This is a list of Irish Sport Horses that have won medals or been placed at the highest levels of eventing. Including the Olympic Games, Eventing World Championship, European Eventing Championships, Eventing World Cup and the Pan-American Games.
Achievement | Rider | Horse | Sire | Dam | Dam's sire |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1996 Olympic Team Silver | David O'Connor, United States | Giltedge | Glenbar (ISH) | Kitty | |
2000 Olympic Individual Gold | David O'Connor | Custom Made | Bassompierre (xx) | Purple Heather (ISH) | Ben Purple (RID) |
2000 Olympic Team Silver | Jeanette Brakewell, United Kingdom | Over To You | Over The River (xx) | Another Miller | |
2000 Olympic Team Silver | Pippa Funnell, United Kingdom | Supreme Rock | Edmund Burke (xx) | Rineen Classic (ISH) | Bassompierre (xx) |
2000 Olympic Team Bronze | David O'Connor | Giltedge | Glenbar (ISH) | Kitty | |
2004 Olympic Individual Gold | Leslie Law, United Kingdom | Shear L'Eau | Stan the Man (xx) | Starry Night II (ISH) | Carnival Night (xx) |
2004 Olympic Team Silver | Jeanette Brakewell | Over To You | Over The River (xx) | Another Miller | |
2008 Olympic Individual Silver | Gina Miles, United States | McKinlaigh | Highland King (ISH) | Kilcumney Hostess (ISH) | Stetchworth Lad (xx) |
2008 Olympic Team Gold | Frank Ostholt, Germany | Mr. Medicott | Cruising (ISH) | Slieveluachra (ISH) | Edmund Burke (xx) |
2008 Olympic Team Silver | Clayton Fredericks, Australia | Ben Along Time | Cavalier Royale (HOLST) | Campaigner’s Dream (ISH) | Campaigner (xx) |
2008 Olympic Team Silver | Megan Jones, Australia | Irish Jester | Irish Enough (ISH) | Yellow Empress (TBX) | |
2008 Olympic Team Bronze | Mary King, United Kingdom | Call Again Cavalier | Cavalier Royale (HOLST) | Woodlands Lady (ISH) | Aristocracy (xx) |
2008 Olympic Team Bronze | William Fox-Pitt, United Kingdom | Parkmore Ed | Parkmore Night (ISH) | Bodalmore Lass (ISH) | Diamonds are Trumps (RID) |
2008 Olympic Team Bronze | Daisy Dick, United Kingdom | Spring Along | Pallas Digion (ISH) | Miss Buck (ISH) | Master Buck (xx) |
2008 Olympic Team Bronze | Sharon Hunt, United Kingdom | Tankers Town | Diamond Clover (RID) | Money Gone West (xx) | Bulldozer (xx) |
A Hanoverian is a Warmblood horse breed originating in Germany, which is often seen in the Olympic Games and other competitive English riding styles, and has won gold medals in all three equestrian Olympic competitions. It is one of the oldest, most numerous, and most successful of the Warmblood breeds. Originally a cavalry horse, infusions of more Thoroughbred blood lightened it to make it more agile and useful for competition. The Hanoverian is known for a good temperament, athleticism, beauty, and grace.
A horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. Many different horse breeds and equestrian disciplines hold competitions worldwide, from local to the international levels. Most horse shows run from one to three days, sometimes longer for major, all-breed events or national and international championships in a given discipline or breed. Most shows consist of a series of different performances, called classes, wherein a group of horses with similar training or characteristics compete against one another for awards and, often, prize money.
Cian O'Connor is an Irish equestrian who competes in show jumping. He has competed at three Olympic Games, four World Championships and six European Championships, and has attained 133 senior caps for his country. He placed first at the 2004 Olympics, but his horse was later discovered to have a banned substance in its system, and O'Connor was stripped of the gold medal. He won an individual bronze medal at the London Olympic Games 2012 and was a member of the Irish team that took a gold medal at the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2017. O’Connor also won a bronze individual medal at the latter event. At the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Cian and his Irish-bred mount Susan Magnier’s Irish bred Kilkenny finished seventh in the individual class.
Sport in Ireland plays an important role in Irish society. The many sports played and followed in Ireland include Gaelic games, association football, horse racing, show jumping, greyhound racing, basketball, fishing, handball, motorsport, boxing, tennis, hockey, golf, rowing, cricket, and rugby union.
Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture and the United Kingdom has played a significant role in the organisation and spread of sporting culture globally. In the infancy of many organised sports, the Home Nations were heavily involved in setting out the formal rules of many sports and formed among the earliest separate governing bodies, national teams and domestic league competitions. After 1922, some sports formed separate bodies for Northern Ireland, though many continued to be organised on an all-Ireland basis. For this reason, in many though not all sports, most domestic and international sport is carried on a Home Nations basis, and England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are recognised as national entities.
The Selle Français (SF) is a breed of sport horse from France. It is renowned primarily for its success in show jumping, but many have also been successful in dressage and eventing. An athletic horse with good gaits, it is usually bay or chestnut in color. The Selle Français was created in 1958 when several French riding horse breeds were merged into one stud book. The new breed was meant to serve as a unified sport horse during a period when horses were being replaced by mechanization and were transforming into an animal used mainly for sport and leisure.
The Irish Sport Horse, or Irish Hunter, is an Irish breed of warmblood sporting horse, used mostly for dressage, eventing and show-jumping. It was bred from 1923 by cross-breeding of Irish Draught and Thoroughbred stock. There was some limited intromission of Hanoverian, Selle Français and Trakehner blood in the 1990s. It is a recognised true breed – foals may only be registered in the main section of the stud-book if both parents are registered in that section.
Skijoring is a winter sport in which a person on skis is pulled by a horse, a dog, another animal, or a motor vehicle. The name is derived from the Norwegian word skikjøring, meaning "ski driving". Although skijoring is said to have originated as a mode of winter travel, it is currently primarily a competitive sport.
Leslie LawMBE is a British eventer, who won the individual gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. He started riding at age 10, competing with his brother, and participated in his first accredited event in 1982. He attended Lady Hawkins' School, where his passion for riding developed further. By 1989, he was a widely respected competitor, and that year placed 8th at the Badminton Horse Trials. After a period of consolidation, by the late 1990s he was counted amongst the sport's elite, placing in the top ten at Badminton, Burghley and the British Championship on a number of occasions.
Bruce Oram Davidson is an American equestrian who competes in the sport of eventing. He grew up in a family uninterested in horses, but began to compete in Pony Club events after a family friend introduced him to riding. He began college at Iowa State University, but left in his third year to train full-time with the United States Equestrian Team. In 1974, he married, and his two children were born in 1976 and 1977. His son, Bruce Davidson Jr., has followed in his footsteps to become a top eventing rider.
Phillip Peter Dutton, OAM is an Australian-born Olympic-level equestrian rider competing in eventing for the United States of America. He is a dual Olympic gold medalist who formerly competed for his country of birth but now competes for the USA.
A sport horse or sporthorse is a type of horse, rather than any particular breed. The term is usually applied to horses bred for the traditional Olympic equestrian sporting events of dressage, eventing, show jumping, and combined driving, but the precise definition varies. In the United States, horses used in hunt seat and show hunter competition are often classed as sport horses, whereas the British show hunter is classified as a "show horse."
Ireland competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China. It was the 19th Summer Games that Ireland contested as a nation under the Olympic Council of Ireland.
Frank Ostholt is a German eventing rider. With his horse Mr. Medicott, he won a gold medal in team eventing at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He is married to Swedish equestrian Sara Algotsson Ostholt.
Nicola Wilson is a British equestrian rider specialising in three-day eventing. Riding Opposition Buzz, she won a team gold at the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games and team silver at the 2012 Olympic Games. She is also a seven-time medallist at the European Championships, including team golds in 2009, 2017 and 2021 and individual gold and bronze in 2021 and 2017, respectively.
Jonelle Price is a New Zealand equestrian, competing in eventing. She is married to Tim Price, also a New Zealand eventing rider. They are both competing at top international level.
Ireland competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's twenty-first appearance at the Summer Olympics, having attended every edition, either in its own right or as part of a Great Britain and Ireland team before 1924, with the exception of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany.
Rhys Joshua McClenaghan is a Northern Irish artistic gymnast competing internationally for both Ireland and Northern Ireland. He is a double world champion on pommel horse, having won gold in 2022 and 2023, the first Irish artistic gymnast ever to win world championship gold. In 2019, he became the first Irish gymnast to qualify to a world championships final and to also win a medal, taking bronze on pommel horse.
The team of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, which competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, represented athletes from both the Republic of Ireland and those from Northern Ireland who choose it instead of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the team's twenty-second appearance at the Summer Olympics, having attended every edition since 1924 except the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany.