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Far from the show ring, I enjoyed my first few ponies without any pressure, often just spending entire days with my friends along roads and the neighbouring beaches of Glandore and Rosscarbery.
With little interest then in showing, my first real introduction was in 2010 when dad brought me to Skibbereen show and Seamus Lehane won the Cork County yearling final with the future RDS winner, Ballard Playboy.
I remember thinking there and then that ‘this is what I want to do’.
Playing “producer” to my sister’s two ponies Glandrine Pied Piper and Glandrine Wedding Belle, we were soon going up the country every weekend to various shows.
The in-hand ponies followed with the purchase of Droumleap Saint Louis and Goldengrove Skyfall.
Skyfall won our first big championship, an exceptionally strong one under English judges at Midleton in 2013.
With Midleton a week before my Leaving Certificate, I remember studying in the jeep, running down and meeting dad at the ring to do the class, then running back up to continue studying!
This trend has essentially continued to this day, as the ponies are the ultimate study break and Dad continues to do trojan work in the background.
In 2016, I was lucky to be asked to lead Paul Mullen’s Connemara stallion Inverin Rocky, going champion at Connemara and reserve in the Cuddy at the Northern Ireland Festival.
Our Goldengrove Temptress also went champion and made the top six in this prestigious final, a feat she repeated in 2017 when joined by her stablemates Cadlan Valley Crusader and Eyarth Anita, owned by Orla Whelton.
Eye opener
It was after leading Inverin Rocky that my eyes really opened to other opportunities in showing and I won the All-Ireland young handler championship at Dunmanway that summer with the O’Driscoll family’s Hollycreek Sir Bradley.
Having met Alastair Hood, whom my late uncle Austin spent years working for as head groom, at the RDS in 2015, I was lucky enough to spend nine weeks working for the Hood family in Norfolk.
This was without a doubt one of the best decisions of my life and I’m so grateful for that amazing opportunity.
The English standard really is exceptional and the Horse of the Year Show is a ‘Who’s-who’ of Dublin winners.
It was great to be a part of Irish-bred Our Cashel Blue’s HOYS supreme championship and to see Bloomfield Excelsior trot down that centre line, after going supreme at Dublin two years previous.
2017 really was a daydream.
Back with a bang
The ponies started with a bang in the Northern Ireland Festival, with all three going champion.
Goldengrove Temptress followed up a week later with the supreme championship at our local Leap show.
Aidan Williamson with Goldengrove Temptress, the in-hand champion at Charleville Show last summer. \ Susan Finnerty
Temptress went on to win all four WPCS medals in the Republic last year and brought home championships every day she went out.
Then came the horses. In 2016, having both decided we wanted to move into horses, Ciara Mullen and I travelled up to Willie and Ann Lyons to purchase Greenhall Miss R, a Mermus R filly I’d spotted at Dublin.
When she arrived home to West Cork, we had to cut the tops off the stable door, much to dad’s disapproval!
By complete coincidence, and within two days of each other, I was asked to lead horses for the Lyons and John and Dora Tyner.
The arrival of the Lyons’ fabulous Emir’s Flight led to another stable door being maimed as he came on his holidays for the All-Ireland yearling final at Barryroe.
Winning the Cork County yearling title in July, the class that had sparked it all off for me, with John’s Secret Weapon, was simply amazing and is definitely my 2017 highlight.
I remember watching the Laidlaw [young horse] championship at Dublin two years ago and setting a goal in my head that I’d love to be in that ring in 10 years’ time.
Ten years because Dad refused to stable horses at home, because (quite rightly so) we just weren’t equipped for them.
Little did I think I’d be joining them in Ring 1 just 12 months later and that dad would be cutting the tops off all the stable doors!
To share that hallowed ring with some of the people I had looked up to for years, and tried my best to learn from, was pure class and to win there, not once but twice, with Bullseye and Monty [Emir’s Flight], really made it special and is something I will possibly never come close to again.
Grown-up job
I’m under no illusions when it comes to the immeasurable amount of help I’ve gotten since I started showing and I cannot put into words how grateful I am to all the owners and the Hoods for the opportunities they have given me.
I definitely can’t say immeasurable help without mentioning my dad either.
Without him I couldn’t do any of this and I don’t thank him enough for the brilliant work he does behind the scenes.
My favourite part of showing is getting to do so much with him every summer.
Looking ahead to 2018, we have some very exciting yearlings making their debuts and it will be full steam ahead in both rings with the three-year olds: Goldengrove Temptress and Bullseye.
Last year’s three-year olds start their careers under saddle; Greenhall Miss R is going beautifully for her owner Ciara and my all-time favourite Cadlan Valley Crusader is waiting in the wings with his brilliant little jockey, Carla Williamson, whose father [Norman] is dad’s cousin.
I graduate from UCC in May and then start my “grown-up” job with New Ireland Assurance in September.
So this summer is going to be a mix-and-match of travelling to shows and perhaps further afield some weeks.
I love showing horses and ponies but am only 21-years-old.
I’ve sacrificed going on a J1 to spend summers doing what I love, something I don’t regret for a second, but I might have to skip a show or two this year to see more than the motorway and the inside of a showring!
Aidan Williamson was in conversation with Susan Finnerty.
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