BY MICHAEL O’LEARY
Jack Ryan from Inistioge has been making huge strides in recent years on The Showjumping Circuit with a string of victories around the world, and he is part of an array of Showjumping talent from within the county who have been performing so well globally.
That was highlighted by the wonderful success at The European Showjumping Championships in Italy in July where their was plenty of Gold Medals won by Kilkenny competitors.
Seamus Hughes Kennedy won both individual and team gold in The Young Riders Competition aboard ESI Rocky, while The Brennans from Gowran, Eoin, James and Timmy were part of the Ireland Team that won Gold in The Junior competition.
Along with the rest of the successful Irish Squad, they were paraded in front of a packed attendance at the recent Dublin Horse Show in the RDS just before the start of the Puissance.
Jack Ryan competed in the RDS, where he performed very well as he won The 6-year-old qualifier aboard Mondavi.
Mondavi is owned by well known singer and Paralympic and World Gold Medalist Ronan Tynan, who is also an Equestrian and Horse Racing enthusiast having competed in Showjumping competitions as well as currently owning Racehorses who have won over the past year.
Jack also competed in The Grand Prix on the final day of The Show, where he was most unfortunate not to have made The Jump-Off aboard BBS McGregor having knocked the final fence in the process. BBS McGregor is owned by Jack’s Mum, Marguerite Ryan who herself has competed at The Dublin Horse Show, and she has performed superbly in high class competitions around the World.
He jumped a clear round in the first round of The Nations Cup Final in Barcelona last year, while also in 2022 they enjoyed a double clear round as part of the Ireland Team on their way to winning The 5-Star Nations Cup in Abu Dhabi.
Jack and BBS McGregor were also part of the winning Team that won The Nations Cup in Vilamoura in Portugal in 2021.
The Inistioge native began his career like so many across the county with the Moloney Family at the Warrington Equestrian Centre, and from there he moved on to Shane Breen in Hickstead where he spent two years based with the Tipperary native who won the Grand Prix at The Dublin Horse Show in 2019.
Jack is now currently based in Belgium in Dutch Equestrian with former Olympic, World and European Champion Jos Lansink, having spent a month there when arriving first in the Young Riders Academy. Jos is originally from the Netherlands and has competed with both the Netherlands and Belgium, so Jack is in the perfect surroundings possible for his career to progress further.
He was a European Medalist at Underage having been part of James Kernan’s Squad that won a Bronze Medal aboard Cavalier Teaca in The European Juniors in 2018, while in 2021 he was aboard BBS McGregor that won a Silver Team Medal in The European Young Riders competition.
Jack has made terrific progress in his career so far, and with Irish Showjumping on a crest of a wave particularly among the Kilkenny riders following their European Championship exploits in July. The Inistioge native has the potential and determination to progress even further and under the stewardship of Jos Lansink he can without doubt look forward to more great days going forward.
