‘When you need to set sail, you wouldn’t want to be on anything else’: meet this ‘quirky’ Irish Sport Horse who’s ‘brave, bold and never stops’
He may not be straightforward and can be a “diva”, but when a big day of jumping beckons, Ryan is absolutely the one for the job
Many people profess to prefer hounds to humans, and Ryan certainly does too.
“He lights up with the hounds. He loves them,” says Ollie Cornock, joint-master of the Bicester with Whaddon Chase. “He’s at his most affectionate with hounds.”
The chestnut hunter, who stands 17.1hh, arrived from Ireland via Jack-Thomas Watson in Northumberland and came to Ollie aged five.
“It was quite a bold move,” Ollie admits. “I was secretary at the time and he was quite young and green, but he soon got into his stride.”
Ryan is not the most patient of animals and if, as secretary, Ollie stopped to help a faller or close a gate, he’d been fine at first, but, “by the third or fourth person or third or fourth gate, he’d say, No, absolutely not, I’m through with helping.”
It was when Ollie joined the mastership six years ago that Ryan came into his own.
“He’s happier at the front than with people around him and he’s never stopped at anything. When hounds go and you need to set sail, you wouldn’t want to be on anything else.”
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Ryan is less keen on standing about for autumn hunting as he matures – he’s now 15 – but “when you’re field mastering on a big day and need to be thinking about the hounds and what’s going on, not the horse, he’s brilliant”.
Albeit not the best put together, the Irish Sport Horse is “brave and bold”, with a “generous jump; he stands off well”. He’s not the easiest ride: “He needs to get on with his job. You wouldn’t want to fiddle with him. He’s a bit of a bloke!”
“He lights up with the hounds. He loves them”
Ollie Cornock on Ryan's love of hounds
The impatience extends to the ground: “He has to be my first horse,” explains Ollie. “After he’s had hair and make-up done, he has to go on the walker for 10 minutes to calm down before being tacked up.”
Music to the soul
Ollie credits Karen Bamford, who has looked after his horses “extremely generously and well” for 20 years, and Claire Grindrod for managing the “quirky” Ryan on the ground.
“He’s quite a diva,” says Ollie, who can do him on his own if they goes visiting, but “otherwise Karen and Claire are the only ones who can manage him.”
He only hunts, and has the summer off. Always, it is the hounds that Ryan attends to.
“He watches them, he loves hearing them. He sulks when he’s not going hunting.”
As for all true hunters, the music of the hounds speaks to Ryan’s soul.
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Octavia is a freelance writer for Horse & Hound – and has been since 2006. She has ridden since the age of 13 and has followed hounds ever since – in Britain, Ireland, France and America. She is a firm believer that there is no such thing as a bad day’s hunting.
Octavia also writes for The Field and is chief sub editor on Country Life.