THERE is a little piece of the West of Ireland nestled in the beautiful German countryside of Osnabrück in the northwest of Germany.

Carl Hanley and his wife Nadja Kapp Hanley, with their two children Ben and Dean, “couldn’t imagine living on a different farm. It is amazing, we love it.”

Being based within the central hub of the international horse industry in Europe is where Hanley gets his buzz. He can’t hide the buzz and passion he gets from the business; it is so evident through every word he speaks, and it is clear where it came from too.

“Dad gave us a great mindset and a great start in this sport. He set the ball rolling for all of us – the positivity, the belief and the have a good attitude,” Carl said of his father, Cormac Hanley Snr, an influential figure in Connaught and Irish show jumping.

That can-do attitude is something that pops up again and again as Carl talks about his life and business with horses. He grew up as the youngest of four children born to Cormac and Eleanor in Claremorris, Co Mayo. The Hanley name is of course well-known in show jumping circles with his siblings – Charles, Amanda and Cameron – all having a role to play in the sport.

Cormac Snr was inducted into the Showjumpers Club Hall of Fame in 2019 after a lifetime of dedication to the sport. On receiving his award that night, he said “I am so proud of how the family turned out”, and they too are sure proud of him.

“He was a massive influence on us, because he always tried his best to provide horses and ponies for us to get to the shows and develop our talents. He always had a great positivity. He always encouraged us and there was nothing we couldn’t do if we out our mind to it, that was his attitude,” Carl said.

Life growing up in Claremorris was colourful. Cormac Snr built the riding centre in 1980 and his young family all moved onsite, but without money to build a house, they lived in a mobile home, memories which Carl remembers fondly as “like being on a camping holiday”.

“He used all his money for building the stables and indoor and he had no money left to build a house. The mobile home was supposed to be just to get the business up and running and then he would build a house, but it took about nine years to get the business going so we ended up living in it for all those years! But not one of us complain about living in a mobile home, we have good memories from it.”

It wasn’t all show jumping growing up, as Cormac also began running car auctions at the venue and, again, all the children were drafted in to help on a Wednesday afternoon.

“Dad was trying to figure out a way how to make a few euros. He was a qualified auctioneer and he wanted to sell his Pajero jeep. He wanted to sell it in an auction to get a genuine price on it and the closest auction was in Dublin so he said ‘I have an indoor, I am an auctioneer, so why don’t I have an auction in the indoor!’

“The first auction was a huge success and they never looked back after that, and that is how the place first started to make a profit,” Carl explained.

Talent

Carl always had a natural talent in the saddle and enjoyed an underage career which saw him win the 138cm and the 148cm finals at the Dublin Horse Show; he was fourth at the European Championships as a young rider and has a bronze team medal.

Curiosity and an eagerness to progress brought him to Europe for six years when he was a youngster – “I was mad to go abroad to get more experience”. Time was spent with Thomas Fuchs, Roelof Bril and the Etter family in Switzerland, before he got a job in Bremen, Germany, where he rode for four years and had plenty of success.

He returned home to Claremorris in 2004 to a booming Irish economy and set up his own business, on the advice of his father. Owners were plentiful and successful on the national circuit followed.

“It was great for a few years until the economy died and no one could pay their livery bills anymore, so I decided I needed to leave. I wanted to get back to Europe where the horse business was most active, get in the middle of something and make some success for myself,” he explained.

In the meantime, while living in Ireland, he had met up with Nadja Kapp, an international show jumper in her own right, from Oughterard in Co Galway, who was running the equestrian store Olympic Saddlery with her sister Eileen. Nadja and Carl were married in September 2008 and made the move back to Germany in 2010.

Happy place

“Myself and Nadja found a beautiful yard in Osnabrück. We are here 11 years now and we are very very happy.”

Carl is happy when he is busy. “It is active, people are coming to see horses, there are clients around, the phone is ringing, and that is what I love the most – activity. My favourite day is when there is clients around that are good riders, you love showing your horses to good riders.”

The business, Carl Hanley Sporthorses, is seen on the world stage at the top-level shows, but producing horses is the main aim of the game. “I like to think we are producers of high-standard, high-quality horses. We try to buy the raw material with a good attitude and give them all the things they need – the good riding, the confidence, the experience – with the idea that the horse is going to be at least a 1.50m horse at the end.

“We try to find them at five, six and seven and we really take our time, be patient. The attitude for me is huge. The worst mistake I could make is to put a few years into a horse with a bad attitude. Bad attitude, for me, doesn’t work in the sport and doesn’t work in the business. You never have a happy client if you sell a bad attitude.”

Carl Hanley and Michael G Duffy \ Sportfot

That positive attitude must also extend to the people working for him and his right-hand man and rider at the stable, Michael G. Duffy, is known for his big smile!

“What a family!” Carl says when talking about the Duffys from Knockmore. While Michael is now at the helm of CHS, it was once Alex who rode for Carl. “They are an amazing family, every single one of them. Michael is a class rider and I have 150% trust in him. He runs the whole thing as if it is his own. Michael can make his own decisions, I am happy with that, and I am overviewing everything. Our people are so good, I am very very lucky with the team we have, from the people who tack up to Michael who rides in the five-star Grands Prix.”

Past riders include Alex Duffy and Eoin McMahon – also from the West of Ireland, it is worth pointing out – but is having an Irish rider important to Carl? “I prefer to have an Irish rider, yes, but I just want to have good riders. Good riders that are good people. A good person is every bit as important to me and I’ve been lucky enough to have that over the years with the boys – Alex, Eoin and Michael.”

Big sport

Successes at the top four- and five-star level have been plentiful for Carl Hanley Sporthorses over the last 11 years. “We love the sport, I love watching our horses travelling all over the world, getting success at the high level, I absolutely love it. But that is not what makes us money. What pays the bills is selling the horses.

“Every now and again, horses don’t get sold for whatever reason, maybe they were late developers, and we end up having the likes of Lapuccino and Chappo Chey at the higher level, but they were always for sale. I always say to Michael, the ideal situation of what we would love to have is an owner who would like to travel around to watch the horses, then we could sell half shares of a couple of good horses. That would take our financial risk out and we could continue and focus a bit more on the sport.”

The aforementioned Lapuccino has brought the team so much pride and success in recent years; from jumping at the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona, to being on the winning Irish team at Drammen and, most recently, winning the four-star Grand Prix in Vejer de la Frontera.

Bred by Nadja’s father Sven Kapp, the 13-year-old gelding has a lovely backstory. “Sven owned the mother, Caberet III, and Nadja rode her. She was successful at international level with Nick Skelton and Francis Connors. Nadja got her from Francis and had great success, she loved her. When she was finished in the sport, Nadja asked me what stallion I thought. At the time, Cameron was flying it with Livello. So it is kind of cool because the mother of Lapuccino, my wife rode, and the father, my brother rode.”

Michael G Duffy and Lapuccino 2 (ISH) won the four-star Andalucia Grand Prix in Vejer de la Frontera last month \ Ahmed Photography

No Plan B

Some of the horses that have passed through CHS include five-star winners Living The Dream, Castlefield Rubinas, Cas 2 and Caretina De Joter, among many other. But most special of all for Carl was Antello Z.

“It was lashing rain at a show in September when he was seven years old and it looked hairy... He was spooking at everything, like he always did, but the horse did something that I really really liked. I called Cameron, and the next day we went to the place to see him. Cameron jumped him and he jumped unbelievable, but he was really really difficult.

“We said there is no plan B with this horse. We are going to buy this horse and it will either work out and he will be a five-star Grand Prix horse, or else he won’t be worth €5,000 because he is not easy enough to even hack in the forest.

"We took a chance and we bought him together, knowing there was no Plan B, and we don’t normally do that. Lucky enough, he worked out, he was a great horse.”

Carl is very close with his brother Cameron, who lives just 30 minutes down the road in Germany. A freak injury while playing with his children in 2011 forced Cameron out of the sport and he lost the ride on the gelding for some time, before taking over again in 2013. The pair then won the five-star Grand Prix in Wiesbaden just months after Cameron returned to the saddle.

“That was extra special. I wasn’t even at the show; myself and Alex Duffy were at home watching it on television, I’ll never forget it. Cameron was just coming back, we didn’t think for a second he was going to win. He went into the jump-off and set sail and won! So from looking like he was never going to ride again, six months later he went and won a five-star Grand Prix on a horse we sourced locally as a seven-year-old,” his little brother said proudly.

Financial sense

We haven’t seen Carl himself in the international arena in recent years. The decision to concentrate on sourcing and selling horses came naturally and he found it was something that needed to happen to grow the business. “I love riding, but when we came to Germany, I was losing money for the first two years. I was so busy riding, I couldn’t do business. I was enjoying riding but financially it wasn’t working.

Carl Hanley Sporthorses in Osnabrück, Germany

“In June 2011, co-incidentally, Alex Duffy was staying over with us. Cameron was based here too at the time and Alex went over to Cameron’s house for a barbeque. That evening, Cameron broke the patella tendon in his knee. The doctor told him he would be out for three months. I asked Alex would he stay here with his horses and help me out, because I had to take over Cameron’s horses. So Alex came on board.

“Cameron’s injury became complicated and his owners decided they wanted to sell. So my job was to get on the phone to sell these horses or else the owners would take them away. From that time on, Alex did the riding, I rode four horses a day and the rest of the time, I was on the phone, in the car, trying to find customers.

“All of a sudden, we sold horses left right and centre for the second half of 2011, and we started to make money. I put two and two together. I don’t want to be a person that loses money. I can’t deal with lack of success, whatever I do I have to be successful at it. Losing money gives me a bad feeling.

“I realised having someone doing the riding, and having me on the road was a better recipe for financial success, and that is the main reason why I did it.

"I get a great buzz watching the horses, making a plan for the development of the horse, and I love watching Michael doing a fantastic job on the horses, and before him Eoin and before him, Alex.”

Family life

Having represented Austria at Nations Cup level, Nadja now plays an integral role in keeping the show on the road at home and producing the youngsters.

“Nadja was born in Switzerland and grew up in Ireland. She didn’t have an Irish passport, it was difficult to get it, she was training in Austria and decided to get an Austrian passport and ride for them. She rode up to five-star level and had a lot of success, she was second in a five-star Grand Prix.

“Now she rides and develops the young horses. She has a very good way with them, she takes her time and develops them in a really nice way. She does all the local shows with the young horses. Nadja is at home all the time and she manages everything, she has everything covered. She absolutely adores the horses!”

Their eldest son Ben (9) loves being in the yard and his pony also traces back to the Duffy family, while three-year-old Dean is also learning the ropes. “Ben will muck out, do the hay, sweep. He has a very nice pony that was given to us by Cameron, he came from the Duffys. He is jumping a course of fences now and ready for his first show. He loves the riding, the horses and working in the yard.”

Michael in Paris

Carl seems so content with his life and business. One wish is that Michael would have security at the top of the sport. “I would love to see Michael continue in the big sport. He is an incredible rider, I would love if he could play in the top sport, but we need to have owners to take the financial risk out of it. That is the one thing I would like to find or develop.”

There is one special horse in the yard that has been secured for now, and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is the aim. “We have an eight-year-old called Clitschko 17. Michael is completely in love with the horse. The Paris Olympics is kind of our aim for him.

“I sold half of him to an investor, who bought him with the idea of being brave and waiting. Of course he can be bought, but it would take a ridiculous price to buy him, so that gives us more chance to hold on to him for Michael.

“We love our business, we have a great team. I love producing the young horses. We are very lucky. I wouldn’t change too much about my life!”

And that is what life is all about.