Cathal Daniels and DSE All Best Friends on course at Puhinui
It sounds like the start to a joke; an Irishman and two New Zealanders meet in a bar …….
In fact, these were the circumstances that brought one of Ireland’s top eventing riders, Cathal Daniels, to the Puhinui International Horse Trials in New Zealand in December after he met New Zealanders Alison Price and ‘Boota’ in a bar at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon
Cathal was in Tryon competing as part of the Irish eventing team, who went on to win silver, but his level of competition was somewhat reduced at Puhinui where he competed in the CCN95 on Henton Cartier and on Donna Smith’s DSE All Best Friends in the CNC105
Henton Cartier (‘A very green 5 year old mare’ admitted owners Dave and Bridget Sutton) found her first 95 cm competition a little daunting, especially the ditch where she and Cathal ended their competition but Cathal had a little more luck on his second catch ride, DSE All Best Friends, in the CNC105. They climbed from 22nd after the dressage into 10th place with double clear cross country and show jumping rounds, redeeming some of Cathal’s wounded pride!
With just two horses to ride, Cathal had plenty of time to socialise and we loved having a chat with him away from the usual pressures of high level competition. It has been a very good year for the 22 year old rider who won not only his first 3* competition at Chatsworth in 2019 but did the double, taking both 3* classes at that event on Rioghan Rui and Sammy Davis Junior
The amazing little 15h chestnut mare Rioghan Rua has taken Cathal through all the levels to winning his first Senior WEG Championship medal but Cathal had plenty of experience of winning medals previously. He won team and individual gold medals at the Pony European Championships in 2012, riding Master Murrose, the following year he won team gold and was 7th individual at the Junior Europeans with Rioghan Rua and in 2014 the pair won another Junior team gold as well as individual silver. In 2015 with Rioghan Rua he competed for Ireland in the Young Rider Europeans winning a team bronze medal and they were also part of the winning Irish Nations Cup team at Boekelo.
Cathal’s other top horse, Sammy Davis Junior went on to win another 3* in 2019 at Cappoquin but this young man is not resting his laurels and is continuing to build a strong team of horses for the future, particularly with an eye on Tokyo 2020
Being a pragmatic Irishman, he does realise that some horses may have to be sold, but this is another area that Cathal sees as an additional string to his bow, as he really enjoys the process of developing the young horses and matching them with potential new riders. He may only be 22 years old but he already has his own yard and is focussing on building a reputation for his business, Cathal Daniels Sport Horses
