Post by Elaine on Oct 27, 2009 17:55:44 GMT
In a life time we have many teachers but I was blessed to have a gem and want to tell you a bit about him. The first time I set eyes on him he was in my brothers yard buying a few bales of hay, he looked like a man in his late forties or early fifties and he had about him an air of energy and vigor. Everything about him spoke of horses, from his worn clothing and old boots, to the crow’s feet wrinkles about his eyes.
I did not know him at all, had never set eyes on him in fact, but something about him made me pay attention. I watched him easily toss the couple of bales into the back of his old van and then he was asking my brother about livery, he explained he had just bought a young horse that had come out of a trotting yard and had been badly treated, he wanted to re-school her and needed to stable her for a while. My brother had no livery available at the time so I took the opportunity to join in the conversation. I had recently built a couple of stables and was just getting back into horses after been away from them for a good number of years and I felt instinctively that this man would be someone worth knowing. I offered him a stable at our then very small yard and we struck a deal that involved him providing labour and some lessons in return for a stable for the mare.
Liam was a good bit older than I had first judged, in fact at that stage he was in the latter end of his sixth decade but didn’t look a bit of it. As the facets of his personality and the story of his life emerged I realized that my instinct about him had been right, he was indeed someone worth knowing.
Liam had a ready smile, a wicked sense of humor a strong arm and back and an eye for the ladies, he also had a life long passion for horses and a near infinite depth of knowledge. Just listening to him and watching him work with the little mare he brought to our yard was in itself an education. Liam had an impressive resume.
Born the son of a horse dealer in Dublins Coombe, he had stories to tell about driving young horses from Ballinasloe to Dublin and indeed breaking some of them along the road as it was easier to ride than to walk the 150 plus miles. At a young age Liam joined the British army as a member of the Kings Troop and rose to the rank of Sergeant. He saw active service in the Sudan and the Congo and was involved in battles where he had to chose between killing or been killed, experiences that haunts his dreams still.
After leaving the army he spent a good number of years in America, his first wife was a Native American who sadly passed away at a young age. He managed studs for various owners from royalty to hardnosed business men to out and out eccentrics and his stories about these various owners where always told with respect and reverence to his employer but also with piercing wit and wicked humor.
But the over riding theme of his stories where the equine companions he had during his life’s journey. From young horses he competed on as a rider for the army to spirited Arab horses he rode on patrol in the Sudan to Stallions owned by various studs.
Each horse was described in detail, height, colour, confirmation but above all character and temperament. Liam spoke of them all with affection, he knew the breeding of practically every horse he ever rode, knew what the horses responded to, what they disliked, what they enjoyed. For each and every horse he had an affection that went way beyond that normally shown by professional horse men. Listening to Liam it was hard to credit that a man could have lived such a rich and varied life and indeed I knew many who doubted him, and though he was universally liked many felt he exaggerated his stories. I however was privileged to see many of the photographs he had collected over the years. Photographs that told a rich story, Liam as a young man in full dress uniform astride a horse for ceremonial duty, or the picture of a striking young man in desert garb on an Arab stallion a broad grin on his face. I saw photographs of Liam show jumping, hunting, saluting the queen, riding western style. All of this proof of a lifetime working with horses.
I learned a lot about Liam’s life over the years I have known him but even before I knew as much as I now do I had grown to respect him and cherish him as a dear friend. The friendship was easily earned as his constant good nature and easy smile meant he was an easy person to be around. He earned my respect by the way he handled horses. Watching him work with that abused little mare from the trotting yard was my first experience of seeing a true natural horseman in action. Willow was about 15-1hh and just coming four year old when Liam brought her to our yard. She was literally covered in cuts and scrapes and was head shy, mistrusting and dangerous as she was so fearful of human contact. Liam treated her wounds which soon healed, he spent a lot of time with her, grooming, lifting feet, and just being with her, sometimes leaning over the stable door talking to her for hours on end.
The mare reacted quickly to him and her fear and mistrust seem to melt away. Liam was kind but at all deal firmly but fairly with all disobedience from the mare. He often said that he looked after her for twenty three hours of the day and for this she must work for one hour. His firm but kind approach worked and the mare blossomed in a very short period of time.
Willows introduction to work was a battle of wills and to be honest at the start I was betting on the mare to win. She tried every trick in the book to avoid co-operating but for every evasive tactic she employed, Liam had an answer. His patience was infinite and he worked little by little with the mare to bring her around to his way of thinking. Some of his methods where old fashioned and some pure common sense but underlying all of this was a simple truth, Willow responded to Liam because she wanted to be with him, she trusted him and recognised that he was a strong leader who would protect her. When she misbehaved Liam would chase her away and keep her away, her initial response would always be to toss her head and high step as if she didn’t care but all too quickly she would want to re-unite with her leader, her head would drop and she would look for a sign that she had been forgiven. Backing Willow was again a slow process, her previous life had so damaged her that it took a long while for her to completely trust any one and even than she was for a good year somewhat unpredictable. I witnessed her attempting to lie down with Liam on her back, a trick she had picked up to avoid hitching to the hated cart.
On another occasion I saw her, having been startled, buck wildly with Liam on board for a good three minutes, another favorite trick was to reverse into a ditch or a wall to try to remove her tack and her rider. And spectacularly I saw her rear on the road and collapse with Liam still on board. Never once did she unseat Liam, neither was either of them hurt in any serious way. It took a good year before you could say that the mare was safe to ride and during that time I rode out almost every day with Liam, we hacked for miles on end on small country roads, cross country and to our local beaches. During this time Liam was working as a HGV driver and drove an articulated truck from Dublin to Limerick every day. He started early each morning and was finished by about eleven oclock so was generally at the yard by lunchtime.
I too was working full time and once I had feed horses in the morning had to go to my day job. I was lucky in that I was self employed so always managed to get time off during the day to ride. In the early stages I was only just coming back to riding after many years out of the saddle and Liam helped me tremendously.
Liam never gave me formal lessons but instead spoke to, (sometimes yelled to) me during our hacks, he corrected my posture, my seat, by balance and feel and in particular my hands. He thought me how to feel and maintain a light contact, how to ride with my seat and legs, he would tolerate no pulling on a horses mouth and insisted that the reins where for communication not balance. He guided me while I schooled young horses and both myself and the horses ended up better for it.
Weekends where wonderful as we where both free and hacked out in the early morning, I have superb memories of special spring mornings cantering along the beach in Loughshinny with the sun bouncing of the sea and salt air blowing into my face. Liam had a mantra that “there was nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse” and how true this is.
Liam kept Willow with us for a few years and during that time he often allowed a local girl to ride her. Laura was only about ten or eleven when she first came to ride Willow and became a long time friend of Ecklands where we watched her grow from child to teenager to adult. Laura and Willow formed a real bond and in typical Liam style he gifted the Mare to Laura on one of her birthdays. He insisted that the mare had been too small for him and that he needed something bigger and that she was a bit of a handful and better to let Laura have her than sell her on to someone else. The fact was that Willow was not too small for him and that by this time any one could ride her and indeed many of my young nephews and nieces did ride her. Willow stayed with Laura for a few years and is now living with a family as a mother daughter horse, she is happy, health and is not at all afraid of people.
In 2004 Liam, approaching his mid seventies broke a nice grey mare, she was about 16hh and was to be his last horse. He broke her in his own typical style, everything done at the horses pace and nothing rushed, she had been backed and was riding away nicely. On a weekday morning Liam was in an arena with the mare when she spooked and for once he was unseated. He landed badly and received severe bruising of his spine which left him paralyzed from the neck down. For a long time we feared he might die but his strength pulled him through.
Despite nothing been broken Liam remains paralyzed to this day and now lives in a home surrounded by pictures of his Daughter and his grand Daughters and there various horses and ponies. I try to visit him often but find it hard as it is painful to see your heroes diminished. I think Liam understands how I feel as on a recent visit he told me that he had no regrets and that if he had his life to live again he would change nothing, “I had a lifetime among horses and where better to be.”
_______________________________________________
Dave Kavanagh, www.ecklandssportshorses.com
Irish Horsemanship Young Horse Specialist
I did not know him at all, had never set eyes on him in fact, but something about him made me pay attention. I watched him easily toss the couple of bales into the back of his old van and then he was asking my brother about livery, he explained he had just bought a young horse that had come out of a trotting yard and had been badly treated, he wanted to re-school her and needed to stable her for a while. My brother had no livery available at the time so I took the opportunity to join in the conversation. I had recently built a couple of stables and was just getting back into horses after been away from them for a good number of years and I felt instinctively that this man would be someone worth knowing. I offered him a stable at our then very small yard and we struck a deal that involved him providing labour and some lessons in return for a stable for the mare.
Liam was a good bit older than I had first judged, in fact at that stage he was in the latter end of his sixth decade but didn’t look a bit of it. As the facets of his personality and the story of his life emerged I realized that my instinct about him had been right, he was indeed someone worth knowing.
Liam had a ready smile, a wicked sense of humor a strong arm and back and an eye for the ladies, he also had a life long passion for horses and a near infinite depth of knowledge. Just listening to him and watching him work with the little mare he brought to our yard was in itself an education. Liam had an impressive resume.
Born the son of a horse dealer in Dublins Coombe, he had stories to tell about driving young horses from Ballinasloe to Dublin and indeed breaking some of them along the road as it was easier to ride than to walk the 150 plus miles. At a young age Liam joined the British army as a member of the Kings Troop and rose to the rank of Sergeant. He saw active service in the Sudan and the Congo and was involved in battles where he had to chose between killing or been killed, experiences that haunts his dreams still.
After leaving the army he spent a good number of years in America, his first wife was a Native American who sadly passed away at a young age. He managed studs for various owners from royalty to hardnosed business men to out and out eccentrics and his stories about these various owners where always told with respect and reverence to his employer but also with piercing wit and wicked humor.
But the over riding theme of his stories where the equine companions he had during his life’s journey. From young horses he competed on as a rider for the army to spirited Arab horses he rode on patrol in the Sudan to Stallions owned by various studs.
Each horse was described in detail, height, colour, confirmation but above all character and temperament. Liam spoke of them all with affection, he knew the breeding of practically every horse he ever rode, knew what the horses responded to, what they disliked, what they enjoyed. For each and every horse he had an affection that went way beyond that normally shown by professional horse men. Listening to Liam it was hard to credit that a man could have lived such a rich and varied life and indeed I knew many who doubted him, and though he was universally liked many felt he exaggerated his stories. I however was privileged to see many of the photographs he had collected over the years. Photographs that told a rich story, Liam as a young man in full dress uniform astride a horse for ceremonial duty, or the picture of a striking young man in desert garb on an Arab stallion a broad grin on his face. I saw photographs of Liam show jumping, hunting, saluting the queen, riding western style. All of this proof of a lifetime working with horses.
I learned a lot about Liam’s life over the years I have known him but even before I knew as much as I now do I had grown to respect him and cherish him as a dear friend. The friendship was easily earned as his constant good nature and easy smile meant he was an easy person to be around. He earned my respect by the way he handled horses. Watching him work with that abused little mare from the trotting yard was my first experience of seeing a true natural horseman in action. Willow was about 15-1hh and just coming four year old when Liam brought her to our yard. She was literally covered in cuts and scrapes and was head shy, mistrusting and dangerous as she was so fearful of human contact. Liam treated her wounds which soon healed, he spent a lot of time with her, grooming, lifting feet, and just being with her, sometimes leaning over the stable door talking to her for hours on end.
The mare reacted quickly to him and her fear and mistrust seem to melt away. Liam was kind but at all deal firmly but fairly with all disobedience from the mare. He often said that he looked after her for twenty three hours of the day and for this she must work for one hour. His firm but kind approach worked and the mare blossomed in a very short period of time.
Willows introduction to work was a battle of wills and to be honest at the start I was betting on the mare to win. She tried every trick in the book to avoid co-operating but for every evasive tactic she employed, Liam had an answer. His patience was infinite and he worked little by little with the mare to bring her around to his way of thinking. Some of his methods where old fashioned and some pure common sense but underlying all of this was a simple truth, Willow responded to Liam because she wanted to be with him, she trusted him and recognised that he was a strong leader who would protect her. When she misbehaved Liam would chase her away and keep her away, her initial response would always be to toss her head and high step as if she didn’t care but all too quickly she would want to re-unite with her leader, her head would drop and she would look for a sign that she had been forgiven. Backing Willow was again a slow process, her previous life had so damaged her that it took a long while for her to completely trust any one and even than she was for a good year somewhat unpredictable. I witnessed her attempting to lie down with Liam on her back, a trick she had picked up to avoid hitching to the hated cart.
On another occasion I saw her, having been startled, buck wildly with Liam on board for a good three minutes, another favorite trick was to reverse into a ditch or a wall to try to remove her tack and her rider. And spectacularly I saw her rear on the road and collapse with Liam still on board. Never once did she unseat Liam, neither was either of them hurt in any serious way. It took a good year before you could say that the mare was safe to ride and during that time I rode out almost every day with Liam, we hacked for miles on end on small country roads, cross country and to our local beaches. During this time Liam was working as a HGV driver and drove an articulated truck from Dublin to Limerick every day. He started early each morning and was finished by about eleven oclock so was generally at the yard by lunchtime.
I too was working full time and once I had feed horses in the morning had to go to my day job. I was lucky in that I was self employed so always managed to get time off during the day to ride. In the early stages I was only just coming back to riding after many years out of the saddle and Liam helped me tremendously.
Liam never gave me formal lessons but instead spoke to, (sometimes yelled to) me during our hacks, he corrected my posture, my seat, by balance and feel and in particular my hands. He thought me how to feel and maintain a light contact, how to ride with my seat and legs, he would tolerate no pulling on a horses mouth and insisted that the reins where for communication not balance. He guided me while I schooled young horses and both myself and the horses ended up better for it.
Weekends where wonderful as we where both free and hacked out in the early morning, I have superb memories of special spring mornings cantering along the beach in Loughshinny with the sun bouncing of the sea and salt air blowing into my face. Liam had a mantra that “there was nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse” and how true this is.
Liam kept Willow with us for a few years and during that time he often allowed a local girl to ride her. Laura was only about ten or eleven when she first came to ride Willow and became a long time friend of Ecklands where we watched her grow from child to teenager to adult. Laura and Willow formed a real bond and in typical Liam style he gifted the Mare to Laura on one of her birthdays. He insisted that the mare had been too small for him and that he needed something bigger and that she was a bit of a handful and better to let Laura have her than sell her on to someone else. The fact was that Willow was not too small for him and that by this time any one could ride her and indeed many of my young nephews and nieces did ride her. Willow stayed with Laura for a few years and is now living with a family as a mother daughter horse, she is happy, health and is not at all afraid of people.
In 2004 Liam, approaching his mid seventies broke a nice grey mare, she was about 16hh and was to be his last horse. He broke her in his own typical style, everything done at the horses pace and nothing rushed, she had been backed and was riding away nicely. On a weekday morning Liam was in an arena with the mare when she spooked and for once he was unseated. He landed badly and received severe bruising of his spine which left him paralyzed from the neck down. For a long time we feared he might die but his strength pulled him through.
Despite nothing been broken Liam remains paralyzed to this day and now lives in a home surrounded by pictures of his Daughter and his grand Daughters and there various horses and ponies. I try to visit him often but find it hard as it is painful to see your heroes diminished. I think Liam understands how I feel as on a recent visit he told me that he had no regrets and that if he had his life to live again he would change nothing, “I had a lifetime among horses and where better to be.”
_______________________________________________
Dave Kavanagh, www.ecklandssportshorses.com
Irish Horsemanship Young Horse Specialist