CO Clare producer Paul McDermott comes from a family steeped in sport. His father Micheál is a coaching legend in GAA. Paul is hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps, as he builds his reputation as a show jumping coach and producer.

“I think my competitive streak comes from my dad. He’s very involved in the GAA. He has managed a lot of different teams and he’s won five senior championships in five different counties. Just last week he had a team, Celbridge, in the Kildare senior football final,” Paul told The Irish Field.

“He’s quite competitive. We are both sports mad. I always liked to play other sports alongside horses, I played rugby when I was younger and I still play a bit of tag rugby. Just recently, I was coaching an Irish tag rugby squad, it was difficult time-wise, but it was nice to have another interest as well as the horses.

“When I was very young, I used to go to the shows with my dad Micheál and my older sister Kelly. They’d put me up on the pony and I used to ride about the place.

"They got a bit sick of me going to shows and not competing, so my dad said I’ll give you 20 pounds, if you go in and compete. From what I remember, what I said back to him was ‘yes I’ll do that alright, but if I go clear I want an extra tenner!’ So that’s how my competitiveness started.

“I grew up in Fairfield, Ennis, Co Clare. Because of my dad’s work, we moved around quite a bit. When I was young, we spent time living in Cork and our neighbours there, Pat and his son Darragh Magnier, got us really involved in riding. They got us our first good pony and stuff like that.

“When I was a bit older, my mum Marie got involved and took us to a lot of shows. When I was in 128cm, I went to Michael Blake for lessons. He got me a couple of good ponies, including Sebastian Dundee. I remember I got to Dublin and did the pairs relay, and finished in second place.

“Up through the ponies, we had some great years. I had another good mare, Ravensdale Appraise Me, which I did well on.

“As I got older and moved into horses, I knew that this was something I was really drawn to. Most of my training and education has been with Joan Greene locally. Joan taught me more than anyone else about horses, and still to this day she is the first person I would go to for advice. We get on very well.

“I have travelled a bit also. I went to Max Hauri in Switzerland for a while. I spent some time in George Babes’ place in Scotland. I also spent time in America, with Frank and Bonnie Cunniffe.

Paul McDermott pictured in Oliva, Spain recently

“I always think it’s funny how things happen so randomly and seem to just fall into place. My parents wanted me to go to college and I did. I went to the University of Limerick and studied Business and Marketing. Funnily enough, it was through a work placement in college I worked for Horse Sport Ireland and was on their stand at the Dublin Horse Show one day and a guy came over to me looking for tickets for the Nations Cup.

American adventure

“However I managed it, I was able to get him tickets and he came back the next day to thank me. He also told me that he was looking for a rider over in America. Jokingly, I said ‘I’d nearly do it myself’ and he said ‘okay’.

“He didn’t know me and didn’t know if I could ride, nothing. I said I’ll have a think about it, come back to me tomorrow. Lo and behold, 9am the next day, there he was back and I agreed to go. That turned out to be one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in horses. That was Frank and Bonnie Cunniffe. They had a good horse with Paul O’Shea at the time - Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu.

“I ended up going out there for about a year. They looked after me so well. They treated me like part of the family. Their son Ned and daughter Ailish were fantastic. I couldn’t speak highly enough about them. They gave me such drive and ambition to love the sport. They helped me believe I could do it full-time and really give it a good go.

“They must have had a lot of faith in me, because they had me doing a lot of coaching out there and it was there that I really developed myself as a coach. Riding is one thing, but coaching is different and I developed my own style out there, and that’s a big part of what I do today.

“I learned a lot from Paul (O’Shea), he’s a great guy. You couldn’t meet nicer than Paul.

“I was a little older when I finished college, I was 24. I had taken a couple of years before I started and spent them just doing horses, and kept a few in work the whole time I was a student. Things really started to take off for me when I came back from America,” Paul explained.

Lucky

“It’s funny how you meet all the different owners, and I’ve been very lucky in that regard. Years ago, I was selling a pony - and I always believe in being very straight up... a man rang me looking for a pony for his daughter. After speaking with him a while, I discovered his child was quite inexperienced and, seeing how my pony was quite green, I said to him ‘no, sorry this isn’t the pony for you now. Sometimes a green pony and a green rider don’t work, he should look for something older’.

“He kept my number and, a few years later, called me and said I have a horse if you’d be interested in taking it. I took it and Seamus (Madden) has turned out to be one of my biggest owners. I’ve had a good few horses for him and I teach his daughter Cara.

“She’s been in Dublin as a young rider for the past couple of years. He has a keen interest in breeding, so it’s nice to be involved in what they are doing as well.

Loyalty

“Seamus Carew is another person who has been amazing for me. I’ve had a number of horses from him. He trusts me and is very loyal. He currently owns my good mare Rhonda, who has been very consistent in the seven-year-old classes.

“We were out in Spain a few weeks ago and she was fifth in one of the big classes. She was also very good in Hickstead at the start of the summer. She is always there or thereabouts and I think she has a bright future ahead. She should be moving up to Grand Prix level in January, so I’m looking forward to that. We previously had Cornet Clover Girl together, who we sold and she went on to compete at 1.50m.

“I met Seamus (Carew) through another good owner and breeder, John Nicolas.”

Paul runs a busy yard. “We currently have 14 horses in work. I have a girl named Georgina Hornsby, who works for me and she has been brilliant. She’s a very important part of the operation. Caroline Chambers too is great with the youngsters, she breaks the horses in for me. My mum is also a big part of the yard at home, she keeps an eye on everything.

“I have a couple of nice youngsters, who will be stepping up this year; the Kennedy Brothers’ Lagans KBS Calvo Lad. He is still a little green, but stepped up to 1.40m when he was in Spain and did a one-star Grand Prix.

“Other than that, it’s all four-year-olds and up. With them all being for sale, I don’t often get to keep them until they are older, but I’m lucky to have a few owners like Seamus (Carew), who is keen to hold onto them a little longer to see how far we can go. He really enjoys the sport too.

“I have another owner, Gerry Lillis, who has been with me since the beginning. He invested in a couple of horses with me early on and they got me out there and seen, they were nice quality horses and helped me get noticed by other owners at that time. I have a five-year-old for him now and we are always looking out for something new to try and go that next step further. So, it’s nice to have him with me.

“Mike Shanahan is someone else who has been there since the beginning. He is a lifelong friend of my family and is still a big part of the yard. He has one he bred himself, a five-year-old, with us. He looks like a really nice horse. I learned a lot of my horsemanship from him.

“A lot of the horses I sell don’t need to be superstars. If they are done properly and they ride correctly, it’s so much more important. We nearly aim for that; that they do everything they are told.

“We like to make it that, whatever the horse can be, they will be. We try to bring our horses to their maximum potential and maximum value, regardless of whether they are going to be a Grand Prix horse or an amateur horse; it doesn’t really matter.”