IRONICALLY for one of the most sporting characters in the Irish horse world, it’s the topic of sport which has uncharacteristically irked Tiernan Gill.
A core member of the Sport Horse Alliance, chaired by Barry O’Connor, the Ballina businessman believes the sport horse industry is grossly under-funded in comparison to others.
“I put my money where my mouth is [supporting the lobby group] to try and get more funding for all part of equestrianism in Ireland and it’s a shame to see horse racing, greyhound racing and even women’s hockey getting more money. I’m not running down any of those, they’re great at what they do and their PR but I’d say, for example, that the amount of people involved in equestrianism is 100 times more than hockey.
“They got more funding and I’m just disappointed,” said Gill flatly. “We need funding badly for more centres, more education and if we don’t get it, we’re going to be in serious bother.”
He listed riders that left Ireland because of better opportunities abroad. “Then, Michael Duffy from Ballina, Michael Duffy from Galway, Jack Dodd and Jonathan Gordon, that was four people from the west living 50 miles from one another. All that talent and unfortunately they had to leave, because it’s not happening here.
“You need the Premier Grand Prix Series and Irish Sport Horse studbook classes. They keep show jumping alive in Ireland and without either, it would be dead. There’s some people who specifically produce young horses for the studbook classes and only for it, there’d be nothing for them.
“Same for the Premier Series. It gives the likes of Francis Connors, Greg Broderick, Damien Griffin the opportunity to stay in Ireland and make money, even though the prize money, facilities, everything, would be better for them if they moved abroad.”
The fact that Irish show jumping punches well above its weight in terms of international results, yet receives minimal mainstream coverage, is another issue. “I was just looking at this today; 15 of the top 100 riders in the world are Irish. That’s unbelievable. For such a small country to be at that top level is brilliant.
“Yet, look at the papers on a Monday morning or listen to the radio and they’ll say that someone didn’t make the cut in golf. On Sundays around the world, Irish riders are winning at huge level and it’s not being noted.”
MAJOR MINOR
“Padraig Harrington... he won three Majors in his life. Fair play and I’m delighted for him but that’s what he’s done. Now, Cian O’Connor, Bertram Allen, Shane Sweetnan, Conor Swail, both Michael Duffys, Richard Howley... they have won what you’d call ‘Majors’ all over the world and they’re doing that every single weekend at top level. It’s phenomenal. And there’s often absolutely nothing, except a paragraph on the right-hand column of the newspaper.
“If there was more coverage, it would help the sport, through sponsorship, through publicity. It’s an awful thing to see it not happening. They’re so good at what they do and for such a small country to be producing these riders, I think this would help the sport dramatically and for it to get more funding.”
This lack of publicity is in stark contrast to the ‘Dream Team’ era. “When you say about the ‘Dream Team’, which was Eddie (Macken), Paul (Darragh), James (Kernan) and Con (Power)... now we have 10 ‘Dream Teams’ jumping all over the world on a weekly basis and there’s absolutely nothing about it.
“If you asked the Minister for Sport [Shane Ross] to name 10 people in show jumping now, he probably wouldn’t be able to do it. But if asked to name 10 people in football or rugby?
Show jumping is doing better than any of our sports, we haven’t 15 people in the top 100 in any other global sport, bar show jumping.
“I don’t know why the mainstream media don’t pick up on that success, whether it’s HSI, SJI aren’t doing their job or whether RTÉ Sport aren’t interested. If somebody does something wrong in equestrianism it makes headline news, but when somebody wins, there’s very little.”
What is the Sport Horse Alliance’s next move? “We’re all very dedicated and now we’re trying to push this lack of funding locally, especially coming up to a general election. I have with our own local Senator, Michelle Mulherin. I was watching the Seanad debate on the computer the other day and she did bring up the lack of funding for the sport. I think personally if we could get better publicity too, it would hugely benefit the sport.”
BUSINESS DRIVEN
Ballina’s economy has benefited from Gill’s group of companies, which employs 50 people. “We’ve a lot of staff that are with us 20-plus years, you’re only as good as the people you have working with you.”
Fathers Day at Galway County Show, 2009. Tiernan Gill Snr. and son with their young horse champion Flogas River Moy. Photo Susan Finnerty
His late father and namesake was the founder of the Gill Group. Their flagship driving school started with Tiernan senior giving lessons in his own Ford Anglia. It replaced the bicycle used for his daily 18-mile round trip from Crossmolina to his first job with the United Drug Company in Ballina.
“The driving school is exceptionally busy,” remarked his son, who also spearheads their Brooklands Bedding and Flogas agent divisions. “We’re the only people in the British Isles accredited to the International Road Transport Union in Geneva and because of that we do a lot of new courses, like load securing, be it concrete products, haylage bales or air cargo.”
For him, it’s all about even distribution, in sport or business.
Canada is where some Brooklands Bedding supplies now have to be sourced. “When the downturn came, there wasn’t enough houses being built and timber being processed, so we couldn’t get enough shavings. I had to do something or I wouldn’t have my business, so I went over to Canada two years ago.”
Travelling to Quebec on a Tuesday and returning on Wednesday adds a whole new meaning to a flying business trip but he enjoys his hectic schedule, saying: “I like to be busy. I’ve a diary with me, I know where I am every day and I pencil it in. When something is in the diary, I try not to adjust that.”
Work-life balance is one of the current buzzwords so how does he juggle business with family life? “It’s difficult. I’ve a very understanding wife and very understanding children! But I like to be busy, I like the buzz of it and one helps another. My horses help my business and my business helps my horses,” and with the stables just 20 metres from his office, a free hour is often spent schooling one of his horses.
Balancing business and family life at Dublin Horse Show with wife Caroline and daughter Ali. Photo Susan Finnerty
Tiernan met his future wife Caroline at Enniscrone Horse Show. “She was there with her sister and had been away in Australia for two years. I saw this blonde with the great tan and I remember I asked Vincent Howley who she was. Then I met her in the bar that night and we took it from there!”
Last Saturday was spent at Cavan pony show with the couple’s children Alex (10) and Ali (9). Their two ponies are part of the 30-strong team, which ranges from yearlings to the five-year-old Flogas Idlewild, by Emilion, competed for him last year by Jake Hunter. In-situ are husband-and-wife team Jonathan and Sonya McDonald.
“It’s working out exceptionally well, I’ve my own set of stables in the front, Sonya has that rented and Jonathan is working with my own horses in the back. Before this, my horses were nearly always going somewhere to be ridden, now they’re here.”
Felim Clarke, the longtime family friend who co-owns their 2017 Dublin filly champion Flogas Liqueur, visits her each Sunday with his grandchildren. Another familiar face has moved on.
“Edmund [Hennigan] left in September after 11 years. He just wanted a change of career for a while and I said ‘No problem.’ He has a young family, he was gone every Sunday in the summer and I understand completely 100%, the family are more important. We’re still the best of friends and he’ll be back to help out at Dublin.”
BREAKTHROUGH
Dublin has always been a highlight for Tiernan, who started off with the Shetland pony bought by his father as a four-legged ‘lawnmower’, then progressed, with the help of Cherie Devaney and Philip Scott, to ponies such as Joanna and Papillon.
He won the Dublin five-year-old final at Dublin with No Problem, bought from Padraig Howley, when Gill was 21 but had a longer wait for their first RDS show champion in 2004.
“It was the best showring memory, the first time ever to win a Dublin championship. I’d been going to Dublin since I was 12 years of age. The best we ever got was fifth or sixth, loads of different colours.”
The breakthrough came with Flogas Marbella, bought, after a two-year-wait, from Lily McGowan. “I saw him as a big, raw yearling at a show in Claremorris and asked Lily if she’d sell him and she said no.”
The Foxford horsewoman finally relented and in a unique double, the Gill family won both the supreme young horse championship with the Into The West flashy chesnut and reserve with his stable companion, Stepping Stone. By Limmerick, the €600 bargain was picked out at Cavan by Tiernan senior.
Cavan has been a lucky hunting ground.
”I bought a Quintero La Silla out of a Porsch mother, a very nice type foal there this year.”
Another more unusual purchase was made in Holland in September. “I’d go through the catalogue and videos, pick out about 15 to 20, then see them in reality. There were three or four dressage foals and about 110 show jumping foals, then this foal came in with a fantastic step and presence. The minimum bid was €3,000, there was nobody buying, so I put up my hand and got him for €3,250. He’s complete dressage breeding. I don’t know what I’m going to do with him but he’s gorgeous!”
Asking the Dutch seller for the traditional luck money for the Daily Diamond colt caused some confusion. “He said ‘No, you have to pay me!’ Luckily his wife understood English well so she gave me a fiver!”
Does linear profiling get lost in translation here too? “Linear scoring is there to help breeders. It’s used abroad and it’s working. Maybe, yes, it is for the younger generation but we’re trying to educate people. Many of the older horse people have gone. Many were real horse people, they did their own vetting, they knew breeding. That knowledge hasn’t been passed on, in some cases.”
He warns against the risk of breeding to fashionable stallions with average mares. “If people decide to go into breeding, they may look up the stallions that make the most money and think ‘We have to go to them’ but they don’t realise, without education, that he may not suit your mare.
“Some breeders can tend to think ‘We have to breed to Kannan or Cornet Obolensky,’ to get into the sale. People think that if we don’t go to that horse, we probably won’t get money and unfortu-nately that doesn’t always happen because they’re breeding for the name.”
One increasingly-heard observation from showing judges is about poor limbs. “People say that limbs are bad. It’s not that the limbs are always bad but that the types of modern horse is changing dramatically,” he replied.
“The heavier type of international horse wouldn’t last 10 minutes because show jumping has gotten so fast and with the time allowed in the first round, horses that were around 15 years ago would not last now, not a hope. And that’s why horses are different, why conformation is different and why people say limbs are so bad. It’s not that the limbs are so bad, they’re just changing with the modern horse.
“The old-type horse is still very much required and I would love to go to Cavan, Goresbridge or Ballinasloe and buy a foal that would be a real show hunter, a real show horse down the road. They’re getting so difficult to find because people are jumping on the bandwagon and going to fashionable stallions, because they think that’s what everyone is looking for. That’s not the way, there’s still a huge demand for the other type.”
Tiernan, with his son Alex, family friend and Flogas Liqueur’s co-owner Felim Clarke and Edmund Hennigan. Photo Susan Finnerty
He’s witnessed positive changes in Irish sport horse breeding, most recently while judging the Elite foal entries for Cavan. “I think the whole thing is improving and I mean that sincerely. People have become far more professional at what they’re doing. I did 100 foals for that elite sale and the way those foals were produced was fantastic, it was a credit and 100 times better than anything I’d seen anywhere.
“Unfortunately or fortunately, maybe not all the nicest foals got in because they were trying to do it on blacktype, whether through pedigree or whether the mother did something, but the other foals that were left, and the way they were presented, was still fantastic. And I did think that evening, ‘Things are on the up’.”
Cavan is the venue he’d like to see host a range of Horse Sport Ireland finals. “I said this to [HSI Breeding Director] Alison Corbally recently, that there should be two days where you have the young breeders, foals and young mare finals. Have it all together over two days and let people come out to see exactly the best that Ireland has to offer, be it foals, mares, stallions, young handlers.
“If you go to the stallion inspections now, there’s nobody there, bar the people involved, whereas if you go to Holland, you cannot get inside the door. There’s huge money put into it by HSI and I think it’s not going the right way for what they’re putting in. And bring people in, bring buyers in.”
His expertise also saw him on the HSI Breeders Conference panel this week. Are these events talking shops or practical use? “Absolutely, [practical] you can never learn enough, nobody knows everything. No-one should think they do. Anytime I can try and educate myself, I can. If it’s only one little thing we can pick up, that might be the thing that makes a difference, makes you better and more professional.”
And what about the best way to help agricultural shows? “Shows did need help. I take my hat off to Michael Ring in fairness for the agricultural show funding. I know from running shows myself, it’s a seriously difficult task, people don’t realise the work that goes into them.”
Favourite horse? “Marbella would always be the one I’d remember first, then Ucarado B because he was a brilliant show jumper with a brain and he used to get me out of trouble an awful lot! But I have another one now: Cas 2, who I sold to Cameron Hanley and now Harrie Smolders has him after he was sold for a couple of million in July.”
Spotted at the Limburg foal auction, Tiernan recently returned for a special occasion. “I got an award from the KWPN for buying him as a foal. He’s by Indoctro out of a Numero Uno mare and I just liked his breeding and type.”
A photo of this ‘Horse of the Year,’ competing at the final Zurich International Show is on display in the sitting room, where Gill sat down recently to pen a thank you letter to the recently retired Irish Shows Association secretary Michael Hughes for all “the great work he did. He was always so approachable, so nice and nothing was ever a problem.”
The Ballina businessman could well be describing himself.