"WE won’t hold it against you,” said Tim Bourke when I told him I was from Galway during our long distance call for this interview.

Some things never change, and the (sometimes) friendly rivalry between Galway and Mayo folk is one of those things. Although the international event rider now resides on a beautiful farm in Virginia, Westport will always be home, and his fondness for the motherland is as strong as ever.

But America is, after all, the land of opportunity, and it was exactly that – opportunity – that made him leave Ireland for good over 12 years ago. That and he had fallen in love with an American girl, Marley Stone, his now wife.

He is one of very few Irish event riders in America; with most choosing Britain as their base if not staying at home, and as we chat, he is getting organised to go to the international at Stable View after five days at Carolina International Horse Show.

Tim is speaking from his winter base in Aiken, South Carolina, 500 miles from home in Virginia, where he and Marley spend the winter circuit with a team of horses. He was one of the most active Irish event riders over the last year, with so many opportunities to continue eventing in America.

Like many professional event riders, he grew up in a family that had a riding school and was always mad about horses. His competitive days were few and far between when he was a youngster.

“It wasn’t really until I went away to college and got going is where it first started off for me. I did do Pony Club and then I worked for Philip Scott in Ballina, at his show yard and got a bit of mileage there,” he explained.

He got his third level education at Gurteen Agricultural College and that is when his competitive streak took off. “John Craig used to be the principal, he was retired and had farm not far away. I used to work for John; he got me into eventing, gave me a couple of horses to ride and compete and that got me going.

“When I was finishing up in Gurteen, I trying to figure out what I was going to go. I always thought I would go home to Westport and set up my own yard and have horses there. I decided I’d take a year and go somewhere to get mileage before I did that.”

An opportunity to work for the multiple medal-winning American Olympian Bruce Davidson came up and he took it with open arms. He ended up staying two years instead of one, but still wasn’t convinced and wanted to give business a go in Westport, so he headed home and set up his own yard.

Tim Bourke and Luckaun Quality \ Susan Finnerty

Torturous

“Ah you just weren’t going anywhere, treading your heels doing breakers and not getting out. It was torturous.

"I rode some horses then for Jonathan Reape at Ard Chuain after that, and actually we are the best of friends ever since. Everything I buy comes from him.”

At that stage, Marley, his then girlfriend, transferred and went to University in Galway for a year, but they decided that America was where they wanted to be.

“That was it, I decided I didn’t want to be Ireland, I needed to be back in US, there was way more opportunities for me. I moved back, worked for Sharon White for six or seven years before we got married, bought the farm, started our own business maybe six of seven years ago and we have been flying ever since.”

Stone’s Throw Farm is located on 110 acres in Berryville, Virginia, with 24 stables, two houses and a full cross-country course, most of which Tim built himself. “We are self-sufficient in that we make our own hay. In the hay field we always keep a 20ft wide path mowed around the outside so we have plenty of room for cantering.

“It is in a great location. There are probably 10 events up to two-star level without an hour of us. In terms of America, it is probably one of the best areas to be in to run an eventing business from.”

Love for an Irish-bred

The horse that put Tim on the map was the OBOS Quality-sired Luckaun Quality. Bred by Ronan Sheehan, he is out of the Cavalier Royale-sired Colwyn Bay. Tim broke him as a three-year old at Reapes and it was the start of an exceptional career.

Together, they completed Kentucky CCI5* four times, finishing 11th in 2016. In 2017 and 2018, they were the fastest cross-country round of the day, and they were best of the Irish at Burghley CCI5* in 2015.

Telling the story of his special horse, who was by no means straightforward, Tim said: “I broke the horse while I was in Reapes and just loved him. He was owned by Walter [Reape] and when I did move back they said I could take him; we would figure out from there where we ended up going, maybe we would sell him. That never happened … he was too hard to ride to sell so we had no choice but to keep going.

“He ended up being a life-changer for me. The horse was just phenomenal, in terms of a first big-time horse, a first horse to go to Kentucky with and get around some of those big tracks. He is a beast of a horse, an absolute beast.

“He was not easy to ride, he pulled the arms out of you. But you point him at something, and you always went between the flags.

"He was very quick on his feet; you might think you were coming into something too fast, but he would always get there and take care of it and figure out where his feet would go. For a big horse, he was very quick-footed.”

They were called up as first reserves for the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon when Aoife Clark was forced to withdraw, but sadly he was struck down with a neurological disease called Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM). “We almost lost him, it went very neurological and he nearly died. Some horses recover fully from it, some don’t. He has nerve damage behind so he trots wrong behind.

“But he is still here with us at 16. One of the girls that works here, Catherine, has been doing some show jumping on him, doing the 1.10s. He is beyond happy to be out doing something, it is cool to see him happy.”

Creature of habit

A look down through his list of horses shows nearly all Irish-breds. Is it something he looks for specifically? “I am a little bit of a creature of habit. I found a very good contact and person in Jonathan, who I trust that knows what I am looking for and is able to pick through the horses and find the horses that I want. I have never looked abroad for horses, I’ve never looked anywhere else but Ireland.”

Quality Time (Guidam x High Roller), bred by Clionadh Carroll, is among the most exciting of the group. The day before we spoke, the 10-year-old mare won the Advanced at Carolina.

“She is proper. I bought her when she was four and I’ve loved her from day one. She is the most clever horse you could ever imagine sitting on. It is like sitting on a rocket cross-country, you never pull the reins, never look at the watch, never use your stick; you just bridge your reins and canter around and she makes everything so easy.”

Her 2021 aim was due to be Kentucky, but she missed her qualification when she couldn’t complete the CCI4*-L at Tryon last year due to an injury after going clear across the country. A re-route will hopefully see her get that five-star qualification in Jersey Fresh before which she will be aimed at the new CCI5* at Maryland in the USA. “She is a team horse for sure, she is a proper proper horse,” he said.

He believes he has another team horse in the seven-year-old gelding Quality Explosion (OBOS Quality x Dolmen Déjà vu) who was bred by Irish Horse Board chairman Jack Murphy, while others include Flying Quality (OBOS Quality x Clover Hill, bred by Eamonn Gleeson) and Looks Quality (Lux Z x Tough Merger, bred by Padraig Lyons), as well as the eight-year-old mare Monbeg Liberine.

“He is by Womanizer. He was bred not far from home, in Ballinrobe. We have him doing the three-star this weekend [he finished in the top 10]. He belongs to a student of mine and I just got the ride this year. I think he is about as a good of a horse as you would want to sit on as well. He is out of a Chillout mare and Womanizer puts good jump to them.”

Tim thinks so much of the gelding that he went and bought his full-sister out of the field from the breeder, Ann Geraldine O’Malley. “I called them up when I was at home for my brother’s wedding in 2019 and said I have the Monbeg horse and did you have any others. Anytime I go home, I’d be happy to give them a call and see what they have.”

Tim and Marley are breeding from a mare that Marley rode to Intermediate level. “She is by Diarado out of Cavalier Royale and we just bred her to Imothep. We have a five-year-old by Imothep that we love, with a great brain, blood, light, very uphill and smart. He breeds very nice models,” he said of the Hyperion Stud-owned stallion that Darragh Kenny rode at the 2014 World Equestrian Games.

Blood

And on that well-debated subject of blood, what are Bourke Eventing’s views? “I never ever look at the percentage blood a horse has, ever. I don’t know if that is a fault but … I will find out afterwards just out of curiosity. For me, I would rather see more on the type that they are more than what is written on paper. You could have a full thoroughbred and it wouldn’t run up the hill if you paid it!”

He makes no secret that cross-country is his favourite discipline and he has struggled with the first phase. “I find cross-country easy, I like it, I understand it well, and horses tend to go well for me. Dressage would be the weakness for me. I have spent a lot of time in the last couple of years training with David O’Connor to try and get myself to the level where I can be competitive at the top of the sport and hopefully get on that Irish team.”

While that team honour has eluded him so far, Tim keeps in touch with Sally Corscadden and he is hopeful with the classy bunch of horses he has at present. “Sally has always been good to me. She came over before Tryon in 2018 and was there for the test event.

“I guess I have been a little bit out of touch in that the horses I have now are just coming through; Quality Time is the oldest of what I have and she is only 10, so we are just coming through now.”

At home, Tim and Marley’s little four-year-old boy, Senan, keeps them busy. “He is wild!” And will he follow in his eventing parents’ footsteps? “Who knows, it is his choice, not ours!”