Name: Ben O’Connor

Age: 26

From: Naas, Co Kildare

Based: London and Naas

What is your occupation? I’ve worked previously at a racing yard and at a saddlers for a short time but now I work full time as a software developer in London.

What discipline are you involved in? Mounted Games

What is your equestrian background? I used to compete in everything when I was younger, my mum always seemed to find amazing ponies for me and my brothers to compete on in show jumping, eventing and hunter trials. Before I focused solely on mounted games, hunter trials was something I competed in. My brother Jake and I won the pony club championship before eventually giving it up.

How did you get into mounted games? My mum revitalised mounted games in Kildare Pony Club and trained one of the first junior mounted games teams Kildare PC had seen in a few years. This team included my eldest brother Adam on a pony called Polo, who I eventually started competing on.

How much work goes into competing at a high level? I’ve invested a lot of time training myself and my ponies in order to compete at a high level, having my brother to train with helped me a lot as we were always pushing each other, sharing techniques and pointing out ways to improve.

Tell us about your top animals? My top pony the for the last few years has been GT, a 14.1h bay gelding who is a show jumper turned games pony who found show jumping a bit too exciting and we managed to channel that excitement into racing against other ponies in a games arena.

Who are your trainers? My parents had always been there to train me throughout my games career, whether it was my mum imparting her equine knowledge on me to make me a better horseman, or my father analysing the details of each race I did to allow me to correct any mistakes I was making proving. I’ve been quite lucky to have that resource so close at hand.

What are your main equestrian achievements? I’ve been a member of the Irish team that won two World team championships and a European team championship I’ve also made several world pairs finals over the years with various different partners but I’ve not medalled since I was competing in Under 17s. My best individual success was in the European individual championships in 2016 in Germany where I took home the silver medal. Aside from my international achievements, I compete in the UK regularly and our club team, which consists of myself, my brother, my two cousins and a female rider based near London managed to win every major team competition of the season in the UK, a feat I don’t think will ever be matched.

What are your goals? I live and work in London at the moment so I don’t get time to train as much as I would like but luckily GT and I know each pretty well that we can still perform well on a team with minimal practice but I would like to put more focus into individual competitions and go one better than my achievement in 2016.

What could help the Mounted Games Association in Ireland? Although we can compete at the top level at the international stage, I think that if we could increase or domestic player count and have more competitive shows in Ireland it will breed even more talent and also make it viable for riders who can’t make the commitments to competing in the UK regularly to continue travelling to shows in Ireland and still enjoy competitive competitions.

Ben O’Connor was in conversation with Emer Bermingham