By PIPER KLEMM, Ph.D.
If I sat down today and asked an artificial intelligence to create me the perfect top sport international team rider, I’m pretty sure it would just spit out one of the (many) lads currently on Team Ireland.
At the first leg of the Longines League of Nations Abu Dhabi CSIO5* this past weekend, I found myself in the familiar setting of sitting in the front row of the press conference across from Ireland’s very proud chef d’equipe Michael Blake.
Within the first few minutes, he said:
“Nations Cups mean a lot to the people of Ireland. Most of the horses we have are owned by people outside of Ireland that our riders have sourced and mined them and cultivated them and we are so, so thankful. We are a small nation in the middle of the Atlantic and we really punch above our weight and are very proud to do so. The Nations Cups, they’re everything to us. I won’t say nothing else matters, but it doesn’t matter much.”
There is a lot to unpack in this statement. The commentary seemed mostly directed at Americans, who own an astounding number of international horses for Team Ireland. But let’s start with the facts–Ireland’s men jumped every single round clear to finish the Nations Cup on 0 faults at Longines League of Nations Abu Dhabi CSIO 5*.
On the very same day, the Irish men took the top 4 spots in the World Cup Qualifier 5* at World Equestrian Center in Ocala, and also on the same day won the 3* at the Desert Horse Park, and the same week, won the grand prix qualifiers at both WEC and WEF and two 4* classes at the Sunshine Tour in Spain. Last year, when they won the Longines League of Nations Ocala, they also won the grand prix classes at WEF and Thermal on the same day. As of this time last year, they had put 39 riders on 5* Nations Cup Teams in the previous 12 months.
How does a country with a population about the size of Massachusetts (7 mil), and well under the size of New York City (8 mil), have a depth of field in 5* riders literally unimaginable to an entire country whose population is about 50x its size (US Population = 334 mil)? How does this country have more 5* team riders than Mexico, Canada, and the United States combined?
One factor, as stated, is their horses are “owned by people outside of Ireland.” Which is a polite way of saying Americans. And why wouldn’t Americans want to buy horses for them? Leaving national pride aside, it is much more fun to be part of a winning team. Compare the thrill of victory to dealing with moody American riders who launch Facebook rants and won’t come on podcasts, alongside the much gossiped upon million dollar retainer they require to treat others with disdain absolutely seems unfashionable.
The Irish clearly motivate each other–upon winning the Longines FEI World Cup Qualifier in Ocala, Cian O’Connnor said, “When there’s so many Irish in the jump-off, and I knew they’d go so hard, it kind of motivated me a little bit to have a proper go.”
Even within our clear round machines, it’s hard to think which herd of gritty Americans motivate or make other countries quake in their boots for a fast jump-off.
Is their ability to ride and train horses, work together as a team, woo and impress owners, and turn jump-off competitors green with envy really from a structural program running 100x better than ours? Well, yes. Oh, and they have cute accents.
Excellence is in all facets–I’m fast to cover a class, fast to write, and fast to post… and their media is instant; they literally post so fast that it’s like they already made all the graphics saying Ireland won the Nations Cup before the class even finishes. I made a note that they posted 7 whole minutes before I did. It makes me wonder, do they have it uploaded and ready to just press post? If they do, would Team USA social media ever believe in any of our teams that much?
How important are Nations Cups to the people of the United States? Not important enough for me to ever have sat across from a proud US chef d’equipe Robert Ridland in the press conference. How important is it to field a winning secondary or tertiary team when the current A team is busy, injured, selfish, or retired?
Ireland has talent, consistency, teamwork, and at some point we need to figure out what they are doing better than we are–in their own words, how is this small nation really punching so much above their weight?
Working together, the Irish Team provides a webbed network to share horses amongst countrymen, more opportunities for owners to be involved, move their horse to the correct rider if needed, and to statistically be part of a podium in any given year. And they’re happy to make media appearances praising you and have gratitude for what you’re doing for their small nation.
It’s easy to want to blame the current top American riders, their names are in our faces and they are well-heeled, but vision can never come from those who are that far in it. Perspective needs to come from leadership. Management is hard when you depend so heavily on a team that they have become unmanageable. How do we focus on creating so many options and qualified riders that a visionary can both cultivate success and main control of the pathway?
We are going to have a very interesting positive step towards this when Traverse City Horse Shows hosts their first CSIO3* Nations Cups this summer, the first held in Michigan and one of only three Nations Cups competitions in the United States. This should both increase our American pride and also continue to expose the depth of investment that owners are making into other nations.
Blake seemed almost cavalier (or maybe I am simply reading proud Irishman) when he made the statement, but even in his representation, he described a culture of process, not one of instant gratification. To not only have owners, but to “source and mine and cultivate” them is a mindset of a growth process that is hard to find in discussion with many Americans and many of our leadership. Process oriented systems are usually more content with risk taking and pursuing challenges because the framework to fall back on is substantial enough to lift yourself back up again as various failures require. Simply put, it allows winning at a higher level.
From a basic fundamental level, Americans have an obsession with efficiency. When you are raised in a completely efficient environment, you learn to rely on efficiency and there is no place to develop grit. We are efficient top to bottom–we have absolutely no one extra qualified for any position–we are in a place where the demand is great for every position from flat rider and assistant trainer to 5* team member. Everyone in an efficient system is used to their absolute ability, there is no one extra, and this makes the entire system fragile and brittle to any extraneous ask.
With more qualified people and an inherently inefficient system, the slack allows development, grit, and constant productive pressure. When there are 30-something qualified 5* riders, every single team is a competition to get on. And then every competitive field makes people burn with desire and more grit in a virtuous cycle. Denis Lynch was not over the fact that he was not used in the second round for the Longines League of Nations in 2024–it fueled him to advocate for himself and continue to push to be the chosen rider, as he was in 2025, to jump double clear for Team Ireland. Which is fundamentally the job of every team rider. It is a mathematical understanding of how many factors are out of their control and how many chances they need in any given moment to “punch above their weight.”
So many parts of the Irish system are rooted in agricultural culture and horse families, from federation involvement in breeding, promotion, raising children to be brave, ride outside the ring, and jump huge technical courses on ponies at national championships. It is a culture where, while bad luck still happens, there are no excuses and lifestyle creep away from horse culture is prevented by inspiration to be part of something larger than yourself. The country is still full of affordable small shows, national shows, and there are many opportunities for hard living and hard-working folk.
As much as people are obsessed with making life easier at every turn, raising our children to be brave, talented, ambitious, and great horsepeople are things I believe are still capable of with a concerted vision both at a top down and local interpersonal level.
We are a large nation on the Atlantic and we are completely capable of punching at or above our weight. Growing the national identity of our pipeline from a series of individual spirits to create a network of people that everyone can fundamentally rely on is a 20 year plan or more. We have the money floating around if we could “source, mine, and cultivate” it. There is a Chinese proverb that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the second best time is now. Let’s get started- on a personal level, a professional level, and write, call, and ask our leadership to do better for us than they’ve been doing. There’s more to leadership than “avoiding” lawsuits and it’s time we demand a jump-off that inspires all of us. Team USA can and should be the greatest team in the world- we can do this!
Watch this week’s Horse Bytes commentary on top sport show jumping here:
