I’M a few years older than Michael and when he first started coming out here to shows, the riders would say to him ‘You’re Alex’s brother?’ Now, anywhere I go, people say ‘Are you Michael’s brother!’” Alex Duffy said, remarking on the emergence of his brother in the international show jumping world.
Michael G. is part of the platoon of successful young Irish riders now based on the continent. What does his middle initial G, used to avoid mix-ups with the namesake ‘Galway Michael’, stand for?
“Gerard, although my nickname is ‘Gums’, I’ve had that nickname for years since I was a young lad. A lot of the lads I grew up with in ponies, like Michael, Eoin McMahon and Richard Howley, you’d now often meet at the same shows.”
“Too many” he said, when asked about any funny incidents involving the two Michael Duffys getting mixed up. “We always laugh when we were in ponies that I’d be getting his prize money and he’d be getting my points!”
Back then in ponies, did he think that one day he would be competing at international Grand Prix and Global Champions Tour level? “I always had it at the back of my mind. I was just lucky to have Vinnie, he always believed in us. We were never held back or thought there was nothing we couldn’t do.”
His father Vinnie provided a world-class schoolmaster for sons Alex and Michael in the shape of 2006 World Equestrian Games horse World Cruise. As Alex pointed out though, it was his younger brother that benefited more than him in this transition to horses.
“Funnily enough, or maybe not, I never really clicked with the horse. I could feel how good he was but he never really went with me. Michael started riding World Cruise when he was only 14 and from the first day, they were really good. He had no problem finding the key!” Alex explained.
“When you have a good result or a bit of success, it definitely motivates you. I was very lucky with the people I had around me from the start, Vinnie had good stock under me and John Ledingham was very good to us on the underage European teams,” Michael said, looking back on his four European championship caps.
‘G’ is for gold medals
His medal tally to date includes team bronze at Wiener Neustadt in Austria in 2015 and then closer to home, the memorable team gold medal result at Millstreet the following year. Both medals were courtesy of the Forsyth gelding Felix XXVIII, another of Alex’s former horses.
Michael had travelled further afield in 2014 for his first team gold medal. “Being on the winning team at the Youth Olympics was a great experience, it was a fantastic week in China,” Michael said, recalling the 2014 Games, hosted in Nanching, where he also finished individual fifth on the borrowed Commander.
“All the horses at the Youth Olympics had been brought in from Europe. Ludger Beerbaum would sell a lot of horses there every year and it was actually a draw for the horses, when we got there, that decided which one we got.”
The winning European team numbered Michael, Mathias Alvaro (IT), Filip Agren (SWE), Lisa Nooren (NED) and Jake Saywell (GB). For the Australian rider Jake Hunter, who won an individual bronze medal, the Games ended up in a move to Co Mayo.
“It was gas how it happened. I became friendly with Phil Lever, from Australia and he introduced us to Jake. Jake mentioned how he wanted to come to Europe and I said, joking, “You should come to Knockmore, we’d have a job for you.” A few weeks after the Games, he rang and said ‘I’ve my flights booked!’”
“Jake is two and a half hours away now in Alan Waldman’s, then Eoin McMahon is 30 minutes away, he works for Ludger Beerbaum and Jonathan Gordon from Crossmolina, he’s only 20 minutes away. It’s brilliant to have so many neighbours from home out here.”
Home from home
Michael too made the “easy” move, as he described it. “Alex had just started his own stable and I came out to help him so it was nearly like being at home. Originally I just came out to do a couple of shows in Germany and then down to Arezzo in Italy, but then I ended up staying.
“I’d been with Alex maybe six months and then Cameron Hanley was injured in Munich so he was sidelined. I remember I called Cameron and said ‘I can come and help if I can bring a horse?’ I was there for a few months and that’s how I got the job with Carl, so it all happened kind of naturally and like Alex, I’m still here. I love the dealing side and working with Carl, we’re always buying and selling horses.”
Michael G Duffy and Lappucino jumping the Dublin Grand Prix in 2018 \ ES Photography
The Hanleys are also part of an extended Knockmore network. Vinnie recalled in the first part of the ‘Duffy trilogy’, how it was his wife Sandra who started Cameron off on his first pony when she moved to Mayo to work at the Hanley’s riding school in Claremorris.
“I’m very lucky to be here. Alex was here before me and really, it’s like being with family with Carl and Nadja, you’re looked after like one of their own,” said Michael gratefully, demonstrating how Irish expats abroad look out for each other and the springboard Hanley’s Osnabrück base is for developing talent.
“Nadja, Carl’s wife and yard manager, is from Galway so the yard is really Irish.” Nadja, who also rides internationally under the Swiss flag, grew up in Oughterard, Co Galway and ran the equestrian superstore Olympic Saddlery in Galway city with her sister Eileen for many years before moving to Germany.
The Irish-ness has also rubbed off on another team member, Alena Wilker. “She only lives 10 minutes from the yard originally but if anyone from Ireland comes here, they always ask her what part of Ireland she’s from as she’s got such a strong Irish accent!
“Carl is fluent in German so he keeps the pressure on me to learn the language. I did French in secondary school so German is a new language for me. Never minded school at all, I enjoyed it, enjoyed the craic although we used to do plenty of dodging!
“As soon as Mum dropped me off at the school gates in the morning, Vinnie would pick me up five minutes later to go riding horses! Never had any interest in going to university or college, I wanted to do my Leaving Cert and that was it.”
A family home-bred success story is Lapuccino 2, Michael’s current top horse. The 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse is by SIEC Livello, the Holsteiner stallion that finished individual fourth at the 2009 European Championships at Windsor with Cameron and out of the Grade A mare Cabaret III, who jumped here on the national circuit with both Francis Connors and Nadja, whose father, Sven Kapp, is listed as Lapuccino’s breeder.
Leap to the league
“My best horse at the moment is Lapuccino. I suppose I was very lucky having him, Chappo Chey and Castlefield Rubinus, they were really at the top of their game when I started doing two and three-star shows with them.
“We were picked for the Young Riders Academy and through that, I got invites to ride in a few good shows, like the World Cup at Stuttgart, Geneva at the Rolex Grand Slam, I was placed in a big class there and Amsterdam, where I was the leading rider after I won a few classes with Chappo Chey and Castlefield Rubinas.”
In tandem with working for Carl Hanley Sporthorses, another important factor in his success story is the Young Riders Academy.
“The Young Riders Academy was brilliant. I suppose, as a young lad just getting going, all you’re thinking about is horses and it opens your eyes up to appealing to sponsors and how to run your business,” he said, explaining the aims of the course, designed to give the next generation of show jumping riders an all-round footing in the sport.
“We had four educational sessions throughout the year and they organise training too with a rider. I’d a job so I just couldn’t go away but I’d drive over to Marco Kutscher a couple of times a week for training and the Academy got us into numerous five-star shows. It’s partly thanks to them that I ended up on the Global Tour and I’ve been able to keep going at the bigger shows.”
Amsterdam was the link to Michael making a career-boosting leap to the Global Champions League. “Mikael and Eric Van der Vleuten were at the show and their team, which is owned by Marta Ortega, needed an under-25 rider.
“It was Alain Storme who I have to thank, it was he who recommended me to the guys and then it went from there after the Amsterdam results,” said Michael, explaining how he joined the Madrid In Motion team.
With 1,315 results already recorded by this 24-year-old on the FEI database, what would he regard as his highlights to date and future hopes?
“I was lucky I was on the team that was third two years ago in the Nations Cup final at Barcelona which was a brilliant experience. Any opportunity to ride in a Nations Cup I take it with both hands and savour it. My favourite kind of competition is the Nations Cup, the whole team aspect of it, you’re not just jumping for yourself. There’s always more pressure but I love the Nations Cups.
“I think if you ask any Irish rider, they all want to be on a winning Aga Khan team. I’d love to be able to ride at the Olympics one day, to have plenty of Grand Prix wins and a long career at the highest level. It’s one thing to have a couple of good horses for two to three years but when you see what the likes of Michael and John Whitaker have achieved for decades, that’s the dream.”
Behind what can appear as a glamorous life on the international circuit, lies intricate planning, preparation and a pile of paperwork. “It can be hard work, especially with the Globals. You need to have your horses on song every single week to be able to perform at the highest level.
“It’s different when you know you have a show in six weeks’ time but when the Global season is running, it’s week in, week out. It takes a lot of hard work and good management, knowing which horses to jump where.
“We make all our own travel arrangements for the Global Champions, Simone Lynch does a fantastic job organising everything, from the horses to organising flights. My mum Sandra and Martin often come to the shows and it’s nice to have someone there. Whether it’s a good or bad show, it’s all the same to them,” added Michael, whose show groom Charlotte Oaks, originally from Leitrim, is another important member of his backup team.
Michael G Duffy is happy to be at the Global Champions Tour final in New York \ Stefano Grasso LGCT
The same boat
Michael was on the Spanish Sunshine Tour, as part of his build-up to the main outdoor season, before shows worldwide ground to a halt with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Lapuccino was brilliant down in Spain and I’ve got Chappo Chey too. My plan for this year was to do a few Grand Prix classes with him and take the pressure off Lapuccino. I’ve one horse that I’m really excited about; Flint T.S, the horse I have from Marc Houtzager.
“He was second in a Grand Prix and third in a big class in Spain so we were just getting going. I think he’ll be a great addition to the team for the Globals.
“Competitions stopped about the same time everywhere. Everyone was wondering what was going to happen and then all of a sudden, shows were cancelled. But it’s the same for everyone, we’re all in the same boat.
“I don’t think anyone really knows what the story is at the minute but I’d say best case scenario … maybe three months to get back, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s six months.
“Our plan was we’d done a few World Cups during the winter and we were going to take a step back with all our younger horses and kickstart the season with the older horses at Madrid and Hamburg. It was going to be a jam-packed summer with the Globals and hopefully a Nations Cup or two, so it’s all at a standstill. We’re just going to take our time now and keep the horses ticking over.”
Was there ever a Plan B career? “I love golfing. It’s my hobby more than anything but if you could choose a second career in sport, it would be golf. Myself and the other Michael Duffy play a lot of golf. Sometimes if you’re finished early you’ll go out and play a round. It’s nice to go and get your mind off the horses for a while.”
And Michael has his future claim staked for the horse on people’s minds after this year’s Horse Sport Ireland inspections at Cavan: his father’s Kaiden Leva WD. “Vinnie will be getting a nice birthday present off me this year and a good Christmas present too!”