Hello, I'm Cameron Beer, and my favourite foreign equine product is muscle max. Muscle max is absolutely amazing for keeping the muscles healthy when in work. I have specifically loved using this product when I'm bringing horses back into work after they've had a break, or perhaps been off for the bit of an injury, or actually even post surgery when you've got a horse doing a bit of a rehab, it has been absolutely brilliant knowing when they're using muscles they haven't used for a while, they are supported in their muscle growth and really knowing that their muscles are in the best condition to cope with the work they're doing, so muscle max is definitely a go-to. So, Liskarven House international horse trials done and dusted, but what a weekend of sport it was over in Ireland, and especially in the Connolly's Redmills 4-star short, taking the win there, Izzy Taylor took the win with SPH Big War on 27.3, but one man, an Irish man, a Connolly's Redmills rider, who had a phenomenal weekend in the Connolly Redmills 4-star short. Inka cells, thank you so much for coming on the show to talk through Liskarven and your rides. Hi Rosie, thank you so much for having me, it's a pleasure. We love having you on the show, and especially after a weekend like you've just had, but before we get stuck in to talking about your rides and how it all went, Liskarven is a relatively new venue on the international calendar. Give us a little bit of an insight as to what the venue is like there. So, this is only the second year running as an international, and previously it has many international runs, I think as a national before becoming an international, it has been renowned to have been a strong cross country, really up to height, and not trying to catch you out, but really trying to get the rider to ride correctly, the lines correctly, and really make them think a little bit. So as a whole, I think the main arena always is very influential for the show jumping. It's on a slight hill, and the course designer is very cleverly built. I think in the Connolly's Red Mills, there were very few clears, and especially like tight times, really good use of turn backs, and as a whole it was really nice to see there was a lot more trade stands, a little farmer market, really local, it's a really family run event, and it really holds up, you know. Yeah, and I think that we mentioned on our previous show, it's a great day out for the whole family, and I really think that it encompasses that, and it is a fantastic day out if anybody went, I'm sure they would totally agree, but you mentioned it was the second year running there. Has there been any key evolutions from the first to second year? I would say there was a little bit more atmosphere this year, I'd say they had more family market, trade stands, et cetera. I also think the Brady's, working with Mike Edmond Smith, have developed the course a lot, and as a first year they might have been a little bit on the easier side just to get it up and running, and this year they really took no prisoners, they really used every bit of ground and every bit of running away ground and everything, and it caused quite a few problems. I mean Ireland are known for being one of the best eventing countries, but what does it mean for Irish eventing to have another top class international in Ireland? Yes, it's amazing to have it on the calendar. I think we are blessed in Ireland, I think they ran eight classes between four long down to intro, so we are so lucky to have that range of classes so frequently in Ireland, and to have courses on us like the Brady's, with the help of Mike Edmond Smith, the courses and as a rider of how we have to ride certain lines, it's paramount to our training. I mean having that range of classes for somebody like you is amazing, because you've got so many courses, you can just turn up with a lorry loaded and you can enter them in basically every class, but what was that cross country like? You say it's taken a little bit of a step up this year from last year, give us a bit of an insight into how it rode and what were your first thoughts on it? So it starts off as a really nice scallopy track, a good, big, bold, really get into rhythm, with a nice, smaller question of angled houses, which actually, as you walked, a little bit innocuous, but actually caught a lot of horses out in the tree and forest there, and then you came to the Connolly's Red Mill's corners, used a nice little bit of the undulating ground on a four or three strides, and that really kind of set you up there and like okay, this is a proper forest there, they continued on, there's tree water complexes I think, and then they have a lovely ring for it, they really used the mounds there and a really undulating, falling away, ground to a big open corner in the forest there, which really made the riders ride every fence individually and ride of per door horse, so I think them kind of questions are key in Irish eventing to really train our voices and our riders to look up, look for the fence and really ride each fence individually and as a line as a whole and ride as your horse needs to. Yeah, 100%, I totally agree with you there, and as we've mentioned, you had a fantastic weekend, you were 4th, 6th and 12th in the Connolly's Red Mill's four star show, which is just phenomenal, but you're best placing there, 4th place with Shambo Superflex, now you've produced your best top level finishing score of your career this weekend with Shambo Superflex, talk us through her performance because she's a little jumping machine, isn't she? Yeah, so I had four in the class, so it was very dizzy, but Shambo was some flex, flex that she's known, she's a homebred, a traditional Irish bred horse bred by Francis Quarkley, and I was lucky to get the ride maybe three years ago, feisty little mayor, a little bit big on her, some people might say, but she's a really, really game and she's, she missed out a few years in her younger career, no fault to her own, but she's really stepped up to four star last year, this year she's really adamant and really solidified her place at the level, and hopefully now she's had a really good run here for her often campaign, she's hoping to go to platinum and do the four alone, and fingers crossed, she might go to Poe and do the five star after that, so really excited about her, she's still only ten years old, so it's really exciting horse for the future, and to pull that lowest finishing score for me is just an icing on the cake. Did you come into the show almost anticipating such a big performance from her or not? I think we have to take each show as it comes, I specifically used Liz Gavin as a stepping stone mainly for my awesome big temp show, but as a whole she came out and she felt really relaxed, she can do a very good test, sometimes she tries a little bit too hard, but that's what makes me love her even more, she is always game, always wants to try her best, and she is a little jumping machine, and there was, listen, there was, Green was doing the commentary of the fourths, and there's a commentary on it from the live stream from Hospital Island, and she's like how did the mayor jump the corner, and she jumps so big off the drop, and she's just looking for the flag, really wants to play, so having a horse like that is just nice to ride, and easy to ride. We love a little hearty mayor that really gives her all, because if you have mayors on side they are just phenomenal aren't they? Yeah exactly. But you were also, you were sixth place with Millridge Athos, a fantastic performance as well from him, fairly new to the level, only second time at the level, you must be absolutely delighted with that. Yes, he's a really exciting young horse, he's owned by Joelie, who bought him as a two-year-old, so I've done everything with him from breaking him as a three-year-old, and producing up the levels, he's only an eight-year-old now, so he did his first four-star in Millridge Street, and this isn't been a second, and he'll go to platinum to do eight and nine-year-olds, but for a horse like this, that's still so young and green to do a double-clear boat, his first and second four-star is phenomenal, and he's by a thoroughbred, Grand Gayle, so he loves the galloping, and he's just really exciting horse. A very exciting horse, seen as that's only second time at the level, and his first step up to level was in Millridge Street, where he placed seventh as a top ten in both of them is phenomenal, and you mentioned you started him from the start, and you produced a lot of your horses up through the levels. Do you prefer starting them from the start, and you riding them right the way through, then gaining them partway through their career? Yes, it's really exciting to see the young horses develop and progress, and having owners that really trust in me and believe in my system makes my life very easy, that I can take my time with horses that need their time and take it day by day as such and show by show, and like as such, I got the Shambo horse as a seven-year-old, and she'd miss so much, but she's just taking her time getting to know her, then she's caught up straight away in the last two years, and she was able to go to Blenheim still as a nine-year-old and things like that, so each as their own, but it is always nice to see the young horses develop as they progress. And you also had Kelly's quality, who placed twelve in the four-star short, what was your highlight of Liskarve, and it's hard to say that when you've had such a good weekend, but was there any point that was a particular highlight for you? It was a bit of a manic week. We had eight horses, six international actually classes and two, and the young horse classes, so while travelling up and down from home, trying to prep for barely, so it's a bit manic now, energy levels were a bit low, but it wasn't until I got home, and a gradients had posted the highest early lowest finishing score for myself. That was really icing on the cake, and it's really like, you have to give yourself a little bit of credit that you are doing something right and having three horses in the top twelve, like it speaks for itself. It's incredible, because like you say, you were driving up down, you had six horses there, you're prepping for barely, and you're quite a small team, as it is, how do you manage all of that, because I can imagine, like you say, you were drained, but how do you manage so much at all at once? Yes, it's very difficult, as I say, it's a small team, but there is a great little team that we have of Jan Foster, who has worked for me in the last three years, we work so well together, we don't even need to tell each other what to do, we just bounce off each other and know exactly how things run, and as well as that, my owners are very involved and support and everything, so everyone to type in my community as such, with our team, and everyone wants the best for everyone and support each other, so it makes my life a lot easier that way. Especially, you can always read each other's minds, you know what's coming next, you know your jobs and can just go with the flow, eight of your ten best finishing schools at four and five-star level have come in 2024, you are just having the most phenomenal year. Has there been anything in particular that you have changed or altered this year or has it all kind of just fallen into place this year? I think it's been the last, I would say, five years more or so than anything else, a lot of the horses I have at the level now, I've had some scoring five-year-olds and I've produced to this level, I've only started competing, I think I only did one star or one four star before three years ago and then all my four stars are in the last, this year and last year, so even as a rider, I have been learning as I go and people might think a little bit further on than they might expect, but last year for me and the horses stepping up to that level was very much a educational year and learning as we go and taking every run as they could and taking advice off other people and really just trying to solidify myself at the level and I feel like this year the horses, I've done a season of horse there, I'm a bit more experienced now and I want to be competitive and I want to do the best I can for my horse, but for the last year they needed their time, this year they're ready to be competitive and give them solid results, so it's really exciting for the future. It's incredibly exciting, you're absolutely flying and you've got Burley fast approaching, very fast approaching actually, it's kind of scary how fast Burley is, but I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that, how are the preparations going towards Burley because you're taking Master Point, it's your third five star, is everything okay so far? Yeah, all preparations are going well in fairness, he's done, he's probably the fittest he's ever been and he did LeMoulin in the summer there and came out of that really well, so I think it's credit to Redmills, I've never seen him looking so well, unfit, he's holding his condition so well, we work great with Jane and Nicole from Redmills, he's on the competition mix and the muscle max from foreign and he's also under the fine and shine supplement and I feel like his top line and everything and his muscle content has just stayed this time way better than before and it's just credit to them and I'd really recommend if anyone has any doubts with their voices or any such, they're always so nice and so helpful on the phone and they come back wonders. They are just the most lovely team over at Redmills, you can phone them about anything whether your grassroots rider, five star rider, they'll answer any of your questions but have there been any major tweaks or particular tweaks you've made to your feeding regime to make him five star fit or has it mainly just been liaising with the Redmills team and ensuring that your consistency's there? I think it's, I don't like to over complicate things as too much to feed, I think with Redmills we feed a really good baseline feed and then we adapt that specifically to horses as they need and as a big yard it's very difficult to have 20 different feeds for everything as such so we kind of have a baseline feed and anything that needs to change to that specific horse we do as so but I'm only feeding Redmills now, I think the last three years plus years now and I have never seen the horses locking and feeling so well and recovery and holding their muscle after big shows, it's just phenomenal. Well it's coming through in the results as well, we can see it this weekend, we can see it in as we say your four and five star results over the last couple of years but going to Burley this year it's your first time going to Burley as a competitor, have you ever been there to watch or just spectate? No I've actually never watched Burley so I don't know if that's everyone's like oh would you know how big it is? I'm like oh I don't know if I should know yet. The naivety might help you, but he's done power when he's done the Merlin so I think it's time now I feel prepared in my riding and he feels prepared in his preference so I think it's time we tackle one of the big bees. It must feel very special as a rider to be at that point where you think yes I'm ready for this. Yeah it's a very long road, every rider knows horses come and go and you go from having loads in the yard to having little loads and you have to make the most of it while you are there but also never take the horse for granted and really have your horsemanship and everything there you're meant to go and it feels like going if it doesn't there's always another day but I'm so fortunate to have him and his owners supporting me to go there and get all this experience. Now of course you want to go to Burley and win I would love to be able to have you on after the pod with Inka Sells the winner of Burley 2024 but what are your expectations going into Burley or your hopes? I think he can do a very solid test. I would like a sub 32 at least anyway as such and he is a really blurred gallery horse so I do think Burley will suit him more than Lemuelon and Poha even though he's had great performance at them I do think he can be quick and efficient and really eat up the ground. I think he'll stay all day and I don't want to drink to myself but I do think he can be competitive enough after cross country if all going well hopefully I can do him justice and he can help me out here and there and I'll help him out there and there but and then to try to show jumping on Sunday who knows but with fingers crossed he's jumping really well but it's just things have to go right on the week so hopefully we'll come out with a good performance and a happy and healthy horse. Well we wish you the best of luck in and congratulations as well on such a fantastic weekend at Liz Garvin and thank you for coming on the show it's been great to hear from you. No thank you so much for having me Rosie. Oh no thank you listeners thank you for tuning in and of course a huge thank you goes to Connolly Redmills who of course are not only just supporting our podcast but have supported Liz Garvin and are just huge supporters of eventing in general so a massive thanks to them. As Ian said listeners if you've got any questions or queries just pick up the phone they have a super super team of nutritionists that can help you and answer any of your questions so go and check them out if you haven't already and stay tuned because we have some very exciting content on the way in the build up to Burley but for now that's all we've got time for thank you for listening and we'll see you guys soon.
