I have the utmost faith that when we go to a championship our riders will come home with a medal,” says Irish pony show jumping team manager Gary Marshall. Now entering his fourth season, the multi-tasking Balymena based trainer has certainly delivered on that promise.

“When I first took the job in January 2016 Horse Sport Ireland CEO Damien McDonald told me that we had won every kind of medal except team gold. No pressure!”

It took Gary a year but that mission was completed at Koposvar, Hungary in 2017 when the squad claimed team gold and individual gold and silver.

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In addition to his equestrian skills Gary is also a qualified master saddler. He is very conscious of how our Irish system gives a multiplicity of opportunities for pony riders to achieve excellence. Shows that provide good surfaces, course builders who create testing tracks, parents, sponsors and trainers all come in for praise from him.

“Small goals along the way can lead to the golden dream of the European Championships, which I see as the Pony Olympics,” he explains.

Experience

It is not without experience that Gary speaks of gradual steps rising to bigger goals. When he was just 16 and dedicated to horse riding his Dad advised him to study and create an option. So over five years he apprenticed with Joseph Gordon in Belfast to become a master saddler.

However, all the time he still worked alongside his brother Harry on the national and international circuit. “I was both coached and coach at the same time as he trained me on young horses and I watched him from the rail to spot any problems.”

Next came training with Paul Schockemohle in Germany and with Jessamy Rouson in the US. “I wanted to learn the German way and the American way and then put it all together for my own way,” he notes. In order to fund his seven year term in the USA he brought his saddler skills into play as part of a road outfit that travelled the East Coast shows repairing and renewing tack.

Back home, he studied for his HSI Level Three Coaching certificate. As a result he went on to giving SJI clinics and worked with Ian Fearon, Jack Doyle and Tom Freyne on the grass roots Development Squad.

Management

When the post of Irish Pony Show Jumping Team Manager became open in 2016 the then 49 year old took the interview and was appointed to a job that he considers both challenging and fantastic. “I was a bit frightened and intimidated with the huge shoes of people like Ian Fearon and Tom Slattery that I had to fill. But then I said ‘I have my own shoes to fill’ and it has gone on from there.”

He admits that his first year was a learning curve. In typical fashion he watched the likes of Rob Ehrens of Holland in his job and when the 2017 season began he was ready with a strong team plan that has borne fruit. “I wanted the team to be a family, all stay in the one hotel, be proud to wear the green jacket and believe that they were good enough.”

Good enough indeed as the side of Harry Allen, Kate Derwin, Ciaran Nallan and Abbie Sweetnam won team gold at that year’s Europeans in Hungary and Harry and Kate also won individual gold and silver. 2018 has brought three Nations Cup wins in Belgium, Holland and Germany plus the Championship in the first FEI Nations Cup Final with the team of Ella Quigley, Charlottre Houston, Seamus Hughes-Kennedy and Katie Power.

At the 2018 Europeans in Bishop Burton Max Wachman won individual silver and Ireland were denied bronze by one second in a jump-off. Indicating strength in depth, a total of nine riders wore the green during that year-long campaign. Four from the European side are available to do battle again in 2019. But before all of that the programme will include clinics and trial days as Gary’s way aims to work another year of pony magic.