At just 23 years of age, Oliver McCarthy has an impressive CV. Based with Irish international show jumper Kevin Babington in Pennsylvania, Oliver has also worked for the likes of Swedish Olympic silver medallist Rolf-Göran Bengtsson, and current world No 2 ranked and Olympic gold medallist McLain Ward.

Among his many sporting achievements, Oliver’s highlights include winning the prestigious Young Rider Bursary Competition at the Dublin Horse Show in 2013 and being part of the Irish young rider team that won team bronze in the Nations Cup at Wellington in 2015.

When asked about how he sees his career with horses progressing, he says: “The business of buying and selling horses is something that I am hugely interested in. I have a number of young horses at home and one I am particularly excited about is a horse that I bought in partnership with my cousin Greg Broderick, called Ballypatrick Flamenco.”

While Oliver has natural talent and ambition in abundance, he has been very fortunate to have older cousin and Irish Olympic show jumper Greg as a mentor and business partner.

“Darragh [Oliver’s older brother] and I are very lucky to have been involved in the business of horses from a young age with Greg. He always encouraged us to buy horses and we have been very lucky in that regard.”

KEEP LEARNING

Though the business of buying, producing and selling horses hugely interests Oliver, his main passion and priority is to make it to the very top of the show jumping ranks: “What I want is to go all the way to the top of the sport,” he says emphatically.

He has his eye firmly on the prize and has systematically set out to follow in the footsteps of his cousin Greg and other top Irish international riders, such as Kevin Babington.

“The bursary is a very prestigious class to win and it’s very good for any young rider to have on their CV. The training element of it is a fantastic opportunity – it’s a class that I strived to win,” and that’s exactly what he did, riding a horse of Greg’s called Brickland.

From there, he headed stateside to work with his childhood idol McLain Ward, where he learned the importance of having a good work ethic and paying attention to detail.

“The harder you work, the more chances you get. It’s not all about talent – it comes down to how much you want it and how driven and focused you are. I definitely learned a lot of that from McLain. If you keep pushing yourself and putting yourself out there to learn, you will improve. And I think the riders that are willing to learn will come out on top. I’m always going to be looking at myself as a student of this sport; every day you learn something new.”

MAKING IT HAPPEN

Earlier this year, Oliver chose to leave Ward to work for Babington. “Eventually I hope to set up my own business here in the States and Kevin has done that so it was a natural progression for me to move on from McLain’s to learn from someone who has been there and done that. The importance of having good owners and making the most of every opportunity also can’t be overstated. I have some very good owners at the moment who are very supportive of me and my ambitions to go to the very top of the sport.

“Last year, Greg put Amanda Forte and her mum Elizabeth in touch with me. Amanda was expecting a baby and was looking for someone to ride HHS Louis, MHS Automatic and Downton Abbey, so I took over the reins on them and that really was a turning point in my career.

“I will continue to ride HHS Louis, and we have very high hopes for that horse.”

Oliver is full of passion for the sport and has set his sights high. However, he is also very pragmatic and seems to be on the appropriate path to that goal.