WHEN Francis Connors sold the eight-year-old Just A Dream to the Iron Dames international show jumping team this summer, it was a watershed moment in the career of the hugely popular Waterford show jumping rider.

Fra, as he is better known, is arguably the most-admired horseman in the country, often described as “a master” and “a genius” when it comes to producing top-quality young jumpers.

And, this time around, the reward for his work was all his own. The potential of Just a Dream became increasingly obvious as this year progressed, with some spectacular performances leading to intense world-wide interest in the gelding that sold for a not-insignificant undisclosed sum.

After a lifetime of producing horses for other people, it just seemed right that this time Fra and his family would be the ones to benefit most.

There was never any doubt about the direction his life and career would take.

His father, Mick Connors, was a legendary horse dealer and some of Fra’s earliest memories on the busy family farm at Woodstown in Waterford are of visiting dealers. “There were a lot of Swiss and Italians, and other nationalities too. They travelled the country looking at horses, because there were no sales at the time.”

Born in April 1962, he was the youngest of seven children - “five girls and two boys, and from the beginning we were all riding,” Fra says. The sales gene was obviously pre-installed.

“We bought young ponies and produced them and jumped some and sold some, and I suppose it was just a progression to move on to the horse end of it. Back then, dealers didn’t tend to keep any horse.

“You bought something, produced it, sold it, that was just part of life. They probably ended up selling ones that they would have loved to keep for a while, but you had to sell to survive.”

With his top pony, Feather Duster, he competed on a number of Irish teams, once alongside his sister Caroline with her pony Bo Alley. At 15, he won the Grand Prix at a European Pony Championship in Soder, Germany in 1977, but official records only began the following year. Then it was on to horses.

“I didn’t really have a horse good enough for Junior internationals - they were good nationally, but not good enough to be on teams, so I just got into the dealing end of it - riding, jumping, selling. And then I was lucky enough that Diamond Express came along,” he explains.

"He was just so brave; he won everywhere we went,” said Francis Connors about his first top horse, Diamond Express

Extraordinary

Anyone who remembers this extraordinary King of Diamonds gelding will recall him bucking and kicking his way around the arena, with his ears pinned flat back as he pinged his fences. It was no wonder that breeder Joan O’Mahony from Killotteran didn’t think he was a suitable candidate for her riding school, so sold him at Goresbridge in 1983 as a five-year-old.

“He was quite mad really, but that was just his personality!” Fra said many years ago of the 165cm horse that would put him on the road to stardom.

He was just 21 when their partnership began and, at the following Spring Show, the pair finished third in a big class behind Capt Con Power. From there, they made a meteoric rise to the top, placing fifth in the Dublin Grand Prix in 1988 and winning the Grand Prix at Lagelshurst in Germany while Hickstead became their home-from-home.

“I don’t think he ever went to Hickstead without winning a class,” Fra says. “He was the one that gave me the confidence to compete at a higher level, simply because he had such a big heart. He performed at a level that he didn’t really have the ability for and, if I made a mistake, he just coped with it. He was just so brave; he won everywhere we went.”

By 1997, the pair had six national Grand Prix titles behind them and the plan was to retire the horse after one final win in Millstreet or Hickstead. However, early that year, at the age of 19, Diamond Express dropped dead at Ballylawn, where Fra and his wife Helen had set up their own home place.

Even 27 years later, you can tell that this horse is one that is never forgotten… “we buried him out there” Fra says, looking out across his fields.

Olympic Games

But by now, Fra’s uniquely sympathetic riding style had attracted a lot of attention and more horses kept coming his way. Backed up by his legendary head girl Maura Kelly who, for more than 30 years turned his string out to absolute perfection, he was the go-to man if you had a decent one.

He got the ride on the stunning Spring Elegance when James Kernan broke his leg in a fall from Touchdown during the National Championships at Salthill in 1991 and Cullohill Castle, Queen’s King and Diamond Explosion also joined his yard.

With Spring Elegance, he was short-listed for the Barcelona Olympic team in 1992, but the stallion was lame after Hickstead just a few weeks beforehand, so Fra travelled as reserve with Cullohill Castle instead.

As he said at the time, the big fences would have been fine for Spring Elegance, who had masses of scope, but the heat was really punishing for a big horse like Cullohill Castle, who only jumped in the warm-up competition. They came home to share the Puissance honours in Dublin that summer, before going on to post one of Fra’s four second-place finishes in the Millstreet Derby, all of the other three racked up with Diamond Express.

Spring Elegance bounced back to take runner-up spot in the World Cup Qualifier at Millstreet and, the following year, carried Fra to victory in the Cana Cup and to fifth in the Grand Prix at Spruce Meadows in Canada, where Diamond Express won the Six-Bar.

In 1995, Fra and Spring Elegance were on the victorious Irish team at the Nations Cup in Modena, Italy, alongside Jessica Chesney (Kurten) and Diamond Exchange, Robert Splaine and Heather Blaze and Trevor Coyle with Cruising - particularly memorable, as all four horses were Irish-bred.

James Kann Cruz

The flow of horses continued - Dury Diamond, Diamond Explosion and then into the Cruising era that included his partnership with Cruiseway, who was on a winning Nations Cup team in Falsterbo, Sweden in 2001. Merlin’s Magic, Hyperion, Lady Goldilocks, Uskerty Diamond Lady, Limestone Grey and Going Global - who Fra rode in Dublin as a four-year-old and who went on to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with Greg Broderick aboard.

Francis Connors and CSF James Kann Cruz winning a National Grand Prix in 2021 before the horse was sold to Shane Sweetnam \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

There was Much Loved, who went to Billy Twomey and, of course, James Kann Cruz, who has more recently been a mainstay of the Irish show jumping team with Shane Sweetnam in the saddle.

“I took him (James Kann Cruz) over in his five-year-old year, but then Covid got in the way a bit. As an eight-year-old, he started to really come into his own. He won a National Grand Prix in early summer and stepped up to the Premier in Balmoral and then the Premier Final in Barnadown. I always felt he was going to be a star, but it just took time to get there,” Fra explains.

So what was special about him?

“His exuberance - he just absolutely loved to jump! He is big, but once he learned to control his exuberance, he could control his stride and let you ride him.

"And once he started to understand all that, then the bigger fences were never going to be a problem”, he points out.

And this year, JM Just a Dream followed suit and came into his own at eight years old. Fra saw him at a show as a six-year-old and bought him. Like James Kann Cruz, this was another sparky character full of enthusiasm, “so I knew I was going to have to take my time before everything would fall into place,” Fra says.

“As we all know, it doesn’t always work out, but we were hoping that he could be what we felt he could be. So, as a seven-year-old, he never jumped in a qualifier or anything, because he just wasn’t ready. But this year, as an eight-year-old, he jumped the Dublin qualifiers at The Meadows and Mullingar. He went well, but didn’t qualify because of time faults. They are my downfall, because when you are trying to produce them, you end up with time faults.

“But from early summer, it all began to fall into place, he jumped a couple of National Grand Prix classes and really showed so much ability and potential and there was a whole lot of interest in him. He went to Tatts and jumped double clear in the National on Saturday and then double clear in the Premier on the Sunday.

"The phone was getting busier and busier and then he went to Millstreet and jumped double clear in the Grand Prix and that was kind of it then - we were being plagued at that stage with people wanting to buy him!”

He’s delighted the horse has ended up with German rider Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann as part of the Iron Dames all-female show jumping team, founded in 2018 by Deborah Mayer, with a view to promoting women in sport.

“He’s gone somewhere where he’ll get loads of opportunities and they are in no hurry to push him or ask him too many questions. Janne has been competing him in 1.35s and a couple of 1.40s already and she is taking her time with him, which is great.”

It’s his mantra really. Stop rushing horses, give them time…

Francis Connors and Just A Dream jumping in the 1.50m Premier Series at Tattersalls in August \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Influence

He says the late Paul Darragh was the biggest influence on his riding style. “When I finished school, I went to Waterside and rode quite a lot of the young horses there one winter. He was the one that sorted me out, as I had some bad habits before then. He taught me about balance and control, and how to teach horses to go without pressure.

“And I learned from him that the horse should carry you rather than you carrying the horse. It’s a lot easier to ride and it’s a lot less pressure on yourself and on the horse.”

Talking about today’s modern riding style, he says, “to me, all the training is geared towards creating this robotic thing, that if a distance is six strides you go down there in six strides, if it’s seven then you go in seven.

“Whereas, if you’re riding a young horse and the first fence doesn’t come up the way you want, then you have to be able to adapt and adjust to what’s going to happen before you get to the next fence. People don’t learn how to adjust or get themselves out of a situation without upsetting the balance of the horse and the balance at the jump.”

Fra says many young horses today simply do too much. “The biggest thing for me is that you’re not in a hurry, especially with the better ones.

“There is too much overproduction, over-jumping of young horses - qualifiers for this and that. It’s more like mass production instead of treating horses like individuals.

“Fine if you have a good horse and they are ready to do it, but it’s not the ultimate goal if you’re thinking of the bigger picture. I think we’ve lost a certain amount of the art of production, due to people trying to get a horse to a stage quicker than it is ready for.

“I’m noted for having time faults, but I feel that the time-allowed is often too tight. It gives no time to educate horses in the ring. My thinking on it is that, if they are good enough, they’re going to get sold anyway. I can’t honestly understand why the hurry is on!”

Fra doesn’t do a lot of jumping at home with the young ones. “I work on developing technique, they all have different issues, but generally grids, poles on the ground, just basically teaching them balance and control, forward and back, so they are listening to you.

“Then, when they go jumping, I would start them at a height where they feel comfortable. Generally, if you have something with a bit of ability, they progress quite quickly. For me, the biggest thing is to assess them from the word go and let owners know what they have. Be upfront and honest and tell them what you feel and think and where they’re going. They’ll appreciate it in the long run.”

Francis Connors and Uskerty Diamond Lady \ Tadhg Ryan

Scaling back

He says he’s scaling back, and a quick tour of the yard reveals about a half-dozen horses in the 26-stable barn, all looking very relaxed and happy. Including a part-Connemara pony - “I’m breaking that at the moment” - says the man who insists he’s not doing too much at this time of year. It seems pretty likely the numbers will grow again in the new year, despite his best intentions.

There’s no indoor for winter riding. “I never felt I could justify it”, says the man who has produced more top horses than most people have had hot dinners.

In the tack-room, warmed by a nice red Stanley, hang a huge number of well-oiled bridles just waiting for another horse to come along and, passing by the outdoor arena, it’s impossible not to imagine how many stars of the future learned their first important lessons in there.

Among the ones turned out in the paddocks near the house is his daughter Jenny’s Fortnight, who was competing in Cavan the day before. December jumping is not for Fra - “we used to start in February and turn them out at the end of September - that’s long enough for any horse in my opinion, I don’t know why anyone still wants to be jumping in December!” he says.

Fra and Helen have a family of three, daughters Jenny and Kate and son Stephen.

Grazing further down the avenue is an eye-catching bay, the nine-year-old mare Carrigshawn Vendi Royal, who is his latest project. “She’s just been stepped up, she jumped the Premier shows at the end of last year and she belongs to myself, Kate and Jenny. We bought her as a six-year-old and she just gave me a feeling I liked when I sat on her. She has come up through the ranks quickly enough and, although she was a bit of a challenge along the way, she will be competitive.”

He’s clearly not quite done yet, and on Tuesday he was inducted into the Showjumping Ireland Munster Roll of Honour at the RDS.

Francis Connors was inducted into the SJI Roll of Honour. Pictured with Tony Hurley and Christy Murphy \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Ask his peers about Francis Connors and they all talk about him with huge respect and great admiration. He could have made a career abroad, like so many other Irish riders, but chose instead to stay at home and rear his family, even through recessionary times when things were very tough in Ireland.

Robert Splaine says of his former rival and team-mate: “He’s as good as the best and everything a good horseman should be. He produces horses in the horse’s time, gives the horse what it needs, not what anyone else wants… He has produced some great ones that have gone on to do great things.

“Fra let’s the horses speak to him. He understands their language like few others.”