympic Games this summer, Padraig is training hard with his two squad-listed horses (Fallujah and HHS Noble Call). The former is a relatively new horse to the McCarthy string although she had previously competed at four-star level.

“We have been working hard to build a partnership,” said Padraig. “She is a great mover, very reliable cross-country and is probably my main shot for Tokyo.” HHS Noble Call meanwhile, who was bred in Ireland by Marion Hughes and ridden to 1.35m with Mikey Pender, is described a big strong horse with a lot of power, but still lacking experience at the level.

The future looks bright for this enterprising couple, and concluding, Padraig comments: “I have a very nice bunch of young horses that will keep me motivated to stay riding competitively until at least Paris! After that we will see – I still feel young!”