NINE Irish-bred horses competed in the eventing competition at the Paris Olympic Games, with one of them – MGH Grafton Street (OBOS Quality, bred by Martin J Collins) – ending on the podium with a team bronze medal for Japan, ridden by Yoshiaki Oiwa.

For USA’s Caroline Pamukcu, there was disappointment on cross-country say when she picked up 20 penalties for a run-out with her Irish Sport Horse HSH Blake (Tolan R x Kannan, bred by Justin Burke).

The pair won individual gold at last year’s Pan American Games and Caroline remains so excited for her 10-year-old gelding who was sourced by her business partner and best friend Kelly Hutchinson who accompanied her in Paris.

“Kelly sourced him and brought him over, it was early on in our sale days so I didn’t have any owners and he was originally brought over as a sales horse, even though I didn’t want to sell him,” she explained.

“We got him from a really, really great lady named Mary Mangan and she did an unbelievable job producing him to the early stages of his five-year-old year. We’ve done everything together since then.”

For Brazil’s Ruy Fonseca, he was subbed in the final jumping phase aboard the Irish Sport Horse Ballypatrick SRS (Pacino x Clover Hill, bred by Cheryl Broderick).

“I got him from as a five-year-old in Ireland from Sophie Richards. We’ve been such a good friends with the Greg at Ballypatrick. He’s been a great horse. He took me to some championships and the World Championships for young horses, he’s been ticking all the boxes and I am really happy with him to produce him.”