Tributes have been paid to a home-bred event horse who went to the top, and finished his days in happy retirement in the place he was born.

Step In Time, who jumped double clear at Burghley Horse Trials and was 20th at Badminton with Mark Kyle, and represented Ireland at the 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG), has died aged 26 at the home of his breeder, Mark’s father Johnny.

“We had a lot of fun with him,” Mark told H&H. “There was nothing too big for him, nothing he couldn’t jump.”

Mark said his father turned to breeding after he stopped riding; he liked the traditional Irish type. Mark’s five-star and 1998 WEG ride Irish Patriot was by Step Together, so Johnny put his mare Festival Time to the same stallion, and the result was Step In Time.

Mark said the horse, who was known as Johnny at home, had “plenty about him” from the start.

“He was wild!” he said. “It took probably two years to get him backed. I was over once and went to where he was, and they loose schooled him; he just jumped loop-the-loops, They’d get on him for a few days and he’d be cheeky again. So I said I’d bring him back to England, and if I couldn’t back him, he’d have to go back and stay on the farm or something.

“He was tough; and the last couple of seasons when he retired from eventing, whatever age he was, you wouldn’t just get straight on him. You’d lie across him and walk or trot down the road before you got on, and even then, he’d have a go!”

Mark said Johnny was hardy and tough, never sick or injured, and once he knew the job, he was unstoppable.

“It took a while to come, corners and arrowheads took time and lots of just schooling at home but there was nothing he couldn’t jump,” he said. “He was very fast, quite strong for a little horse, quite sharp and looky but nothing was too big for him.”

Mark said those five-star completions and the championship were the highlights, but they also enjoyed taking part in the Hickstead Eventers’ Challenge more than once, and had wins and top placings up to three-star (now four-star) level.

And he added that it made his father very proud to see a horse he had bred and his son go to the top together.

“It’s every breeder’s dream, isn’t it?” he said.

Step In Time’s last international event was in 2013, after which he retired, fit and well.

“We thought he’d done enough,” Mark said. “I hunted him a couple of seasons; mastered the Quorn with him for a season and he enjoyed that. Then he went back to Ireland to finish his days on the farm where he was born. It was a lot of fun and he retired fit and well, and you can’t ask for much more.”

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Drunken Disorderly, who won the eventing grand prix at Hickstead and competed at the Olympics with Mark Kyle, has been put down, aged 29.

“Carl” was bred by Joanne Jardin in Northern Ireland and then sold to a rider in Britain, who sent him to Tanya Kyle to school and sell on.

“He was so naughty I couldn’t even lead him in and out from the field, plus he failed the vet, so I didn’t pay a lot of money for him,” Tanya told H&H. “But once he knew he had to do what he was told, he would jump absolutely anything.

“He had the most enormous character — when he was younger, if the lorry went out without him, he would run around the stable and throw himself on the floor. He was very determined. He lived up to the name Drunken Disorderly in the dressage — it was never brilliant — but across country he always wanted to go and jump.”

Tanya competed Carl up to the top level, finishing 23rd on him at Burghley, but when she broke her arm badly and couldn’t ride for a year, husband Mark took over.

“He did the European Championships at Punchestown in 2003, which qualified him for the Athens Olympics, so I couldn’t say I wanted him back,” said Tanya.

Drunken Disorderly was one of the first eventers to prove how much more often horses can compete without roads and tracks and steeplechase, when he went to Burghley and was placed 15th, weeks after finishing 22nd at the Athens Olympics as a member of the Irish team.

He was also a specialist at arena eventing, being placed in the eventing grand prix at Hickstead with both Mark and Tanya as well as winning the class in 2005 with Mark. He also won the British Open indoor cross-country title twice.

Drunken Disorderly contested Burghley several times and Badminton (21st in 2005), as well as the Olympics and two European Championships. The only major championship he missed out on was a World Equestrian Games (WEG) — he was lame at the first trot-up at the 2006 Aachen WEG with pus in the foot.

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He stayed with the Kyles in retirement and was ridden until he was 24 or 25 — Tanya has a picture of daughter Tabitha, now a pony showjumping star, riding him when she was three or four years old.

Carl lost an eye around the time he retired from ridden work.

“He got an ulcer in it and we tried for weeks to treat it, but it didn’t bother him at all,” said Tanya. “He always had box number one, always ruled the roost.

“It was hard, but the right decision to put him down — nothing terrible had happened, but we didn’t want him to go through another winter and get stiffer. He got cast earlier this year when he threw himself on the floor because he wasn’t taken to the field at the normal time and we had to have the vet out to give him painkillers to get him up and I didn’t want to be in that situation again.

“It was a lovely sunny day and he went out in the field in the morning. He didn’t owe us anything, but he’ll be missed.”

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Ireland’s event riders and horses for the Rio 2016 Olympics have been named:

• Clare Abbott with Dr Cormac McKay’s Euro Prince
• Jonty Evans with his own and Fiona Elliott’s Cooley Rorkes Drift (above)
• Mark Kyle with his own, Shelagh and Richard Morley’s Jemilla
• Padraig McCarthy with his own, his wife Lucy (née Wiegersma) and Christopher and Sarita Perkins’ Simon Porloe or Bernadette Utopia, owned by Padraig and Lucy, the late Caroline Creighton, Pearl Chaffe and the late Henrik Wiegersma

The travelling reserve is Camilla Speirs with her own and her mother Bridget’s Portersize Just A Jiff.

Horse Sport Ireland eventing team manager Nick Turner said: “This has been a very difficult decision to make as there have been an impressive number of combinations who have produced some fantastic results to date. We will be fielding a very competitive squad in Rio.

“I would like to thank all of the owners that made their horses available for selection. We will be working hard over the next 57 days in the lead up to the summer Olympic Games in Rio to contend for a podium finish.”

Ireland qualified to field a team in Rio with their fifth place at the 2014 World Equestrian Games.

Mark Kyle (pictured below) is the only rider on the team who has previous Olympic experience, having competed at the 2004 Athens Games and London 2012. The other three riders will be contesting their first Olympics, although they all have championship experience. Travelling reserve Camilla Speirs rode at London 2012 on the same horse with which she has been nominated this time, the diminutive Portersize Just A Jiff.

Ireland’s showjumping rider for Rio was also named yesterday, with Greg Broderick receiving the nod, a decision which has led to some raised eyebrows as most expected the spot to go to Bertram Allen, who is more than 240 places higher than Greg in the current world rankings.

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The eventers representing Ireland at the London Olympics will be:

• Aoife Clark with the Lily White Syndicate’s Master Crusoe
• Mark Kyle with Ronnie Bartlett and his own Coolio (pictured)
• Joseph Murphy with his fianc ©e Jill Andrews, Noel Good and Annette O’Callaghan’s Electric Cruise
• Michael Ryan with Carol and Tom Henry and Sheila Foley’s Ballylynch Adventure
• Camilla Speirs with her own and her mother Bridget’s Portersize Just A Jiff

The first reserve is Capt Geoff Curran with the Minister for Defence’s Shanaclough Crecora and the second reserve is Sam Watson with his parents John and Julia and Tom MacGuinness’s Horseware Bushman.

A shortlist of 11 pairs in the running for the Irish squad was announced after Tattersalls in early June, with the final trial taking place at the St James’s Place Barbury International Horse Trials last weekend. The combinations were selected by Ginny Elliot, Horse Sport Ireland’s eventing high performance manager and a former Olympic medal-winner for Britain.

Apart from Mark Kyle, who rode at the 2004 Games on Drunken Disorderly, all these riders will be making their Olympic debuts.

This will be Aoife’s first senior championship, while Joseph rode at last year’s European Championships and Michael and Camilla both have World Equestrian Games and European Championship experience.

All seven horses are Irish sports horses.

Full report of Barbury in H&H this Thursday (5 July). Read more about the Irish team in our Olympic preview (19 July issue).

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Following impressive performances from the Irish Olympic eventing candidates at Tattersalls last weekend, Ireland’s high performance manager Ginny Elliot has named a shortlist of 10 riders and 11 horses for the London Olympics this summer.

The shortlisted combinations are:

• Aoife Clark/Master Crusoe
• Capt Geoff Curran/Shanaclough Crecora and The Jump Jet
• Jayne Doherty/Ravenstar
• Sarah Ennis/Sugar Brown Babe
• Mark Kyle/Coolio
• Joseph Murphy/Electric Cruise
• Elizabeth Power/September Bliss
• Michael Ryan/Ballylynch Adventure
• Camilla Speirs/Portersize Just A Jiff (pictured)
• Sam Watson/Horseware Bushman

Ireland is assured of a team of three riders at the Games, but this could increase to four or five on 17 June, depending on whether other countries who secured places have sufficient eligible combinations to take up the spots.

Ginny will choose her final team on 2 July following Barbury Castle.

She said that the decision to reduce the list to 10 riders had been difficult after the riders’ strong performances at Tattersalls, where Camilla Speirs secured her place in the shortlist with a win and several other combinations showed good form.

“The reality is that all of the riders performed very well at the weekend, under real pressure, as they knew places were on the line,” she said

“The combinations I have named have all done very well and the final selection looks like it will cause me several sleepless nights, but it is brilliant to have real choices.

“Now that we have a team the key issue will be to select the appropriate mix of combinations to maximise our chances of winning a medal at the Games.

“Obviously the number of places we end up with will be influential in devising this strategy and it will be crucial to get at least one more place and it would be great to get a full five.”

Full report of Tattersalls in H&H this week (7 June).

Ireland will be able to field an eventing team at the 2012 Olympics this summer in London after qualifying for three places through the rider rankings.

Camilla Speirs, Mark Kyle and Michael Ryan’s results at the “last-chance event” at Ballindenisk – one of three horse trials running last weekend to give riders an opportunity to win points before the 1 March deadline – secured Ireland’s spaces. Their places were confirmed today by horsesport’s international governing body, the FEI.

The spots are for the nation, not the individual rider, so can actually be given to any individually qualified rider.

In addition Ireland holds first and third position on the reserve rankings – courtesy of Jayne Doherty and Geoff Curran – so has a strong chance of getting a fourth and perhaps a fifth rider into the Games.

If other nations cannot take up their places, their allocation goes to the reserves – for example, Argentina qualified a team for the Olympics at the two-star Pan American Games, but does not yet have a single rider individually qualified for this four-star championship (17 June is the deadline for individual qualification).

Olympic eventing teams consist of three to five riders, with three scores to count – so with only three riders, Ireland would have no score to discard.

Australia (five riders) and the Netherlands (three riders) are the other nations to have qualified an eventing team through the rider rankings.

In showjumping, it has been confirmed that Ireland has two Olympic places for individuals after Denis Lynch and Billy Twomey finished first and second in the rankings.

And in dressage, Britain will be able to field a fourth rider as an individual – alongside our team of three – thanks to the efforts of Richard Davison, who has been hunting down rankings points with Hiscox Artemis.

Ireland is also second on the dressage reserve list through Italian-based Anna Merveldt and Coryolano.

In all, 41 nations have qualified riders for the 2012 Olympic Games. Seven countries – Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the USA – will field full teams in all three disciplines.

FEI press release: full list of nations qualified and links to qualification processes and rankings

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Irish event rider Mark Kyle won the Lincoln JumpCross Eventer’s Challenge at Grange Farm, Wittering, on Tuesday, 21 June.

Riding his World Equestrian Games horse Step In Time II, Mark (right) headed the class for the second year running, taking home the £3,000 first prize.

This was the third year this challenge has taken place and it offers the biggest prize in JumpCross, with a total prize-fund of £8,500. Angus Smales won it in its inaugural year in 2009.

In JumpCross, horse and rider do a timed round across the country, tackling obstacles such as water as in traditional cross-country riding, but all the fences can be knocked down. Riders receive a 20sec penalty for each fence down and 50sec for a refusal.

At the end of the course is a joker fence, about 6in higher than the rest, and riders can choose whether to take this on or not. Those who clear it have 40sec taken off their time, but anyone knocking it down has 40sec added.

This was a two-round competition, with scores from both rounds contributing to the riders’ final placing.

Mark said: “It was a great competition and a wonderful day. Having won last year it was brilliant that we were able to repeat our success and take home the excellent prize-money.

“I really enjoyed the event, the course was well designed and Step In Time is an excellent jumper so this type of competition really suits him.”

Jo Chipperfield, riding Judy Curtis’s 10-year-old grade B showjumper On Your Marks (left), finished second after two clear rounds. This was Jo’s third year competing at the Lincoln JumpCross Challenge.

Jeanette Brakewell and the 10-year-old chestnut gelding Hope Cove (right), owned by Liz Golby, put in a good performance to finish third.

Robin Dunlop of JumpCross said: “The Lincoln JumpCross Eventer’s Challenge is now well established in the calendar. It was a great day, with top class competition and we are very grateful for the support from Lincoln.”

Throughout the day money was raised for Macmillan Cancer Support and, thanks to a well-supported raffle and auction, £2,000 was raised.

Jim Bowen (left with Mark Kyle), managing director of sponsor Battles, who own the Lincoln range, said: “The Lincoln JumpCross Eventer’s Challenge was a fantastic day and we are really pleased to be able to give something back to our customers. This is our third year supporting the event and we look forward to it being an annual event.”

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Mark Kyle and Drunken Disorderly retained their British Open indoor cross country title, thrilling the crowd with a beautifully executed and exceptionally fast round.

As favourites for the class, their draw as last to tackle the cross-country and showjumping hybrid kept the crowds’ enthusiasm and cheering ever increasing throughout the competition.

“The rounds just kept getting quicker and quicker, and ‘Carl’ revels in the atmosphere,” said Mark, a previous winner in 2009 and 2006. “He thinks that the crowd are there just for him.”

The competition’s course consisted of six show jumps, with penalties added for knockdowns, followed by 14 cross-country fences, with time lost for refusals or run outs.

None of the first 16 of 23 starters was able to complete in less than 60sec, then Lauren Shannon, whose horses are based with Mark and his wife Tania, smashed the minute barrier by 5sec with her 15-year-old mare Quixotic.

“I’d come a different way to Mark and Tania to get to the show and I ended up arriving late. I wasn’t able to walk the course,” said Lauren, competing here after winning a wildcard at Addington Manor EC. “But it meant I didn’t have to think about it.”

Mark joked: “I thought, typical, she gets here late, doesn’t walk and is going to end up winning the class, she was so fast. I really didn’t think she could be beaten.”

However, the 20-year-old Drunken Disorderly, who competed at the Athens Olympics and is a winner of Hickstead’s eventers’ grand prix, still had a lot more to give.

After following Lauren’s tightly angled turn to a wishing well, easily curving over corners and galloping over the final two brush fences, Mark and the grey gelding snatched 1sec back to take the class.

“He only does three classes a year, this, Hickstead and a warm up at Addington at the wildcard show,” said Mark. “He’s ridden by working pupils at home, and teaches them a lot, but when I get on him he wakes up because he knows he’s going somewhere. He’s more switched on than me about that!”

Drunken Disorderly, who was bought by Tania 16 years ago, will again contest the Hickstead event this summer.

“These classes are excellent for older horses,” said Mark. “It means they don’t have to be left in a field and forgotten about. And Carl’s become a bit of a specialist now.”

Don’t miss H&H’s full report on all the action from the British Open Show Jumping Championships, on sale Thursday 15 April

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Eventing arrived at the British Open in style, when 18 of the world’s best vied over a bespoke indoor “cross-country” course. In the end, experience won the day when reigning Hickstead grand prix champions Ireland’s Mark Kyle and Drunken Disorderly (picture right at Hickstead) showed all their rivals how to do it to take the £1,200 prize.

Second spot also went overseas after a smooth performance from Kiwi Andrew Nicholson on Fenicio, with Dag Albert’s exciting round on Who’s Bitz good enough to capture third place for Sweden.

The eveners thoroughly enjoyed their first appearance at a major jumping show and the crowd — many of whom had arrived specially for this class — was equally appreciative.

“That was great fun,” said a breathless Mark Kyle afterwards. “And I also backed myself with the show’s bookies, so I think you could say I’ve had a good day out!”

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