I suppose you could say that when Timmy Sullivan retired from judging he handed the baton to me.
He was the instigator, because he landed here one day and said: “You’re going to Kildalton tomorrow for an interview to do the ISA judges course.”
Westport was my first show as a junior judge and I remember being nervous until I saw that John Allen and Liam Meade, two other lovely gentlemen, were the senior judges.
After that, Timmy and I travelled the length and breadth of the country judging at shows. He was the co-pilot and I always remember his advice: 'Judge the horse and you won’t go wrong.'
Eileen Brennan, she’s the heart and soul of the Irish Draught, was another to give me great confidence and the same encouragement when I started judging.
Timmy was part of the family, he lived only 20 minutes away in Abbeyleix and spent every Saturday night in our house.
I have four brothers and between them and my parents, we would have some craic with Timmy. We should have been recording all his stories.
The week after he died, his horses were sold and I bought, I suppose for sentimental reasons, an unbroken four-year-old gelding.
Timmy would often describe something as a ‘yokeamabob’ so I called the horse Bob and we go hunting and do charity rides.
Growing up
Clogh is in the most northerly part of Co Kilkenny and we grew up surrounded by horses and hunting.
I’d go hunting for half a day, then swap the pony over to another brother. Them were the days.
Mother ran the shop and post office then and my father stood an Irish Draught stallion.
Martin Brennan in Loon had the thoroughbred stallions Young Barnaby and Tullaherin Boy, he [Tullaherin Boy] was placed several times in the Croker Cup and he refused massive money for him.
Prince Edward stood with Har Bolger in the 1970s and they bred and kept him until his dying day.
They’d often parade him up and down the fair in Castlecomer and he was once awarded a silver medal for covering the most mares.
Understanding
Colette, my wife, is very understanding about all these Sundays spent at shows. Lynsay, our daughter, is hoping to go back to do her master’s and then teaching.
Our son, Dean, spent three years in college studying engineering and he’d spend his summers and Dublin Horse Shows with Trevor and Shane Breen.
He spent a year in Germany with Denis Lynch and I asked him once
on the phone would he not come back to continue with his engineering career. His answer was: “Dad, I was never as happy, I rode Lantinus this morning.”
When he came home he was speaking to Cian O’Connor at a function in Kilkenny and the next week he flew to Dubai with 10 of his horses.
Dean was in England next with John Roberts before he did come home. Then he got another offer he couldn’t refuse and now he’s working for LFS Showjumpers, just half an hour from home, between Ballinakill and Durrow.
The two of us are mucking out in our yard at 7am before we go to work.
I work at the local Galtee Fuels depot, I’m at that game four years and the demand was unreal with the recent storm. I couldn’t get out of the drive from Thursday evening until Sunday with the 2ft of snow.
Coolcaum Hill
We’ve put in a new arena and horse walker at home and have a couple of young Irish-breds, including one by Coolcaum Hill. He [Coolcaum Hill] was bought in Co Carlow.
At the time we had The Bard here and were very busy, so we bought him to take the pressure off. He was a big, bay, athletic stallion, but he was S1 so nobody really used him.
Now he’s the sire of Mr Coolcaum, that won all those Grand Prixs with Liam O’Meara. I thought the world of him.
Stellor King was one I started off for Yvonne Coe and as a five-year-old he won the Future Event Horse final at Dublin [2008] for Sarah Ennis.
Horses falling into the right hands is everything, sometimes its better to sell a bit cheaper to someone who’s going to produce them on.
My father loves Draughts. The highlight of his showing career was winning at the Draught show in Necarne with a filly foal by Parkmore Pride and at Tullamore.
One thing about the Draught people is they are great at keeping in touch about horses they’ve bought and he would often get letters and photographs from Canada and America about ones he’s bred and sold.
Love of judging
I love the judging, you’d have to love it. I’ve probably judged nine All-Ireland finals by now and another highlight was when the Irish Draught Horse Society (GB) invited me to judge youngstock at the national show last year with Barbara Rich.
It was an honour to judge with her.
I remember when Tiernan Gill and myself judged the All-Ireland final at Bannow and we had Notalot as the champion, the first filly to ever win it.
Rebecca Monahan's Notalot was the first filly to win the All-Ireland three-year-old final. She is pictured with (l-r) Belleek sales director Hugh Quinn, judges Timmy Wilson and Tiernan Gill and Jim Harrison, ISA president. \ Susan Finnerty)Rebecca Monahan's Notalot was the first filly to win the All-Ireland three-year-old final. She is pictured with (l-r) Belleek sales director Hugh Quinn, judges Timmy Wilson and Tiernan Gill and Jim Harrison, ISA president. \ Susan Finnerty
I was walking through the crowd afterwards and there was a hand on my shoulder, it was Tiernan, who said: “Now you can call yourself a judge.”
Showing is getting professional and some exhibitors might feel pressurised to over-produce youngsters.
But the over-produced one is like the three-year-old loose jumping, how many are ever really heard of again?
You might judge something early on, but that’s not automatically going to be your winner for the rest of the year. At the end of the day, it’s only your opinion on that particular day.
Timmy Wilkonson was in conversation with Susan Finnerty.
Read more
Ringside stories: Shauna Finneran – a show ring Supernova
Ringside Stories: Gill's golden memories
I suppose you could say that when Timmy Sullivan retired from judging he handed the baton to me.
He was the instigator, because he landed here one day and said: “You’re going to Kildalton tomorrow for an interview to do the ISA judges course.”
Westport was my first show as a junior judge and I remember being nervous until I saw that John Allen and Liam Meade, two other lovely gentlemen, were the senior judges.
After that, Timmy and I travelled the length and breadth of the country judging at shows. He was the co-pilot and I always remember his advice: 'Judge the horse and you won’t go wrong.'
Eileen Brennan, she’s the heart and soul of the Irish Draught, was another to give me great confidence and the same encouragement when I started judging.
Timmy was part of the family, he lived only 20 minutes away in Abbeyleix and spent every Saturday night in our house.
I have four brothers and between them and my parents, we would have some craic with Timmy. We should have been recording all his stories.
The week after he died, his horses were sold and I bought, I suppose for sentimental reasons, an unbroken four-year-old gelding.
Timmy would often describe something as a ‘yokeamabob’ so I called the horse Bob and we go hunting and do charity rides.
Growing up
Clogh is in the most northerly part of Co Kilkenny and we grew up surrounded by horses and hunting.
I’d go hunting for half a day, then swap the pony over to another brother. Them were the days.
Mother ran the shop and post office then and my father stood an Irish Draught stallion.
Martin Brennan in Loon had the thoroughbred stallions Young Barnaby and Tullaherin Boy, he [Tullaherin Boy] was placed several times in the Croker Cup and he refused massive money for him.
Prince Edward stood with Har Bolger in the 1970s and they bred and kept him until his dying day.
They’d often parade him up and down the fair in Castlecomer and he was once awarded a silver medal for covering the most mares.
Understanding
Colette, my wife, is very understanding about all these Sundays spent at shows. Lynsay, our daughter, is hoping to go back to do her master’s and then teaching.
Our son, Dean, spent three years in college studying engineering and he’d spend his summers and Dublin Horse Shows with Trevor and Shane Breen.
He spent a year in Germany with Denis Lynch and I asked him once
on the phone would he not come back to continue with his engineering career. His answer was: “Dad, I was never as happy, I rode Lantinus this morning.”
When he came home he was speaking to Cian O’Connor at a function in Kilkenny and the next week he flew to Dubai with 10 of his horses.
Dean was in England next with John Roberts before he did come home. Then he got another offer he couldn’t refuse and now he’s working for LFS Showjumpers, just half an hour from home, between Ballinakill and Durrow.
The two of us are mucking out in our yard at 7am before we go to work.
I work at the local Galtee Fuels depot, I’m at that game four years and the demand was unreal with the recent storm. I couldn’t get out of the drive from Thursday evening until Sunday with the 2ft of snow.
Coolcaum Hill
We’ve put in a new arena and horse walker at home and have a couple of young Irish-breds, including one by Coolcaum Hill. He [Coolcaum Hill] was bought in Co Carlow.
At the time we had The Bard here and were very busy, so we bought him to take the pressure off. He was a big, bay, athletic stallion, but he was S1 so nobody really used him.
Now he’s the sire of Mr Coolcaum, that won all those Grand Prixs with Liam O’Meara. I thought the world of him.
Stellor King was one I started off for Yvonne Coe and as a five-year-old he won the Future Event Horse final at Dublin [2008] for Sarah Ennis.
Horses falling into the right hands is everything, sometimes its better to sell a bit cheaper to someone who’s going to produce them on.
My father loves Draughts. The highlight of his showing career was winning at the Draught show in Necarne with a filly foal by Parkmore Pride and at Tullamore.
One thing about the Draught people is they are great at keeping in touch about horses they’ve bought and he would often get letters and photographs from Canada and America about ones he’s bred and sold.
Love of judging
I love the judging, you’d have to love it. I’ve probably judged nine All-Ireland finals by now and another highlight was when the Irish Draught Horse Society (GB) invited me to judge youngstock at the national show last year with Barbara Rich.
It was an honour to judge with her.
I remember when Tiernan Gill and myself judged the All-Ireland final at Bannow and we had Notalot as the champion, the first filly to ever win it.
Rebecca Monahan's Notalot was the first filly to win the All-Ireland three-year-old final. She is pictured with (l-r) Belleek sales director Hugh Quinn, judges Timmy Wilson and Tiernan Gill and Jim Harrison, ISA president. \ Susan Finnerty)Rebecca Monahan's Notalot was the first filly to win the All-Ireland three-year-old final. She is pictured with (l-r) Belleek sales director Hugh Quinn, judges Timmy Wilson and Tiernan Gill and Jim Harrison, ISA president. \ Susan Finnerty
I was walking through the crowd afterwards and there was a hand on my shoulder, it was Tiernan, who said: “Now you can call yourself a judge.”
Showing is getting professional and some exhibitors might feel pressurised to over-produce youngsters.
But the over-produced one is like the three-year-old loose jumping, how many are ever really heard of again?
You might judge something early on, but that’s not automatically going to be your winner for the rest of the year. At the end of the day, it’s only your opinion on that particular day.
Timmy Wilkonson was in conversation with Susan Finnerty.
Read more
Ringside stories: Shauna Finneran – a show ring Supernova
Ringside Stories: Gill's golden memories
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