ON the eve of a gathering last Sunday in the Ferrycarrig Hotel to celebrate his landmark birthday, it’s a good time to reminisce with Walter Kent. But he’s a busy man. 90 years young the following Tuesday, he has just returned home from the Killinick Harriers point-to-point at Lingstown.
Farming, horses, hunting, point-to-pointing and racing are keen interests of his. Typical of the ‘auld decency’ characters around this country that thrived on hard work, Walter Kent is an individual who has given of his time too. President of the south-east’s premier agricultural show, Bannow and Rathangan Show, he has also served as the Stallion Owners’ Society chairman and is a well-respected judge.
“Walter is a brilliant horseman, great judge and always great company to be in,” said fellow stallion master, Edmund Vaughan. The Clongeel Stud owner was one of the judges at this year’s All-Ireland three-year-old final, hosted at Bannow and Rathangan.
“A great honour,” he added.
His co-judge was five-time US team vet Brendan Furlong, originally from Adamstown, where his family’s farm was just “200 yards away from the Kent’s farm, where Walter grew up. From the time he could walk, Walter was producing horses and helping with covering the mares. He was a part of it all from a very young age”.
He regards his neighbour’s yard as one that “kind of revolutionised the showing industry around the southeast,” as Walter’s namesake father started standing thoroughbred stallions – Agadir and Isolation are two recalled – as far back as 1914.
A Wise Mentor: Thomas Conlon learning from the best during the All-Ireland two-year-old final at Kildysart. Also pictured are former ISA chairmen John Browne and David Sheehan \ Susan Finnerty
“He [Walter Snr] stood thoroughbred stallions when not many knew what thoroughbred stallions were. It’s a family tradition for generations with the Kent family to stand stallions. Their stallions stamped their stock and had an unbelievable influence on the show horses around Wexford,” noted Furlong.
The model county
Wexford. It’s one of those counties that if you threw a horseshoe, it would land on a horseman or horsewoman. Or a relative. Walter’s brother, James, continued the tradition of standing stallions, including the noted show horse sire, Retieme.
Kiltealy Stud’s Jay Bowe is a first cousin of the Kent brothers, as is Denis O’Brien, father of ace racehorse trainer Aidan. Nancy, Walter’s wife, is related to the Hickey family in Garryrichard Stud, home of top national hunt stallions, show champions and now doubling as a sport horse operation, where GRS Lady Amaro was bred.
Walter and Nancy moved back to a 200-acre farm in Croase, near Cleariestown in 1960, after a half-dozen years living in London. Walter, as so many Irish did, worked in construction, while Nancy worked in the Bank of England.
“We really enjoyed it and I went racing nearly every weekend,” said this keen racing enthusiast about the choice of racecourses within striking distance of London.
The stallions – thoroughbreds, naturally – followed them to Cleariestown. Walter hit the jackpot with the first horse he stood: George Brummell, sire of Eddie Macken’s Carrolls Hunters Walk, the joint-winner of the Puissance class at the 1978 Dublin Horse Show, alongside Nelson Pessoa and the Irish-bred Miss Moet.
Caesar Imperator (sire of Frances Cash’s Formidable, the Dublin supreme champion hunter in 1998), Lucky Bay, Van Dantzig, Neringo and Stobhall are more of Kent’s stallions.
With Stobhall, Walter took third prize in one of Dublin’s thoroughbred stallion classes. Two of Bord na gCapall’s fleet of stallions and future Croker Cup champions, El Tiede and Samiel, were also stationed with Walter for a number of years.
Then there’s the current horse, Lansdown, by Grosvenor Lad out of the Silverstone mare Ballaghmore Gold and bred by Pat Ruane.
“The first Irish Draught stallion I had. He’s a lovely horse, nice step and bone. I hunted him myself when he was a coming four-year-old! He’s a very quality Irish Draught as well, some of the Irish Draught have gone too plain,” he said candidly.
“They’re getting it hard to find the show horses because they’re not breeding them like they used to. You’d have a good class mare and you’d breed her to a thoroughbred horse and any fillies, you’d breed them back to a thoroughbred horse again. I really think that’s the proper way to do it, you know?”
A renowned and well-respected judge, Walter was always in demand around Ireland.
“I judged the Irish Draughts in Dublin, at All-Ireland finals, Balmoral, I’d have judged all over the north… Clogher Valley, Ballymena, over to the West, Co Clare and the south. I really enjoyed it.”
What’s the Kent criteria for a good show horse?
“A quality horse. Good bone and they have to have a proper step.”
President
“You’d always know a Kent horse in the ring the way they’re produced,” remarked a fellow Wexfordman and Walter has bred his fair share of good ones, including the half-brothers, The Only One (Duca di Busted) and Simply Sox, by another of his brother James’ thoroughbred stallions, Don Tristan.
The Only One finished best of the Irish at the 2011 Tattersalls International CCI3* and was also selected on the Irish team with Jayne Doherty for that year’s European eventing championships at Luhmühlen. That German five-star fixture is on Simply Sox’s CV too and he also competed at Burghley and Pau with British rider Julie Tew.
Both event horses were out of Pride of Kildare, a Kildalton Son – Skippy mare, bred by Pat Hoare.
Walter has trained his fair share of point-to-pointers and racehorses, including five-time winner Scar Bridge.
“She won in Galway and Listowel, we had a great time with her.”
Dublin is an annual pilgrimage for the Kent family.
“I never missed Dublin since I was 12 years of age. We’d always go for a day or two and when the stallions were there, for the week.”
Closer to home, there is the home show at Adamstown Show. And Bannow and Rathangan, held on the second Thursday in July, when it seems everyone in the south-east just downs tools and heads to Killag for a day out.
“It started in 1949 and I jumped ponies there at that time,” recalled Walter, the show’s current president, about its history. “When I came down here to Cleariestown, I got more involved.”
With the urging of the committee members, chiefly Eddie White, Walter joined the show committee and graduated up the ranks. Both astute and courteous, his presence and quiet authority on show day, coupled with a superb team, means a clockwork-run day.
Before The Off: Pat White, Walter Ronan (Walter’s grandson), Jim Callaghan from Galway Crystal/ Belleek China, Francie Summers, veterinary surgeon Ros Deveraux, Walter Kent, Eamonn Furlong and the 2023 All-Ireland judges: Edmund Vaughan and Brendan Furlong \ Susan Finnerty
“You wouldn’t get better than Betty, Liz and every single person on the committee and anyone who helps out, they’re a great bunch. I’m grateful to one and all of them.”
Betty Stafford is the show chairperson.
“Prior to Walter’s role as President, he acted as Vice-Chairman for many years,” she explained. “Walter is actively involved in the show preparations, attending all the meetings and preparing the field. We wish him well and look forward to his input for many years to come. Walter is a pure gentleman and can always be relied on to give sound advice when needed. He has a quiet, gentle nature and makes everyone feel so welcome on the day. It is heartening to see two more generations of his family involved in the show also: his daughter, Anita, and grandson, Walter.
“He has a wonderful knowledge of horses and was instrumental in starting the All-Ireland three-year-old championship. This competition has grown and grown in popularity and celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024.”
To win at Bannow
That All-Ireland three-year-old final centrepiece is regarded by young horse producers as one of the most challenging, yet prestigious, titles to win. It takes some horse to shine in that big Bannow ring: geldings and fillies, lightweights up through the ranks to heavyweights, traditional types versus modern sport horses, all pitted against each other. It’s a fascinating final to watch, line out in and, most of all, to have the winning horse at the top of the prize winners’ line-up.
The final, one of the Irish Shows Association’s championships, started off as a cross-border initiative with long-standing sponsors Galway Crystal and Belleek China coming on board from the get-go.
Team Bannow: Gathered for a special presentation in 2018 to Michael Hughes, retiring from his ISA roles that summer, are some of the dynamic Bannow team: Anne White, Liz Freeman, Betty Stafford, the late Paddy Murphy, Michael and Eamonn Furlong \ Susan Finnerty
In recent years, the final has also benefitted from being part of Horse Sport Ireland’s showing series and, of course, the host committee’s constant support and financial backing.
There’s also another unsung reason behind the history of this final, set to celebrate that silver anniversary next July.
“My son died 26 years ago, I wanted to run this final and that’s how we started the three-year-old final.” A fitting tribute.
Walter’s late son John was another Wexford man who loved the hunting field: “He loved the hunt and inter-hunt chases and was on the Killinick team a few times in the RDS when it was rough and ready. They were great times,” said his sister Anita Ronan, who skilfully produces the Cleariestown home-breds.
Their father hunted for 78 years.
“I only gave up about three years ago in the Covid. I hunted with all the packs in Wexford, the Wexford Hounds when I was young, the Brees and when I came down here, I got involved with the Killinick Harriers.”
Another ‘Walter’
A four-legged ‘Walter’ was another hunting field legend, as The Irish Field hunting reporter Noel Mullins takes up the story.
“We are fortunate if we are lucky enough to own one outstanding hunter in our lifetime and I was one of those people. I’ve always had the height of respect for Wexford breeders and producers. I have come to know Walter Kent from my hunt reporting with the Killinicks; Jack Lambert, the breeder of Grange Bouncer, the Irish Draught stallion which I hunted; James O’Connor, father of former jockey Warren O’Connor, Mick Berry and they were all good point-to-point jockeys as well, particularly over the banks point-to-point in Lingstown.”
According to Noel, a Wexford-made hunter is fit for purpose: “The hunting country is so challenging that any young horse that gets their education in the Bree, Killinick, Wexford and Island hunt country will hunt anywhere.”
Back in 1988, Noel was tipped off by Fingal Harriers huntsman Terry White about a young horse for sale in Walter’s yard.
“We went down to Walter’s, jumped the horse over some enormous banks and I did the deal. We named him ‘Walter’ after his producer and from day one he never stepped back from a fence and always jumped perfect at a blind ditch, which you get early in the season when you are making the country for the followers.
“He had enormous scope, so much so, that instead of walking up to a ditch or a bank, I could ride him on and he would sail through the air like a point-to-pointer. Over a double bank you could feel him change legs under you on top of a bank.”
“While I whipped-in off him for 13 seasons, I also hunted the hounds off him when the huntsman was injured. He loved having the hounds around him and just cocked his ears when I blew the hunting horn. But, like all talented horses, he had a kink in him.”
Difficult on the road, blue trucks and tractors were public enemy number one and Walter “could swing around on the road and, if you were not sitting tight, he could leave you on the ground. But he was like a lamb in the stable or around the children. I hunter trialled him and my son, who was 12 years old at the time, hunter trialled him”.
Colic claimed Noel’s favourite hunter in 2007: “It broke my heart when I had to get my vet Peadar Ó Scanaill to put him down. I dedicated my Horse Fairs book to him. Martha Woodham, a book reviewer in the USA, remarked when reviewing my book that, while she had reviewed hundreds of books, this was the first one she reviewed dedicated to a horse. Walter was a horse of a lifetime and I have never been able to get past the first page of my dedication, as all the emotions come back.”
The real deal
Another of the countless anecdotes involving Walter Kent. Brendan Furlong has a couple more.
“The first man who took me hunting was Ger O’Leary, an uncle of Walter’s, an unbelievable man to ride to hounds,” said Furlong, who hunts stateside with the Essex Foxhounds and Amwell Valley Hounds.
He recalled a phone call from Walter, inviting him to be one of this year’s All-Ireland final judges.
“When Walter called me out of the blue asking me to judge, I said, ‘Are you joking me?’ But he just said, ‘Promise me you’ll do it’.”
Furlong was already planning to fly over for Bannow and Rathangan, like his home show Adamstown, a must-go-to growing up in the Model County.
Trademark Turnout: Walter’s daughter Anita Ronan at Tinahely Show in 2019 \ Susan Finnerty
There was a special reason for his journey home. Tipped off by Eamon Hughes about the 2022 champion, Daphne Tierney’s Bloomfield Watergate, he bought the Watermill Swatch gelding, then produced this summer by Jane Bradbury to bring off a remarkable back-to-back Dublin championship double of both the supreme hunter and young horse titles, a feat his proud owner believes has never been done before.
And so, he wanted to revisit Bannow and Rathangan, before finding he wouldn’t just be sitting ringside to watch the final, instead judging it with Edmund (Vaughan) and selecting Dessie Gibson’s Cormint three-year-old as their 2023 champion.
“I just have the most profound admiration for Walter, he’s so grounded in horses by horses. He’s the real deal.”
“It’s men like Walter who are the backbone of the agricultural shows. Thank you, Walter,” added Betty, while Bannow’s equally dynamic secretary Liz Freeman had this to say: “It’s a pleasure to know Walter, he is a pure gentleman, a wonderful horseman and I have learned a lot from him over the last 30 years.”
Another Walter Kent was discovered in this week’s research: the American-born composer, who wrote such classics as The White Cliffs of Dover and the timely I’ll Be Home For Christmas.
To his Bannow committee and many friends though, there’s only the one Walter Kent.