TIMING is everything.” That is a phrase used multiple times by Susan Fitzpatrick when we spoke this week. And she knows. The Kilkenny show jumper seems years ahead of her young age of 21, with her business brain firmly attached and riding skills envied all over the world.

The decision made by Susan and her parents, Joe and Sharon, to sell the then nine-year-old Fellow Castlefield to Greek shipping heiress Athina Onassis in 2019 after a fourth place finish in the five-star Dublin Grand Prix was perfect timing. Although agonisingly tough at the time, could they have predicted a global pandemic would scupper the majority of high level competition in 2020, the decision would have been made easier.

Although the fee is undisclosed, but believed to be a substantial seven-figure sum, that sale has helped the Fitzpatricks invest back into the business, which Susan runs at their home in Keatingstown House Stud, Co Kilkenny.

It was actually Fellow Castlefield that put Susan down the career path of a professional show jumper. She was on the verge on going to study at University when she won the two-star Grand Prix at Millstreet in the summer of 2018.

Again, the timing was everything. “I had Fellow Castlefield and we won the Grand Prix in Millstreet when I was supposed to go to college. I suppose it made me think about it again and I decided the position I was in with horses, and with such a good horse under me, to keep going. Things could have been different, but I don’t regret that decision. I have very good horses and the business is going well,” she explains.

Education was always important to Susan. School was Loreto in Kilkenny until fourth year, before she was home schooled for fifth and sixth year as her career was taking off. “I was away competing so much and I couldn’t keep up with things. I really wanted to finish school but needed to do it in a way that would work,” she explains about the decision to study while on the road.

“I did really think about college then and I really wanted to go straight into it because I knew if I took a year out, it would be hard to get back into it.”

Fellow Castlefield arrived at Keatingstown as a three-year-old when Joe Fitzpatrick bought a half share in the Je T’Aime Flamenco-sired KWPN gelding from Ger O’Neill who is “a very close family friend”.

“We took him and broke him. I was taking it slowly, did maybe two shows as a four-year-old. He started to get going a bit more as a five-year-old, and when we saw more potential we bought him outright from Ger. Actually looking back now, he did have his bad days as a five and six-year-old, days when you wouldn’t think he was going to be the horse he was. There was a few worries!” Susan says as we reminisce over the time she had with the gelding.

“As a seven-year-old, he went to Lanaken and got into the final, and he was also placed in a National Grand Prix. That was when the phone started ringing, everything started to click and we knew what we had. We probably were in a position to sell him but we held off. I didn’t have anything else at the time, so we thought we would sit on it for a little while and see what happens.”

Pressure on

The following year, as an eight-year-old, he went to the Junior European championships, where they were double clear on the final day to finish 11th individually, he was second in the two-star Grand Prix at Mullingar International, and won the international Grand Prix in Millstreet.

“There was a lot of money offered at that time. My poor dad was getting a little bit anxious at the time, but at the end of the day they are horses, timing was everything, and we felt we needed to keep him a little longer.”

That decision played dividends as the horse flourished as a nine-year-old, taking Susan to back-to-back Nations Cup wins on her senior team debut, and placing in four and five-star Grands Prix.

“He was really consistent. The Nations Cups were unbelievable, to win back-to-back, that doesn’t happen often, and he was double clear in Uggerhalne. Then he finished third in the four-star Grand Prix in St Tropez, before we went to the European Championships in Zuidwolde.”

But the championships didn’t go to plan and Susan wondered had they held on for too long. “The pressure was on and when things didn’t go well at the Europeans, I started to panic a little bit, the pressure does get to you. But sometimes you forget that they are not machines, not every day will be perfect.

“I had to just leave that behind me and focus on Dublin, which turned out to be pretty perfect,” she says with a laugh. “He was always a horse that loves an atmosphere and a big grass arena.”

Susan Fitzpatrick and Fellow Castlefield finished fourth in the 2019 Longines Grand Prix of Ireland at the Dublin Horse Show \ Sportspress

They were the first clear round of in Sunday’s huge 1.60m Grand Prix in front of a packed Dublin crowd, and a fence down against the clock left them in fourth place in their first ever five-star Grand Prix, in front of Susan’s closest family and friends.

“I actually get shivers thinking about it now. Looking back on it now, it all happened so quick, the feeling was unbelievable. Probably knowing at that stage that I wasn’t going to have him much longer, and to have had him six years, it was a proper partnership… To ride in that arena and hear the crowd cheer you on, it is something you always want to feel. And it was such a relief too, I really wanted to make sure everyone could see the horse that he was.”

I remember talking to the Irish senior show jumping management team after the Grand Prix that day, and they were wildly excited about what was to come on the international stage from the combination.

But, as expected, it was to be the last class they jumped together, a perfect culmination of six years blood, sweat and tears.

There were a number of keen buyers interested. “There was actually a phone call in Dublin, after the second Grand Prix qualifier, from a person who would buy the horse there and then but didn’t want us to jump in the Grand Prix on Sunday. We said no way, we were after getting there so I had to jump.”

The gelding had also caught the eye of Onassis, who trains with Belgian Olympian Jan Tops and Australia’s Edwina Tops Alexander, and who is no stranger to buying horses produced by Irish riders, and she was the final successful bidder. “It was the right decision [to sell him], especially looking back now, at the year that is after happening. I have a super bunch of horses for the future.”

Poignant memory

Susan grew up idolising her older brother Jonathan and he is mentioned within five minutes of the conversation. “Anything he did I wanted to do. He loved riding and I was watching him the whole time. That is how it started, we shared a pony at the beginning,” she says.

Sadly, Jonathan lost his life in a car accident during the 2018 Dublin Horse Show, two years almost to the day before Susan’s Grand Prix performance in the main arena. It was a bitter sweet moment for Susan as he would have been the proudest person in the RDS that day.

“For a day like that, it is bitter sweet, and the timing it made it sweeter.

"Things happen for a reason, where I am today has a lot to do with Jonathan. He was looking down on me that day and, with the way everything has gone, he is still looking down on me.”

The love of horses in the Fitzpatrick family came from Sharon, who has jumped in the past herself. And while Susan’s recent success is foremost in our minds, we must not forget she was the pony European champion in 2013 aboard the wonderful pony Rock Dee Jay, and followed it up with an individual bronze medal in 2014, as well as winning two team medals in the pony ranks.

“He put me on the map, he is the reason that my name is out there a little bit more, it is all down to him. He gave me the confidence to stay going into horses,” she says about Rock Dee Jay, who was owned by the O’Reilly Hyland family and carried many pony riders to success.

Her other European medal came aboard Cavalino at the 2016 Junior European Championships in Millstreet, which has proved a happy hunting ground over the years.

Buzz

It is not every day you produce a horse to jump in a senior Nations Cup, and the sale of Fellow Castlefield was always going to put Susan back a few steps to start again, but that is a challenge she relishes.

“I was talking to someone about this recently, and I think I get more of buzz from the young horses. Obviously everyone’s dream to have top horses, but I absolutely love bringing on the young horses too; seeing what they are doing every year, selling them and seeing them do well for others, I get great satisfaction from that. I definitely prefer the producing side. Like with Fellow Castlefield, if I can get one in between that can compete at the bigger level, that is a great bonus,” she explains.

It wasn’t all young horses in 2020 however, with plenty of success on the national circuit and at two-star level in Europe towards the end of the year. The De Melo family from Switzerland sent Verdict De Kezeg to Keatingstown House Stud for Susan to ride and the pair clocked up multiple top results together, including victory in a two-star ranking class in Royan, France last October.

“Due to Covid-19, Verdict is now gone to America to be tried for a client. Together with the owner, we decided it was the best decision to make as the market is still strong over there,” she said about the 12-year-old gelding’s departure.

Another Keatingstown resident sold to America towards the end of 2020 was Gotha De Baudignies, the now nine-year-old grey mare who will be ridden by USA team rider Lauren Hough.

The 10-year-old home-bred Keatingstown Z Wellie Two (by Z Wellie 72), who she rode in the HSI Irish Showjumping Masters last month, is another exciting prospect in Susan’s string of horses. “He is very scoopy but still super green. I am still trying to make a partnership with him again, Ger [O’Neill] rode him for a while but I am really looking forward to him.”

Susan Fitzpatrick competing on Keatingstown Z Wellie during the Horse Sport Ireland Show Jumping Masters at Emerald International Equestrian Centre last month \ Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Perhaps her ticket back to the five-star Grands Prix is the eight-year-old gelding Quite Chacco (Quaid 1 x Chacco-Blue), who joined her string from Enda Carroll’s Ashford Farm last January. “He is probably the one I am most looking forward to. He has come a long way since getting him, he was extremely green at start of last year but went on to win the seven-year-old final in Royan and was second in the seven-year-old final in Valencia. He is not one we want to sell soon.

“The feeling is everything and Fellow Castlefield showed me what the feeling of a good horse is. So it is nice to sit on Quite Chacco now and know I have something nice.”

In order to keep the good horses, the Fitzpatricks often get involved with half shares and Susan says a “good investor” has come on board now in a few horses.

Young head, wise shoulders

Again, as we speak, I remember than Susan is only 21. And despite the hugely supportive backing of her parents and an excellent team around her, she is managing a successful business. How does that work?

“Knowing the horses inside out, first of all, it very important. Everything I do is tailor made to each individual. Niamh Sheehan is my groom and Devin Goldrick is the yard manager, they are the backbone to everything.”

Taylor Cummins is also part of the team, riding the young horses and keeping everything ticking over while Susan is showing abroad. “If I am going to be gone away for two months, it is really important to have someone at home that I can trust. She is a really good rider and it is lovely to have a girl too!”

The Irish team of Ger O'Neill, Susan Fitzpatrick, chef d'equipe Taylor Vard, Jenny Rankin and Aidan Killeen won the three-star Nations Cup in Uggerhalne, Denmark in May 2019 \ Wiegaarden

As we speak, Susan has just finalised plans to go to Spain for five weeks at the end of the month, to escape the cold at home and get the horses back into full jumping. While the facilities at her yard are second to none, the lack of an indoor arena makes this time of year challenging at times.

“I was over at Carol Gee’s using the indoor this morning as our outdoor is frozen. We are in the heart of horses in Kilkenny so there are great facilities around. We have 16 stables here so we try to keep the numbers down.”

And did she ever think about upping sticks and basing herself abroad for a few years? “I think the best place for the production of young horses is Ireland, I couldn’t fault it really. I have maybe thought about it for the winter months, so maybe in the future.”