WHAT is striking during a conversation with Andrew Williams is the massive amount of varied experience such a young man has accumulated in the equestrian industry.

A background in show jumping, with a side line into showing and then a progression into eventing, while all the time learning how best to manage and produce horses to a professional level, means that he is proficient in all aspects of improving the youngsters he buys.

A few months ago, Andrew made a permanent move from Wales to Ireland. Himself and his partner, event rider John Tilley, are now based in Carol Gee’s yard in Co Kilkenny.

“I grew up in a completely non-horsey family,” he told The Irish Field this week. “My Grandmother had a small holding on one of the Welsh hills and I spent a lot of time there. I had a little Welsh Mountain 11.2hh pony there which was bought at a sale unbroken and I learned to ride on the side of a mountain.

“Once I grew out of that pony, I got another one and began show jumping, but it was all very difficult because we had to borrow a trailer and everything. There was a lady down the road who helped me a lot, and my Grandma was into her thoroughbreds and point-to-pointers and she was a good support so they would take me places.

“I’ve always been very musical and when I was in school I got a musical scholarship to go to the Guildford School of Music. So I studied Musical Theatre and, from there, spent two years in The Lion King and Les Miserables in the West End. I loved it, but it’s mentally exhausting doing that stuff. So I went back to Wales for a summer to take a break for a couple of months.

“A friend of my Grandmother’s daughter had broken her arm and she had show ponies, she asked me could I ride them for her. I had never even seen a show pony before but said yes and I absolutely loved it.”

Financing

“I loved how beautiful they were. I learned how to turn horses out properly, and everything about it. I then went and finished second in the Horse of The Year show in my first year of showing hunters.

“I did that for a few years, but to be honest there is no money in showing at all. I didn’t go back to London to do musical theatre but I was singing in pubs and clubs to finance the horses. I had a small yard and I did hunters, showing horses, show jumpers, everything.

“I did some work with Chris Bartle, he worked with the German eventing team at the time and he based their horses with me. I drove the lorry for them, and looked after the horses. That’s where the interest in eventing bug started.

“From grooming really, I’ve become, probably, the biggest producer of young event horses in the UK. I’ve sold to every nation possible. I’ve sold to many, many gold medallists. We’ve produced 10 five-star horses in 10 years. I became very good at it because I knew a lot of other stuff; not just how to ride them but also what was involved in the maintenance, the care etc.

“Then from my showing background came the conformation, which I was obsessed about. That turned into me buying horses and producing them. People would come and buy horses knowing that even if they hadn’t competed a lot they would be conformationally correct and would have a job.

“Then I met a girl who evented named Vicky Tuffs. Her parents had a farm and we built a yard on the farm. We had 30 horses there and it was all very successful. I did that for 11 years and we had plenty of success.”

Making the move

Andrew was looking at making the move to Ireland and a conversation with Carol Gee saw him end up at Fernhill. “I was on one of my many shopping trips to Ireland and I came to look at a horse in Carol’s (Gee) and she said ‘where are you off to next’ and I said we’re off to view a property.

“I spent so much time in Ireland looking at horses, I was here 70% of the time. I was fed up getting back on the ferry, driving eight hours to go eventing and doing it all again the next week.

“I love Ireland. I’ve bought hundreds, if not thousands of horses here. I’ve worked with loads of people, with the Go for Gold Sale and things. I’ve made lots of great friends.

“Ireland and Wales are very similar. I had had enough of all the travel, I had decided to look at properties here and Carol spends a lot of her time in Portugal now. She wouldn’t have thought of having anyone else here but we know each other very well, and she knew I would look after the place. We get on with Frazer (Duffy) so well that was when she said what about coming here?

“Everything is set up here perfectly for me to just carry on with the business so we lifted everything up from the UK. I sold all the horses bar three and now we have 15 in competing. It was never supposed to be that fast. I was supposed to be taking things a bit easier and steadier.

“But I realised that it was never producing the horses that was wearing me out, it was the constant travelling that was the hard work.

“We would be eventing Thursday to Sunday and then I would get in my car at 9pm and drive to the ferry for 11pm to make my way to Ireland to look at horses for 7am, do two days here and then back on the ferry to prepare to go competing again.”

Brexit nightmare

“I didn’t realise how difficult Brexit had made my life until I moved here. It’s a nightmare. It costs so much more money to do business in the UK. I’ve got a lot of British owners and everything has gotten so much more expensive. From entry fees to import taxes, all of it and there is so much paperwork.

“It all carries through… people ask why we have to charge more and I explain that we are paying out so much more that it has to be reimbursed somewhere.

“To get horses into the USA increased from about €8,000 to almost, I think the last quote we got was €14,000. For us to sell horses into Germany, Holland, France - all the places where I do a lot of business - we were paying the import taxes, whereas here it’s EU to EU so it’s made a massive difference to what you can sell horses for here compared to what you have to charge in the UK.

Work hard

“We currently have about 15 horses in our yard and then we have about four more we do for Carol. They range from a three-years-old to five-star. I break them myself but I’ve hung up my competition boots a while ago. This is John’s first season riding as a professional. Before we moved here, he worked in a Dental trust, and was riding two or three a day, now he does 14 or 15, but he’s probably more in love with eventing than I am.

“Our first, and only event here because two of them were called off because of weather, he went out and won. I think that this is everything he’s ever wanted in life so being able to make it financially viable for both of us is fantastic. We both work very hard, just in different areas.

“We were lucky enough to get a really experienced horse called Bango from friends of ours. He’s 17 years old and has done it all so John can learn a lot from him. We plan to do the OI at Lisgarvan next, then the three-star in Millstreet, and then hopefully onto Ballindenisk short. John’s dream would be to do a three-star long by the end of the year and then Bramham or Blenheim next year.

“I always think I’m a bit of a ‘Jack of all trades’ and a ‘Master of none’; not quite good enough to be a West End star, and not quite good enough to be an Olympic rider, but somewhere in between!”