CHARLES Maudlin is heading to his third Olympic Games in Paris in two weeks to fulfil the role of assistant chief steward for jumping, but he remains humble and still enjoys helping out at local shows.

His voice was heard over the airwaves at Corrandulla Show at the end of June, far removed from the dizzy heights of the Olympics. “Because I am a senior national judge, I don’t get invited to too many shows, and wouldn’t have that much time anyway, but I really enjoy that show. The ground was perfect and those shows are just special,” he tells The Irish Field.

Maudlin is just back from stewarding at CHIO Aachen and getting ready to leave for the FEI Young Rider European Championships in Kronenberg, where he will act as FEI chief steward, and from there it is straight to Paris, where he is the only Irish official.

Maudlin, who lives in Roscommon, has a coloured background in the sport. “I’ve always worked with horses, and I came to Ireland back in the early 90s for a job as an estate manager. As soon as we were in Ireland, we settled down into the riding club scene. From there, I went judging riding club, course building and that developed into SJI. And each year at Dublin, I did various roles from assistant course designer; I even announced one year in Simmonscourt, and was then made arena director for Simmonscourt following Bernie Brennan,” he explained.

“I had seen the work stewards did. I was asked to form the national stewarding group for the RDS, as back then there was nothing. Then I saw what they were doing in the international warm ups, and said right, I must try that. I’ve just been very lucky. I started back with John Chambers, went to Belfast show for a couple of days trial just to see if I liked it, and they liked me. I was just in the right place at the right time, because, in fact, I’d only been a steward for two years and I went to the London Olympics.”

Olympic experience

That first Olympic experience in London was in the form of a night steward, while four years later, in Rio de Janeiro, he was the stable manager. He thoroughly enjoyed that nine-week experience in Brazil’s capital city, when he carried out the role for both the Olympics and Paralympics.

“I did go to Tokyo in 2019 for the test events that they had, again as a stable manager. But when it eventually ran in 2021, I couldn’t get the time off that would have been required for the Olympics, so I didn’t go.”

And it’s another step up in Paris, when he will be the assistant chief steward. “I will not have a specific role, even when jumping is on, I will very much be assisting the chief, who is a Swedish woman called Maria Hernek. I have worked with her before and actually, she is my assistant at the Barcelona Nations Cup final this coming year. So we work quite a lot together.”

Challenges

What are the challenges that come with the role? “Two things. First is, horse welfare and that is, of course, paramount. But the other thing is a consistency and a fairness to everybody and that is particularly prevalent at the Olympics, because it’s vital that every team has exactly the same opportunity. It doesn’t matter whether they are Ireland, Germany, USA, or, let’s say, Israel or a lower-level team. That’s a huge challenge,” Maudlin explained.

“You really are there to help and support, and stewarding, in its own line has changed, certainly the last 10 years. It used to be that you were the policeman and the catchers and you saw something wrong, and you reported straight away.

“Now, if we see something wrong, we will try to help, educate, inform and ensure that the rider or the groom knows how to behave or what equipment to use. The first thing I say at every briefing, at every show, is that we are there to help.”

Maudlin adds that he and his colleagues are in the privileged position of seeing the emotions at a big championship.

“We would see the sheer joy or the absolute despair when something goes wrong. And we’re there to try and be as supportive as we can. Everything from a horse having a catastrophic injury right the way through when they win the gold medal, and you do get to share it, so it’s very rewarding in that way.”

Does he cheer for Ireland? “I was over the moon on Thursday last week when they won in Aachen. But it doesn’t matter who it is, that’s the nice thing, because you actually have the same relationship with everyone.”

Maudlin is looking forward to Paris “with a little bit of trepidation. We’re very aware of the social license to operate, that we have to make sure that everything is smooth, fair and a good spectacle for the public, because at the end of the day, we rely on that and it will be a challenge.”

Big moments

Maudlin is one of just 13 Level 4 stewards in the world and that was a major highpoint moment when he passed that exam, but from a competition point of view, he picks out the Irish gold medal at the 2017 FEI European championships as a highlight.

“I was assistant chief steward, and I just saw their whole demeanour change when Bertram [Allen] was eliminated and suddenly they really like ‘come on, we can do this, and we will do this’. And then they did do it, it was actually very, very special.

“I was in London when Cian [O’Connor] won his medal, but I wasn’t quite so close to that action that time.”

Outside of his stewarding duties, Maudlin is chairman of the Western Region of the AIRC, a senior national SJI judge, plus he still works part-time in the transport industry.