EMMA MacNamara had every horse owner’s dream come through weekend last week – when a horse she believes in, and has invested time and money into, delivered a winning performance at international level.

Greenfort Gorgeous George, Emma’s eight-year-old Kings Master gelding, took the top-spot in the CCI3*-S at Ballindenisk International under Elizabeth Power after they finished on their dressage score of 24.8

“The minute I sat on a pony that was it, I had a kind of obsession with them,” Emma told The Irish Field. “My first memory was riding a donkey down in Co Clare when I was about four and I was hooked after that. Myself and my sisters always had ponies and we came up through Pony Club and hunting and hunter trials.

“After school finished I went to university in the UK to study optometry. While there I was lucky enough to bump into a guy named Conor MacNamara, who is now my husband. He was based in the UK as well and he was also into horses, so he sort of allowed me to embellish my enthusiasm for horses.

“Conor is a doctor by profession, he was brought up on the hunting fields of Limerick and is a total enthusiast. He gets up on the youngsters and rides them over drains or anything. He really is an old-school natural horseman.”

The couple’s first event horse went on to win a three-day event under British legend William Fox Pitt. “Back in 1992 we bought our first event horse, Mulligan Shenanigans. He was initially ridden by my husband, then he went on to a neighbour of ours (how lucky can you get), former Olympian and European silver medallist Fiona Van Tuyll.

“She rode him up to intermediate level but by this time she was winding down her competitive career, and as he was quite a big horse, he needed quite a big rider so she moved him on to William Fox Pitt. He went on to win his first three-day event at Tweseldown in Britain so I was really hooked after that.”

Passionate

“At the time I thought that’s how easy it is – how wrong I was!” Emma said with a laugh. The couple then moved home to Co Limerick and have continued with their passion.

“In 2007 we took over my husband’s family farm at Greenfort in Crecora, Co Limerick, and I’ve accumulated mainly Irish-bred horses since. I like to try and stick with traditional Irish breeding. I like an Irish Sport Horse crossed with a thoroughbred, which is what Gorgeous George is.

“He is by Kings Master out of a thoroughbred mare Kokopelli Star, and was bred by George Masterson. Another one I have with Elizabeth is the 10-year-old gelding Greenfort Society Diamond, by Carrick Diamond Lad out of Gold Valley Hope (TB).

“I am passionate about eventing. There are just so many permutations to it; it’s almost impossible, it really is, so that kind of attracted me. I find the event riders to be really hard workers, they have unbelievable attention to detail.

"It is a top, top sport to be involved in for everybody; the riders, the owners, the horses. Also the venues, both here and in the UK, are spectacular. It’s a great day out.

“We were lucky enough back in 2007 to meet up with a very talented rider, Angela Dennehy, who rode a number of horses very successfully for us. She has since gone on to medical school to graduate as a doctor.

“Jessica O’Driscoll then rode horses for us, as well as Fergal Nesbitt. We also have a horse in the UK which I co-own with Alice Watt, Greenfort Marbridge (Master Imp - Marbridge Lady) who was bred by a fantastic lady in Co Carlow, Brigid Fenlon.

Education

Emma favours traditional breeding and likes to buy horses that have nothing done.

“All my horses, except for two, have had traditional Irish breeding which is getting harder to find. I like to buy my horses with nothing done. Ideally two-year-olds which I like to turn out with my oldies; it gives them a job and is so good for the youngsters,”

“They come in as three-year-olds and get handled, backed, broken and long reined on the farm. We have a couple of guys that help us with that.

“We would let them have a couple of days hunting and do some small hunter trials. Then they would start the young event horse classes. I really enjoy those classes, I think it’s a great education for the horses. But I think the best thing of all for them is to go out and do some of the unaffiliated events.

“Over the years, I have moved a couple of them on. I had Greenfort Othello who went to Olympian Gina Miles in the USA, and Greenfort Carnival who went to Pan-American Games medallist Shannon Lilley.

“Getting back to Greenfort Gorgeous George, so named because he was bred by George Masterson and was so good looking. He had been in the RDS and was placed in the Millstreet Young Event Horse class when ridden by Lee Maher. I needed him to go on to an up the grade professional rider so I rang Elizabeth Power just two weeks before Camphire, I had him entered but had no jockey, and luckily Esib agreed to take him on.”

Emma is full of praise for the jockey. “She has transformed him. In her last six outings she’s had four wins so I’m happy now, if she never won another class that’s fine by me. I can’t praise her enough, she’s a top-class competitor.

“There’s not many riders that have had so much success in both professional show jumping and eventing; so my horse is in the best possible hands and I thoroughly enjoy going out and watching her compete.

“Over the years I’ve bought my horses from all sorts of different places; the sales and private buyers. I’ve been very lucky to have some super horses come from people like the aforementioned Brigid Fenlon from Old Leighlin, Co Carlow. I bought Greenfort Marbridge and two and two of his full-brothers from her.

“Another great lady is Barbara Hatton. I’ve had such great success with horses from her, I’m so lucky to have met her.

“I’ve bought some lovely foals from the Wakefield family in Co Galway, and of course I got Gorgeous George from Con Keohane in Co Cork. I find you return to the same people if you’ve had some success with their horses.”

Bug bearer

“If I had to look for something negative about eventing, and this is after almost 30 years involved in the sport, the one thing, across the board in Ireland and the UK, that bugs me is the going. I feel that there should be a standard for the going.

“You see it time and time again; people enter and prepare their horse for an event, they show up and walk the course and the ground is too hard so they withdraw.

“I feel the onus should be on some sort of impartial adjudicator who is appointed the night before an event to assess the going and they can decide if it’s suitable to run the horses on, that’s my one bug bearer.”

Emma feels something like the GoingStick, used to measure ground conditions in racing, should also be implemented in eventing.

“In racing, you see Ruby Walsh with the stick. He throws it into the ground. I think we should have something like that. Someone who walks the track, assesses the track and gives it a score out of 10, make it nice and simple.

“The longevity of the event horse is dependent on the runs they had when they were four, five and six years old. If they run on bad ground it shortens their career.

“I must say the Fells made a tremendous effort with Ballindenisk; they were out the night before and aerated and watered the ground.

Future plans

“Looking forward, I have three four-year-olds this year and the plan is to turn them out in May. With Covid-19, the horses are a little behind where they would normally be by this time of year, they have had a little cross-country school and some arena work.

“They are typical Irish horses they only show you a little bit at a time, so you have to be patient.

“They just show you what you need to see every time, you don’t pressurise them, when their time is right, their time is right.”

Just one of Emma’s four-year-olds has traditional breeding – “he’s out of a Puissance mare by Step Dancer, and he was quite hard to find, they are just not out there” – so she is excited about going down the breeding route herself.

“Last year I bought a thoroughbred mare with Danehill breeding and the plan with her is to use her as a broodmare and eventually breed traditional Irish-breds myself so that’s exciting.

“We have a great girl, Ellen Barry, who helps us out in the yard. She’s a very talented rider and we hope to get her out eventing.

“George will go down to Millstreet to do the long format and Greenfort Society Diamond will do his first intermediate run in Punchestown this weekend. We have plenty to look forward to.”