Tattygare Me Me Me, ridden by James Smyth, is the supreme hunter champion at Dublin Horse Show 2024
Dublin Horse Show 2024: Tattygare Me Me Me, ridden by James Smyth, is the supreme hunter champion - sponsored by TopSpec- for the 2024 Show. The five year old mare is owned and bred by Shirley and Adrian Hurst, by Arkan (AES) X Iroko (WESTF)
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00:00And the top spec supreme hunter champion of the 2024 Derby Horse Show is Adrian Hurst, Taffy Garen, Mimi Lee and Jamie Smith.
00:14I actually don't think there has been any horse won four championships in the main arena on hunter championship day.
00:22I might be wrong but she was mare champion, lightweight champion, four year old champion and then went on to be supreme.
00:29This is a dream come true. It's the culmination of generations of breeding of both horses and people.
00:35And it really is almost speechless that we're in the same role of honour as the legends of the past like Galway Greer and the like.
00:44I'm just so proud that my family has been involved in breeding and producing these horses.
00:50We've been there knocking on the door once before with Jamie with our fabulous mare Teddy Gar, good to go.
00:56As a youngster, a three year old, she equaled Rosemary Connor's record of four championships as a three year old.
01:03Breeding your own is something special and to come out of here with what we've achieved today.
01:09My husband and myself, we're so grateful to Jamie and his team for what he has done and we can't thank him enough.
01:16The dam is by Araco. She goes back to an Edmund Burke mare who was the full sister of Robert Splane's international horse Big Ed.
01:27So what we're trying to do is produce true athletes that are perfect in conformation and movement so that they'll go on to perform after they've done their job in the show ring.
01:37This mare's full brother is presently competing at three star level with Tom Jackson in the UK.
01:43He's a horse called Lee Moore after ours and we expect great things of him too.
01:50I was shown a number of young horses and we gave our daughter the big challenge of showing her, which she did us proud.
01:56She was pulled in fourth and moved up to first.
01:59And then last year we weren't just as successful, she misbehaved.
02:05We were pulled in first and dropped to fourth, but we kept our heads up high and we said we'd be back and that's what we were.
02:11Last November we did the HSI loose jumping.
02:15We just had done the line about three or four times. I don't over jump young horses and she won that.
02:21She's been very successful but not over shown. We don't like to over show them too much.
02:26They're only young horses and she's just a natural. Whatever she takes on, she's just got a super temperament.
02:33She stood out from the crowd from when she arrived, went into ring two and she stood out.
02:39She gave every judge that rode her the best ride that she could.
02:44She went then into the big ring and she stood out again from the minute she put her foot into that arena.
02:53She's just a phenomenal ride. She's easy. There's no ifs or buts or anything like that.
02:59She's straightforward and whenever you ask her to gallop, which a hunter should do, she gets down and she gallops.
03:10I competed on her after April when I came back from Florida having spent the winter out there.
03:16I did ridden hunter and a few workers with her. She doesn't need an awful lot of schooling.
03:23As I said, up until two weeks ago, I was getting her fit and warmed up for Jamie.
03:28Catherine Torrington and Lisa Dugan did a little bit of show jumping with her.
03:32We took her cross country. Very versatile mare. You just put her at anything and she goes at it.
03:37She's easy to do and she's special.
03:42I have very close connections with Adrian and Shirley.
03:48They like to keep their horses at home. They don't really like sending them away because they're special to them.
03:55Whenever she said that you were getting her to ride at Dublin, I said, when's she coming?
04:02She said, as close to Dublin as you'll take her.
04:05Shirley and everyone does a great job so you can get them at that late time and get the results.
04:16I took her to one show to jump the workers and she actually jumped clear.
04:23She won the class and was worker champion, but we didn't have her anywhere else.
04:31Perhaps I named it after a family member, which I'm not going to disclose.
04:35Her other sister was Teddy Gar. It's all about me.
04:38So another family member, which I'm not going to disclose. They know who they are.
04:43She has seven full siblings. She's 14 years old at the time.
04:48She has two other full siblings at home, which we will produce on next year and the following year.
04:57She was broken in November. My daughter went back to college so we had to get another person to continue it on.
05:06She got a month in of riding and then let off and then back in in February with the other girls that I mentioned.
05:12She's had breaks, work breaks, keeping her sweet.
05:16That's why she's such a good mind because she hasn't been overworked.
05:20That's important with young babies.
05:23Here we go. Teddy Gar, Adrian Burr, Jamie Sitt. Look at this. What a champion for 2024.
05:30The win today is particularly poignant in that this grandstand will have gone.
05:36The main arena will have changed and all the history associated with it will move on.
05:41So this is the last time we'll see a Supreme Hunter champion gallop up in front of the Anglesey stand and that's particularly gratifying.
05:48I'm here too long to say how many years ago, but it's what we work for.
05:55We may have a glass of champagne later and then we start planning for next year.
06:00Long term, we have to discuss what we're going to do with Teddy Gar, me, me, me.
06:05Whether we continue down the road of the breeders where we have been very successful having five times champion with different mares.
06:12We have won the Young Horse Championship and we've been very successful.
06:16I don't know where it's left or what, but it's what we do and it's all I know.
06:20We'd like to thank Jamie, the rider, who did a fantastic job.
06:24He has ridden the Reserve Hunter champion for us in the past and he's done a fantastic job again.
06:30I'd like to thank the RDS, the sponsors and everybody that makes this show the showcase that it is.