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‘He’s a two-star horse with a six-star mentality’: the Irish pair making their Kentucky debut

Pippa Roome Pippa Roome

    • Irish rider Padraig McCarthy makes his Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event debut this week, riding his own and Rachel and Sarah Gough’s Pomp N Circumstance.

    “For a long time, the owners had hinted that it would be lovely to bring him here,” said Padraig after dressage yesterday. “It’s his first five-star and often at Badminton, the ground is a bit wet. I didn’t want to really over face him with that because in my mind, he’s kind of a two-star horse with a six-star mentality.

    “We’ve taken our time to produce him, and I just wanted to make sure that we were trying to do the right thing for him. And we’ve heard for many years that it’s an amazing place here, so we were delighted to have a chance to come with a really nice horse.”

    Elaborating on Pomp N Circumstance’s character, Padraig said: “When you ride him at home, he’s just a nice horse. When you jump him or ride him on the flat, you don’t have an amazing feeling.

    “But when he really comes alive is in the competition phases and it’s like he becomes a different animal. It’s one of the qualities that you can’t train into a horse. He’s always had it and it’s worth more than all the talent in the world.

    “It does take time to trust that and not expect too much in the practice ring. When he goes in, he seems to grow six inches and have more blood and power.

    “He always tries his best; sometimes he almost tries too hard so you’re just trying to temper his spirit and make sure he doesn’t get ahead of himself, but he’s a wonderful horse.”

    Padraig and Pomp N Circumstance were 12th at the Agria European Championships at Blenheim Horse Trials last year, leading the Irish to team silver. The horse has jumped 10 double clears at four-star level.

    Pomp N Circumstance: bred for the job

    Padraig has been riding Pomp N Circumstance since he was three. He is owned by his breeders, the Gough family.

    The horse’s dam, Bow House Mandolin (by Furisto), competed at Badminton Horse Trials and Burghley Horse Trials with the Goughs’ daughter, Rachel. She also rode his sire, Pompadour, at the current four-star level.

    Padraig McCarthy and Pomp N Circumstance made a strong start to their Kentucky Three-Day Event campaign with a score of 33 for 13th after dressage.

    “On the whole, I was very pleased. I would have taken that at the start of the week, for sure,” said Padraig.

    “It’s a new test for him and quite an atmospheric arena. I got to the end of my walk and asked for canter and he started squealing under his breath and I thought, ‘Oh no’. Then we fluffed the next movement – he came out of the corner like a cannonball and missed the change – but he came back to me again, so I was really pleased with that and he did some lovely work.

    “And I’m under no illusion it’s going to be a competition where you finish on dressage score – or if I do, I’ll be very pleased. It’s definitely a three day competition here.”

    The pair head out across country over Derek di Grazia’s course at 3.15pm local time today (8.15pm British time).

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    Pippa Roome
    Pippa Roome

    H&H magazine editor and eventing editor
    Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
    Pippa Roome

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