Hazel Shannon has had a meteoric rise through Australian eventing ranks with Willinga Park Clifford, the horse she took from a youngster to a four-star winner, taking out Adelaide four-star not once, but twice, with her second win just a few weeks ago. Yet Clifford was the horse that no one really noticed:
“We all thought he was lovely, just the best natured horse, but no-one thought, this is going to be a good four-star horse.It has only been the last year or two, basically since he has been three-star, that we’ve all started to realise that he might be a really serious horse. He was an unassuming baby, who always did what you wanted him to do, and always tried his heart out, but he didn’t show anything amazing, that made you say, I have to have that. It’s been a nice surprise.”
A second win at Adelaide for Hazel and Clifford (Julie Wilson photo)
How did you become a full time eventing rider?
“I’ve always wanted to do something with horses, but I didn’t really know what. I hadn’t evented because I come from far north Queensland, there’s no eventing up there basically. I just liked the sound of it, and I had an auntie who had evented in the past and she put me onto Heath and Rozzie Ryan. I finished school and a few weeks later went down to work for Heath and Rozzie.”
Hazel and Clifford, ‘just the best natured horse’.
Now Hazel has been given the chance of a lifetime, with the backing of Terry Snow of Willinga Park, she now has the ride on one of the world’s top eventers, Cooley SRS, who has been brought to the top by British star, Oliver Townend.
The 11-year-old Irish sport horse gelding (by Ramiro B) has amassed a string of top results, including being on the gold medal-winning British team at the 2017 European Championships. They also finished in ninth place individually at the 2014 world championships for seven-year-olds in France and were long-listed for this year’s WEG in Tryon.
Cooley SRS and Oliver star at Badminton
Not surprisingly, Hazel is on a high – What a month, you win Adelaide for a second time, and you get the ride on one of the world’s top horses…
“It’s been a big month, it’s a bit unbelievable really.”
What are the plans with Cooley SRS will you go over to England to ride him?
“No, he’s going to come back to Australia. We thought about me going over there, but in the end it didn’t really work. He’ll be coming back to Australia, and we’ll be making a plan – hopefully – for Tokyo. So we’ll be doing what we think gives us the best chance of going to Tokyo.”
You looked at a couple of horses in the UK, what was it about SRS?
“It was actually a really interesting trip, there were horses that might have stood out more than him, to look at, and ride, but he was really really well schooled. Oliver is the leading event rider in the world, so I guess you would expect that but he felt great and his performances say it all. You are not guessing, we know what he is capable of doing… with a very good rider anyway! It’s going to be different with me trying to get the same performances, we’ll just have to take by feel.”
How did he feel, what sort of person were you sitting on?
“He felt like a nice person, I mean it’s hard to know with one ride, it takes a long time to get to know a horse and build a partnership. I’ve only ever ridden horses that I have had since they were babies so it’s unfamiliar territory for me, but he felt like he was a nice person, and knew his job. He felt great over a jump and great on the flat.”
This year I guess Santa Claus has a name and it is Terry Snow…
“That is true! Terry has been very very generous, not just to me but to the whole sport, and not just eventing – equestrian. We are very lucky to have someone like Terry Snow interested in equestrian sports…”
What are the Cooley horses?
A couple of years ago I had been marveling at the number of successful eventers with the prefix, Cooley, so I decided I needed to talk to the people who were running this amazing breeding program. It turned 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.
Georgina Phillips and Richard Sheane – the Cooley Team
Many of their successful horses are by Ramiro B (by the Caretino son, Calvani, out of a mare by Wendekreis), he is the sire of Cooley SRS (Kitealy Spring / King of Diamonds), 42nd in the world and second this year at Badminton with Oliver Townend. Then there is Cooley Ramiro (out of a Cavalier Royale / Clover Hill mare), 112th in the world rankings. Cooley Monsoon, out of a Krakatan (who IS by Ramiro) mare, 129th and Cooley Master Class (out of a Master Imp / Cavalier Royale mare) first at Lexington this year, ridden by… yep, Oliver Townend. Master Class ranks 137 this year.
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.”
“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.”
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.”
Cooley Showtime and Jonelle Price for New Zealand
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.”
“Cooley Cross Border is a good example – we broke him and we taught him on the lunge, and then this summer when he stayed in Ireland, he was on the lunge all the time with Richard, just getting his confidence and he is the highest ranked Irish eventer in the world.”
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.”
Cooley Cross Border – photo Libby Law
There is however a thread that runs through the top six horses that won the championship for Ireland, and that is the mix of European – mostly Holstein – blood with a good proportion of Thoroughbred. Cooley Cross Border is a good example – if we look at the fourth line of the pedigree, one Holsteiner, two Thoroughbreds, three Irish, and an Oldenburg / KWPN cross, which ends up with 56.64% ‘blood’.
And will Australia have two Cooley horses selected in the next team? Chris Burton has Cooley Lands, his Tryon WEG ride…
