For people who wouldn’t know their puissance from their oxer, the curtain always comes down on the Horse Show once the Aga Khan Trophy is handed over in the RDS on a Friday evening early in August.
But there were still plenty of legs in the equine showcase on Saturday for the thousands of people who poured through the turnstiles in warm summer sunshine and ambled from ring to ring, watching horses and riders of all ages and abilities compete in multiple classes with as much intensity as any Nations’ Cup rider.
Linus Fahy was one of them. “The buzz is great here,” he told The Irish Times. “The shopping is great too,” he then added, somewhat unexpectedly. Even more unexpectedly, he went on to describe dressage as being on “the cool side of things”.
Dressage is many things, but cool is probably not one of them.
Waxing lyrical
As Fahy was watching, waxing lyrical about dressage, Joel Chacon and his horse Le Compte du Montacrue entertained the crowd in a parade ring in the shadow of the main arena. Chacon, dressed in a top hat and tails, played the fool to a silent movie soundtrack while his horse drew oohs and ahhs from an appreciative crowd for his dainty footwork.
When Chacon was done, it was time for Forpadydeplasterer to shine. Anyone who ever wondered what happed to the horse named after one of those who infamously gave Bertie a dig out back in the day had their answer.
A successful racing career saw Forpadydeplasterer win the Deloitte Novice Hurdle and the Arkle Challenge Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival, and he had another day in the spotlight when he made an appearance in the Racehorse to Riding Horse competition. Judged by Barry Gerraghty and Lady Jane Cecil, the 13-year-old won at a canter.
The nun and the ice-cream
As he was in the parade ring, a nun in a white habit called Sr Patricia wandered past struggling to contain two melting ice cream cones.
A Little Sister of the Poor, she was at the RDS with residents of a care home in Raheny. “I have been coming here for the last seven years,” she said trying to bring the ice-cream under control. “It’s a great thing for the residents, it’s great to get them a day out and the weather is lovely thank God.”
While it might have been a great day out for those under her care, Sr Patricia was happy out herself. “I love the horses, of course I do, I’m a Kildare woman. When I was small we used to ride horses a lot.
“I remember we used to have this priest who’d come and visit us at home. He’d always take my horse out for a ride. I didn’t like that, so once I stuck a pin in the horse’s backside to get him to rear up on the priest. It didn’t work and he still kept coming back. Maybe you shouldn’t print that,” she laughed.
Nearby, Pat Fallon was turning magazine clippings into cold hard cash - or at least that’s what it looked like. The magician first did a couple of card tricks, then a trick with rope before wowing the watching crowd with a pile of money. One second it was magazine clippings. Then next it was €50 notes.
‘I’d have to kill you’
How did he do it? “If I told you that, I’d have to kill you,” he said. He’s been a magician for nearly 30 years and has been employed by the RDS for the last four.
“My job is to entertain the people who maybe are not so horsey, the ones who are just here for a day out. And it is a great day out.”
Ice-cream eating nuns and magician aside, the horse always take centre stage. In the main arena, just ahead of the Puissance, Brendan McCardle was charged with keeping punters up to speed on what was happening in the International Riders Pairs Relay.
Short of coming down from his high perch and riding the horses himself, he could scarcely have done more to get the beasts over the fences.
He exhorted the crowd to cheer on the horses and the riders young and old and coaxed the horses over the fences and made gentle tutting noises when there were refusals.
‘It really is in the blood’
Waiting for the Puissance was Patrice Byrne from Wexford. "I have been coming here since I was four when I was brought by my grandfather, and my family have been coming here for four generations so it really is in the blood," she said.
“My daughter was in the Under-17s Connemara Pony Class on Thursday and she came second. She finished first the last year. The closest I came was fourth,” she added somewhat ruefully.
“A lot of people think the horseshow is just about the Aga Khan but it’s not,” she insisted. “It’s about so much more than that.
“You have young kids aged just three taking part and some of the competitors are pushing 80. The ethos of the RDS is all about promoting the Irish horse and I think they do a great job.”
