Name: Bill Maguire
Company name: Bill Maguire Equestrian
From: Ardfert, near Tralee, Co Kerry
What type of business are you in?My business consist of four parts (riding, coaching, breeding and the multimedia side) but is further broken down into horse producing/training/rehab, coaching, breeding, competing and presenting for ClipMyHorse.tv, as well as calling at national and international events such as Millstreet, Kilguilkey, Tattersalls, and Ballycahane.
Qualifications: HSI Level 2 coach, Fetac Level 5 OFA, Train the Trainer, Masters in Digital Media NUIG.
What is your experience in the equestrian industry?
As a youngster I spent time getting experience with Peter and Ann Leonard (O’ Grady), and DJ O Sullivan. They helped me see the ‘reality’ of the business that one cannot learn from books, or courses! I also spent a lot of my youth soaking up what I could in Kennedys in Tralee.
I come from a non-horsey family, but we had beef and pedigree cattle, and a dog or two. My parents passed on the ability to ‘read’ an animal which has stood to me with more difficult horses. At 14 years old, my bible was Anthony Paalmaan’s Training Showjumpers, and without an arena, I have fond memories of riding 20 metre circles on ponies in the dark, using our reflection in the kitchen window to check our progress!
With help from Mary O’Connor in Cork, and Eddie Vaughan in Macroom, I was a finalist in the Spillers Golden Saddle Scheme at Dragonhold for two years running, taking bronze to Capt. Geoff Curran’s gold one year, and Neal Fearon’s gold the other. Other finalists those years were such notaries as Shane Sweetman, Capt. Terry White, James Hogg and Andrew Bourns. I was lucky I was a product of the newly formed Kingdom Pony Club which helped immensely with the stable management element.
In 2001, I broke my neck and back in a car crash which curtailed my riding for a while. I took this opportunity to return to college to do an honours degree, and decided to do my Level 1 HSI coaching. I loved the course, and was amazed at how differently I now looked at how people rode. Not just on feeling, but how to arrive at that feeling repeatedly. I was back riding in Galway before anyone could stop me.
The last 10 or so years have been spent breaking, training, competing, selling, breeding, upskilling and honing my coaching skills, setting up my own yard, and getting into the equestrian side of digital media.
In 2012, I joined with a select few others to help organise and host a show jumping foal class during the Mullingar International Show. Judging was not primarily on how a foal or mare looks, but on the potential of the foal to become a top show jumper. The format was very similar to what the HSI Foal classes are now, although we did include a very small natural log such as what a foal might meet in the field. The winner, Monbeg Thunderball B, bred by Andrea Etter, is now jumping FEI 1.45m in the USA.
I broke my hip and pelvis in a bad fall in 2016 and Gisela Holstein was amazing with her guidance, knowledge and experience when I went back riding after recovery. It took nearly four months before I could sit on a horse and she helped me regain the feeling I needed to work a horse correctly again. That road to recovery helped my riding to get back on track enough to produce three different four-year-olds from unbroken, right through to being selected for the three Irish elite eventing sales, namely Tattersalls, Go for Gold, and Monart, as well as breaking and producing a local Traditional Irish horse for a Young Rider to qualify for the RDS.
On the media front, a personal highlight of mine was co-presenting the European Show jumping Championships for Young Riders, Juniors and Children on Horses in 2016 from Millstreet.
Why did you opt to start up this business?
It got to the point where I realised that I was never going to be truly fulfilled in life if I wasn’t working with horses full time - all day, every day. I absolutely love it and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. From the presenting aspect, I wanted to encourage a sense of occasion, and help bring the ‘show’ back into our competitions. The lack of flair has lost public interest, and in turn, sponsorship. My colleagues Chris Ryan and Tom Busteed have been doing great work in this area for eventing.
What do you enjoy about your job the most?
So many things: hearing a horse eat hay, seeing ears forward over the door, the smell, the satisfaction of seeing a difficult one progress even a little, watching ones you started in life go on to greatness, seeing the lightbulb go off on a student’s face, living their achievements with them, the variety of characters in my day, both human and equine, the travelling, learning something new everyday, helping someone, the great outdoors.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
Staying on schedule, finding ways to adapt the business in changing times, searching to unlock that special horse, finding time to do everything on the daily list, explaining that the word ‘no’ means no.
How is the pandemic crisis affecting your business?
Due to lockdowns and travel limitations, the coaching aspect has completely come to a halt. Hopefully as the country opens back up safely, the demand will be high to prepare for shows. Everything is on hold, but it is outside our control, and good things come to those who wait!
On a positive note, Katie Tobin Walsh, a promising young rider who I have helped for a number of years, has now based at my yard, and with the lack of shows, there has been plenty of time for discussion and practice. Her enthusiasm and desire to learn is a wonderful distraction and reminiscent of my younger days!
Bill Maguire was in conversation with Emer Bermingham