Written by Louise Parkes for Horse Sport Ireland

There was a feel-good factor when Captain Geoff Curran, riding Glengarra Wood, was crowned Irish National Showjumping Champion at the final leg of the 2020 Horse Sport Ireland Premier Series in Portmore, County Down in September. 

It was 26 years since another armyman, Gerry Mullins who back then was also a captain, last claimed the coveted title riding Mill Ruby in 1994. So it was a moment to be cherished, and a reminder of the continuing function of the Army Equitation School in the history of Irish equestrian sport.

Its riders don’t just wear the uniform for show. As Commanding Officer Lt Col Tom Freyne explained last week, “everyone who joins has to sign up to be a member of the Defence Forces”. He should know. He was a riding officer himself for 10 years before becoming Second-in-Command of an Infantry Company in Lebanon in 1998 and Company Commander of an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan in 2006/2007.

He never lost his connection with horses, became a Horse Sport Ireland tutor, and in 2009 returned as Chief Instructor to the Equitation School where he was eventually appointed Commanding Officer in 2016 while, for the first time in the 90-year history of the School a female officer, Commandant Sharon Crean, was appointed as his second-in-command. When Tom was deployed for another tour of duty last year, this time in Mali in Africa, Sharon temporarily stepped into his role at McKee Barracks in Dublin which has been the headquarters of the Irish Army Equitation School since its establishment back in 1926.

Geoff’s 2020 national title victory was all the more rewarding for the fact that he has only been focused full-time on showjumping for the last two years. The 40-year-old, one of six siblings who hail from a dairy farm in Fenor in County Waterford, is best known for his successes in the sport of eventing, having competed at European and World Championships as well as the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong. He always dabbled in showjumping as well, and he doesn’t have any regrets about leaving his eventing career behind.

He first sprang to attention when winning the talent-spotting Golden Saddle Award in 1998 riding the stallion Philip Clover, one of many good horses bred by his father, Geoff Snr. who sadly died in a farm accident the year Geoff Jr joined the Army in 1999. 

When he arrived in McKee Barracks after his cadetship in 2001 he was the youngest of nine riders at the School. “At that time Gerry Flynn, David O’Brien, Shane Carey and Danielle Quinlivan were all riding at international level in showjumping so it was very difficult to break in. I was extremely lucky to be given two horses to go eventing in 2002, one with a bit of experience called Kildalton and the other Kilmessan who had no experience, but I think of him fondly because I did my first event with him and he brought me all the way to Boekelo International 3-Star. Things took off for me when the showjumper Kilkishen was given to me for eventing and he took me to the Olympics in 2008. Then Maurice Cassidy came onboard as patron to the School and I got The Jump Jet and Balladeer Alfred who I did two World Games with….it all fell into place”, he explains.

In 2018 he turned his full attention to a showjumping string that now includes the 10-year-olds Glengarra Wood by Capitalist and Dowth Hall by Flexible, the 9-year-olds MHS Gabhran by Cardento and HHS Clinstown by OBOS Quality, 8-year-old Tempo Manor by Sligo Candy Boy, and the 7-year-olds Kilrue by Balou du Rouet and Araglin by I’m Special de Muze. Equitation School policy means he can give them all the time they need to develop their potential, but it’s a big challenge for the Army to put quality horses under its top riders because the purchase price comes out of a relatively meagre annual budget of €900,000 that must cover everything apart from staff salaries. 

In today’s sport that’s modest money, but Commanding Officer Freyne says “we’ve bought some very nice horses over the last few years that can go and compete in big classes, we’re just waiting for them to come to fruition. I enjoy sourcing really nice 4/5 year olds and putting them into a solid training programme, and we are very lucky that the calibre of the Irish-bred horse has improved tremendously in the last 10 years and there is a bigger pool of them”. At present there are 35 horses at the School and five riding officers including Capt Charlene Keogh, Lieutenants James White, Adam Benson-Byrne and Chloe Foley and Geoff who is the senior member of the team. 

As Geoff explains however “we can only buy horses bred and foaled in Ireland, and we have to get them when they are young because if we wait until they are six or seven then they will be outside our budget. As a 5-year-old they may be going well in the hands of top production riders, but for us it’s often easier to read the potential of horses produced by non-professionals - ones that have scope, jump well and are careful and regularly clear, even if the rider makes the odd mistake. We know that if we improve them they could be really good, and there are lots of nice classes for youngsters at good venues here in Ireland now so there are plenty of opportunities to develop them”.

All horses are named after places within the region they are bought from, “and a unique thing is that we support the breeding herd by sending the mares back to the owner or breeder at the end of their competition careers”, he points out. There is also a yearly leasing scheme “and that’s something owners can really use to their advantage. If you’re selling a foal you want the dam to have a competition record, so we can help with that”, Geoff adds.

His National Championship winning partner Glengarra Wood, better known as Joey to his friends, is a good example of a horse that has been given plenty of time to mature. “He was bought as a four-year-old and he’s big-framed so we gave him a lot of time to furnish up so he didn’t compete much before he was eight. He’s ultra-careful and really trainable, a horse that finds a lot of power on the last stride which is a great feeling for the rider”, Geoff points out.

Like so many others, his plans for the year were thrown into chaos by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were due to go to Arezzo when it struck Italy in March so we redirected to Spain, but then they were hit by huge numbers of cases there so we stayed home and went into lockdown”, he says. It wasn’t all negative however because “when the national circuit opened up again we were in a good position because we had been training well and it was nice to have the national title to aim for with Joey. He’s not a fast horse but he’s a very good jumping horse and careful over 1.50m”, he adds.

The title was awarded at the end of the Horse Sport Ireland Premier Series which was reduced to just four legs in this shortened season. “It was staged at the four best outdoor venues - Barnadown, Mullingar, Balmoral and Portmore - and we were lying second going into the final. Ger O’Neill was in a lead and had two down on that last day, one in each round, but we were clear in the first round and had one down in the second, so we won it by just one point in the end. However it was a great win because the way the league is set up it puts value on consistency, and we were the only ones placed in all four legs”, Geoff explains.

So what now for Glengarra Wood? “Our goal with every horse is to get the maximum from each one, to help that horse be the best it can be. We don’t know if Joey will jump at 5-Star level because we haven’t asked him yet and you can’t tell until you try. Certainly when I was eventing I’d never say I had a 4-Star horse until it competed at a 4-Star. I know for sure he’s a 3-Star horse so the main focus for him next year will be the getting on teams for the EEF Nations Cup circuit which has lots of nice venues. And we’ll be aiming at Dublin Horse Show and hopefully jumping the Grand Prix there”.

And Geoff also has high hopes for Tempo Manor. “He’ll be nine next year, we won’t put too much pressure on him but if he’s jumping nicely at 1.50m by the end of the year we will be very happy - he’s a horse we like a lot”, he adds.

No matter where else any Irish rider competes, let alone those wearing the national military uniform, the target of getting into the main arena of the Royal Dublin Society showgrounds at CSIO5* Dublin in August every year over-rides everything else. And the absolute ultimate goal is a place on the home team for the world-famous Aga Khan Nations Cup Trophy on the Friday afternoon of that big week. 

There’s an expectation that the Army will be represented in the international classes in Dublin having qualified through the national circuit, but last year it didn’t happen when Geoff was injured in a fall a few weeks beforehand. He understands the colossal weight of that expectation, responsibility and tradition. Captains Cyril Harty, Dan Corry and Ged O’Dwyer were superstars of the sport almost a century ago, and names like Colonel Billy Ringrose, Ned Campion, John Ledingham, Gerry Mullins and Con Power are long the stuff of legend. The Irish public adore the sight of their riders in uniform on the hallowed turf of the RDS every summer.  

It’s enormous pressure to put on the shoulders of one man to maintain that tradition, especially when his string of horses are still in the developmental stage, but Geoff soldiers on and has that week firmly in his sights for August 2021.

A reminder of what it all means, in a country that has a unique passion for its horses, was a chance encounter on the day of our visit last week. McKee Barracks lies at the edge of the Phoenix Park, the largest enclosed park in any European city and home to the President of Ireland who resides at Aras an Uachtarain. 

While photographing Geoff with Glengarra Wood and fellow-officer Lieutenant Adam Benson-Byrne aboard Rathbourne using the presidential house as the backdrop, who should appear only President Michael D Higgins, out walking his dog, Brod, on the grounds of the residence. So of course this most genial of men, who is also a poet and committed socialist, stopped to chat and admire the horses, and before we parted company Geoff issued an invitation to visit to Equitation School as soon as lockdown measures allow, which His Excellency graciously accepted. He was clearly charmed by the encounter, and it reminded me of something Lt Col Tom Freyne said earlier in the day.

“Geoff and all the team at the Equitation School are expected to compete at the highest possible level, that’s our job, to promote the Irish horse. But there’s more to it than putting on a pair of brown boots. The faces and names might change, but the picture has to stay the same. They are also expected to be ambassadors for the Equitation School, the Irish horse, the Defence Forces and the country. And one of the things I’m proudest about is that - to a man and woman here in the Unit - they do that exceptionally well”.