by Christopher Hector
Now when I started seeing the Cooley prefix proliferating in eventing results, my first thought was ‘wow, that must be a very successful stud’, but the truth is more interesting. Turns out that they are not breeders at all, but use the whole of Ireland as their stud farm and combine that with an uncanny ability to spot talent to produce their Cooley horses. The team, Richard Sheane and Georgina Phillips started their operation back in 2004 and they now have a client base that reads like a who’s who of international eventing.
I asked Georgina if she thought it was possible to spot an eventer on the basis of its breeding…
“No, is the short answer. We buy horses for eventing mainly from showjumping producers. They are horses that jump reasonably well and move well, but are not going to make the top grade. The long answer is a bit more complicated because, yes, you need blood, you need jump but you need the attitude to be right. So there’s no fixed formula for breeding an event horse. You need to breed something that jumps, and from there, work out if it is brave enough and has the right brain to go and do the eventing job.”
Oliver Townend and Cooley Rosalent (Photo: FEI- Solène Bailly)
Second at the World Champs
“The Cooley horses that you see that are successful, there’s no fixed pattern in their breeding, they all carry a bit of blood, they have to be right in their brain and good to ride, and that for us, is what we look for.”
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A number of the successful Cooley horses have European Warmblood in their pedigrees – do you look for that blood?
“Not really, the Warmblood crosses well with the Irish mares, there’s no doubt about that, but we don’t have any fixed impression of what we want. We like them to have the Irish in them because that makes them brave and sensible, which is not to say that we wouldn’t buy a horse that is all foreign that has been produced in Ireland. A lot of the reason the Irish horses are so good is because we have a good way of producing them here in Ireland. It’s a non-sterile environment and that’s very important. If you go to the continent they don’t have the same set-up we have, the bogs they walk through, the muddy conditions. When they are just foals in Ireland, they get used to the natural terrain, they get to experience all types of conditions under foot, and that for us, is important.”
Another of Oliver’s Cooley stars, Masterclass
I was looking at your website, and even before your horses are backed, you lunge them over jumps…
“Yes. My partner, Richard is the ultimate horseman and in Ireland with the hunters, they teach them to jump over big ditches and drains that way, because it is easier to teach them than with a person on them. It seemed like a natural progression for us, that we would school all our event horses, from the four-star horses to the four-year-olds, all go cross country on the lunge regularly, because it is so much easier to give them confidence and teach them when there is not anybody on their back. They don’t have to worry about balancing the rider, all they have to worry about it what is in front of them. It teaches them to think, so it is done in a very slow manner, they really thrive on it. Lots of people say lots of things about Cooley horses, you might have a horse that doesn’t do the best dressage test but they all go cross country and that’s the reason, because they are started that way.”
Are there any names on pedigrees that when you see them, you say, wow, I’m interested…
“We’ve been very lucky with Ramiro B, lots of good ones by him, so he’d be a favourite, but we are not fussy. If we see a horse we like, we like it regardless of who its mother and father are. Judge the horse, and not the breeding.”