THERE’S immense pride involved in bringing any trophy west of the Shannon. For one Banner County family, that honour was doubled on Monday at The Irish Field awards ceremony, where Rhys Williams collected two awards.

Awards have flowed into their Ennis home since Rhys and CES Cruson’s individual gold and team silver performances at the Longines FEI Children on Horses European Championships last July.

However, success in the horse world is often fleeting and always hard won, which perhaps accounts for this levelheaded family appreciating both the highs of the sport and award ceremonies that much more.

“We didn’t really know what to expect on Monday,” said Paula Williams. “We knew that Rhys had won the Gain Star of the Month award for July but then to win the Junior Show Jumper award as well… that was just ‘Wow!’ To meet all those people, all masters of their craft… the WEG medallists, it was a very proud moment.”

As it was too for the Ennis family when they attended a Mayoral Reception in their hometown last October. “There was Jim Warny, one of the divers who flew over to Thailand to help with the rescue mission for the boys trapped in a cave; Naomi Carroll, who won a team silver medal at the women’s world hockey championships and Rhys, the youngest-ever at a civic reception in Clare County Council,” explained his father Adrian. “It was very heartwarming.”

And then there was the congratulatory phonecall from local legend Jimmy Flynn, whose Heather Honey won “the other European gold medal to come to Clare” in her junior days with Brian McMahon.

“I rode a lot of horses for Jimmy and funny, now he has ponies jumping with Rhys,” remarked Adrian. He earned his own European call-up at the 1997 young rider championships, held at Moorsele, alongside team members Billy Twomey, Clem McMahon, Mervyn Clarke Jnr and Diane Beecher. “We didn’t get a medal anyway!” he said with a laugh.

His European horse was Gallow Bay, by the French icon, Galoubet A. Adrian, at just 17, became the youngest rider to win a Grand Prix on the national circuit at Holycross.

Pony-mad from a young age, instead of Nintendo games or a bike, his wishlist was for new tack and boots. PJ, his father, is another huge part of the success story. “I won the B/C final in Dublin on Cheddar Billy in 1993, he was a good pony but dad always had a nice pony.”

BANNER DOUBLE

As part of a Banner double at Dublin, Heather Day won the B/C final that same year with Finbarr Keating in the saddle and later on in his career, Adrian was another pilot for Heather Honey’s Clover Hill son.

“Heather Day was a very nice horse. Jimmy bought Heather Honey at Limerick Fair for £70 from Noel Nihill, who also had Equinox [later Carrolls Equinox]. He sold Equinox at Goresbridge to Alain Storme and they were probably the best two horses at the time.”

Multi Clover, foaled in 1987, was a Clover Hill gelding out of a thoroughbred dam by Vulgan. “Denis Coakley jumped him as a four and five-year-old, then when I was about 14, I got to ride ‘Multi’. He was the first top horse I had. Newcastle West was the first major class I’d won in horses and that was with him.

“Dad was great to me growing up. Multi Clover and Galloway could have been sold several times over. There was no mobile phones then but there was some amount of people ringing the house phone after seeing Multi Clover in Dublin. He wasn’t for sale. Dad felt we needed a shop window, something for me for the bigger tracks, so fair play, he kept him.”

Diamond Heather, Jimmy Flynn’s Diamond Lad mare, was another favourite. “I don’t think I ever had a bad run on her, she tried her heart out. We were second in about eight Heineken Grand Prix classes one year and I wondered was I ever going to win one! And she did in Piltown. Jumping in the internationals at Dublin, that was the dream with her.”

Going abroad to gain experience is now a near-rite of passage for show jumping riders and Adrian decided to branch out. “I was always independent and decided to fly the nest to get more training. I said it to Michael Quirke and he rang me and said ‘I’ve a good place for you to go to.’”

The place was Belgian chef d’equipe Jean Paul Musette’s yard in Hoeilaart where Adrian was based for 14 months. “His ex-wife was a dressage trainer and they were very, very good to me. You were going to shows, always learning. I think every young person should go if they want to. Everyone has to learn a trade, if you’re an electrician or a showjumper.”

Moving to Belgium meant leaving Paula behind. “I was heartbroken!” she said. The couple first met at a school disco “26 years ago today.

“I went to boarding school in Kildysart and got the bus home to Ennis every Friday. Mairead Barry, her brother Noel has Banner Equestrian Centre, was one of my really good friends and after I met Adrian at the disco, I went to several shows with her. I never did showjumping, knew nothing about it!”

She soon learned and after Adrian returned from Belgium, the couple set up their own yard having bought a 7.5 acre field on the Kilrush road. “We started with absolutely nothing,” added Paula, who works as a financial controller with Ennis Electrical.

P-A-R-C

Her business acumen has proved invaluable for PARC Stables. “It stands for all our initials and the little crown over the S of Stables is for Scarlett too.”

Ten-year-old Scarlett, “the apple of her father’s eye” is the youngest of their three children. “Then there’s Rhys (14) and Coen will be 13 at the end of February. Scarlett is more of a part-time pony rider, she does a lot of classical ballet and was the All Ireland under 12 champion for the past three years. I spend a lot of time on the road with her.”

Rhys and CES Cruson on their way to winning the individual gold medal at the FEI European Championships for Children on Horses. Photo Tomas Holcbecher

The brothers’ string of jumping ponies, often with the PARC prefix, meant more long hours on the road. “They’d live in the yard. Coen is only 12 and he’d be in the yard at seven in the morning. It’s of their own accord, they just want to be around horses and they’d watch show jumping 24/7,” added Adrian, who has steadily expanded their base. “There’s nothing like having your own yard. I always wanted to have my own place.”

Trying to make a living from horses can lead to burnout though. “I had 36 horses once at a show, a lot of people were doing it and one year I think I had 44 horses for the sales in Goresbridge. You’d sell them at shows too back then. You’d have Mickey Hanley, Noel [Nihill] and of course Jimmy [Flynn] helping out at shows, they’d hold the horses, put studs in. Now, I love dealing. That’s what gets me up in the morning.”

West Clare horsemen have a fierce pride in their horses. “Growing up and watching the showmen of west Clare... the way they’d have a bond with a horse, take them out to the field for a pick of grass ... they’d have the blanket off their bed and put it on the horse first.

“I think horsemanship is everything and maybe that’s lost a little bit now. The day you lose sight of that [horsemanship], you’re losing something. It’s something I encourage the lads to do, to learn to keep the pony happy.

“The competition has got so professional now, even in ponies. When we were in ponies, you wouldn’t meet the people from the North until you went to Dublin. We’d leave our local gymkhana and go to the Dublin qualifier, now the day of the local fellow going to the qualifier and getting to Dublin is nearly gone.”

Having a trainer is another part of the modern show jumping scene and in the past, Tom Slattery and Neal Fearon were drafted in to coach Rhys and Coen.

Parents instructing their own family isn’t always an optimum solution and brought to mind Jimmy Wofford’s anecdote about the Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis saying that over time “a coach’s voice wears thin” and Wofford’s own astute observation that “Someone new comes in and they say exactly the same thing in a slightly different way and everyone takes off again.”

And that’s what happened. “One particular day, I said ‘What about Marie Burke? She’s brilliant, ring that woman.’ Adrian rang and they were loaded up and gone straightaway,” said Paula, explaining how the road to the Europeans began.

TRADING PLACES

Marie’s 11-year-old CES Cruson, by her 2010 World Equestrian Games horse Chippison, was the horse Rhys was selected with for the championships in Fontainebleau, alongside teammates Lucy Morton, Sarah Fitzgerald, Ciaran Foley and Isobel Hughes Kennedy.

“Rhys gelled straightaway with the horse, I don’t think they’ve ever jumped a bad round. Definitely the Europeans was the highlight. A lot of work went into it for it all to come off. It was a savage track and until he’d jumped the last fence, he could have left with no medal,” Adrian said.

Not only did he win individual gold and team silver but Rhys and CES Cruson were the only combination to jump five clear rounds at the championships. “You always want to do well for the team first, then they were through to the individual final.

“In the last round, there was a fence dividing him and four others, if he had one down, it could be a jump off for a medal, two fences down and he was out of it. It was some pressure but the pressure doesn’t get to him. He said ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got this.’ I’d rather be going in to jump the round, than watching it!” his father confessed.

“Marie brought her lorry and it was great too, to have the likes of Marie and the care she’d give the horses, James [Kernan], the whole support team were fantastic.”

Paula too felt the pressure at Fontainebleau. “You want everyone to do well, you’re so proud of them all. It was stressful being the last going in but the others are there for you too. They see you at your absolute worst, they see you when you’re a nervous wreck.”

The family had just touched down in Ennis when they were on their way back to Dublin Airport within an hour. “We got a phonecall to say that Luc Musette, a brother of Jean Paul the guy I worked for, had passed away. He was a world-class course builder who came over here to build courses for us here in Ennis,” recalled Adrian.

“A larger-than-life funny guy, most unassuming, never had any airs and graces. We came home and were on a flight out to Belgium that day to go to his funeral. Look, it was an honour to do it. Life is short, it puts things into perspective.”

Looking ahead, what are the plans for 2019? “We’ve a nice bunch of ponies and horses at the minute, a few could be aimed at the Europeans. I’d love to do the ponies [championships] this year, we could try for the Children on Horses with Coen (left), you just need to have the right horse. And you need luck, you need luck with everything.”

A new indoor school is currently being built at PARC Stables, which already features 40 boxes, a veterinary station, outdoor school, horse walker and solarium.

“You just need an indoor. We had Norwegian, Danish and Swedish buyers here recently on one of the wettest days of the year. Sweden is a massive market at the moment, a lot of good ponies are going to Scandinavia. Coen’s top 12.2 and Shadow’s Dancer, by Silver Shadow, both went to Denmark. They love the Irish pony over there.”

Where do they source ponies? “Finding them is difficult, selling them is easy! So much is done off videos. I’ve never advertised. It’s all word-of-mouth and the good ones sold themselves, people are always calling.”

And Brexit? “We’re trading away but it’s the uncertainty of it really,” responded Adrian. “Whatever happens isn’t going to be great. The good horse was always a trade, the people with money wouldn’t be affected but it will hit further down the line.”

Shannon Airport “15 minutes from our door” and the M18 motorway are huge assets to their business. “Some of the English people can be with me quicker than they can get to other parts of England.

“We kind of buy a bit of everything but mainly ponies that are up and running, otherwise you’re only making them for someone else. Horses ... we’d buy yearlings, two-year-olds, three-year-olds, you couldn’t do that in ponies. Rhys has only two years left in ponies, he had seven years in 12.2s.”

Breeding is another slow burn process. The family currently have three broodmares, “by Diamant de Semilly, Emilion, that mare jumped 1.40m, and a Contender. It’s the lads that have the interest, it’s too long a wait for me.

“It’s great to see the passion they have for it but it’s a young person’s game now. You have to take what you get when you’re breeding and for me, it’s a lot easier to go out and buy. The standard of horses bred here is getting better though. We haven’t the volume that they have in The Netherlands and Germany but it is improving,” Adrian said.

PEAS IN A POD

“The three of them just sit at the breakfast table and read sales catalogues and stallion brochures,” laughed Paula. “Even on the Junior Cert mock exams notes, there’s details about Armitage, his €1,600 stud fee, plus VAT. Rhys had all the costs worked out!

“When there’s show jumping on the TV, it’s like a day at the cinema for them. They all have to pick a horse that they think is going to win, Scarlett and I will watch a chic flick but you’d often hear them at the other end of the house cheering on ‘their’ horse. The family holiday was to the Global Champions Tour in Cannes and it poured!”

Completely unfazed by the occasion, Rhys was a natural at Monday’s awards, chatting away to MC Brendan McArdle.

“You have to be educated, that, say for example, you can have a conversation with a sponsor or owner and hold your own. For this game, they have to 110% committed and love it because it’s hard work,” said his proud mother.

“The day they don’t get the satisfaction out of it is the day to do something else. The passion they have for show jumping is second to none. They take pride in the place, Rhys and Coen are up there sweeping the yard before going to school. Parents, grandparents, we’re all equally proud of the three of them.

“I don’t interfere but I do think ‘When’s the last time the kids ate at the show?’ You can’t be feeding them chips and burgers, you’d try to feed them the good stuff and they have to get their rest,” Paula continued.

“It was amazing to win the gold medal. Looking back on it now, it’s like a dream. Marie was a great help,” Rhys said. “I definitely want to have a career with horses. It has to be horses. I’m very lucky that dad has a yard and I get to ride a lot of different horses.”

He revealed on Monday that he had missed his history exam to be at the awards but sat it instead on Wednesday evening. So, as Brendan suggested, did he ask his classmates for the history questions? “No!”

“If you look at Michael Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rules, you get back out what you put in. Hard work pays off,” maintained Paula. “There’s the odd silent day, there’s sometimes colourful days, there’s days the kids are coming home in the lorry from shows with sand in their ears after a fall and soaking wet.

“At weekends, kids can get up late while ours are getting up at 4am to go to shows. Looking from the outside in, there can appear to be a lot of glory about an award but often people don’t see the blood, sweat and 10 bad days at home that go into getting that award!”