When a blogger walks up to two Irish guys at a bar…

Me and Daniel Coyle

I wanted to talk to some riders, get some real content for this blog. I ordered a beer at the pub - liquid courage - and gazed around me. I saw a couple of Irish riders sitting on barstools at the bar. Summoning every reserve of courage I had, I walked up. “Hi, sorry to interrupt,” I said, my Canadian manners taking hold. “Could I ask you something?” “Not for my autograph I hope,” laughed one of them, who I later learned was Jordan Coyle. I gaped. This wasn’t going well so far. “Actually, I’d love to interview you for my horse blog.” “Nope,” he said, “Not after the day I had today.” (Referring, no doubt, to his fall at the water jump in the Nation’s Cup less than an hour earlier.)

Thankfully, the rider sitting next to him, his brother Daniel Coyle, saved the day. “I’ll talk to you,” he said. Thanks Daniel Coyle, the kindest man in show jumping. Interview below:

You ride for Ireland.

I ride for Ireland, yes. We had a bad day today.

Yes, it was an uncharacteristically rough day for the Irish. What do you think happened out there?

I think, actually, from the word go today, the first horse in the ring – the American’s – sort of shocked everybody, it was eliminated, and didn’t seem as easy a track as maybe we all thought. So, then as the class went on, it started to prove that actually this is not so simple. And, we had younger horses, and new horses on Nations Cups.  For me, a new horse for Nations Cup, for him (gesturing to his brother Jordan) a new horse for Nations Cup, a new horse for Nations Cup for Darrah (Kerins), and a new horse for Nations Cup for Connor (Swail). So, we are trying our best but we just couldn’t and even when we were clear today twice, still had the last fence down – I just couldn’t get it done.

Couldn’t get that Irish luck. How many times have you been coming to Calgary?

5? I think 5 years. I love the show. It’s very, very difficult. And that’s why we all like coming. This horse is a relatively new horse for me, so I’m getting to know him in that arena. But I look forward to tomorrow, I think it will be good tomorrow.

Good luck tomorrow. Two more questions, if you don’t mind. Can you tell me about the first horse or pony that you remember riding?

Well me, and Jordan, kinda grew up, our father jumped horses, so we sort of grew up on them. I probably don’t even really remember the first one. We had lots of ponies.

Lucky you.

Yeah, We were really lucky in that way, we grew up with them, and they’re like second nature to us, we know when they’re feeling good and feeling bad and you have a bad day, it doesn’t mean that tomorrow won’t be a good day.

That’s a great way to look at it. If you could ride any horse here, which one would you want to ride?

For me, I would want to ride Legacy. I just jumped the European’s last week on, she couldn’t be here, but the good news is I’m going to get to ride her soon again. Do you ride?

I do – I have a dream to ride at Spruce Meadows one day.

You will.

******

Recorder off. He shook my hand. It was weird to shake hands with someone, amidst this long pandemic. We chatted for a few more minutes. At one point, I inquired how he got into show jumping? In lilting Irish he said, beautifully, “we were never really much good at anything else.”