Tributes have been paid to a home-bred event horse who went to the top, and finished his days in happy retirement in the place he was born.
Step In Time, who jumped double clear at Burghley Horse Trials and was 20th at Badminton with Mark Kyle, and represented Ireland at the 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG), has died aged 26 at the home of his breeder, Mark’s father Johnny.
“We had a lot of fun with him,” Mark told H&H. “There was nothing too big for him, nothing he couldn’t jump.”
Mark said his father turned to breeding after he stopped riding; he liked the traditional Irish type. Mark’s five-star and 1998 WEG ride Irish Patriot was by Step Together, so Johnny put his mare Festival Time to the same stallion, and the result was Step In Time.
Mark said the horse, who was known as Johnny at home, had “plenty about him” from the start.
“He was wild!” he said. “It took probably two years to get him backed. I was over once and went to where he was, and they loose schooled him; he just jumped loop-the-loops, They’d get on him for a few days and he’d be cheeky again. So I said I’d bring him back to England, and if I couldn’t back him, he’d have to go back and stay on the farm or something.
“He was tough; and the last couple of seasons when he retired from eventing, whatever age he was, you wouldn’t just get straight on him. You’d lie across him and walk or trot down the road before you got on, and even then, he’d have a go!”
Mark said Johnny was hardy and tough, never sick or injured, and once he knew the job, he was unstoppable.
“It took a while to come, corners and arrowheads took time and lots of just schooling at home but there was nothing he couldn’t jump,” he said. “He was very fast, quite strong for a little horse, quite sharp and looky but nothing was too big for him.”
Mark said those five-star completions and the championship were the highlights, but they also enjoyed taking part in the Hickstead Eventers’ Challenge more than once, and had wins and top placings up to three-star (now four-star) level.
And he added that it made his father very proud to see a horse he had bred and his son go to the top together.
“It’s every breeder’s dream, isn’t it?” he said.
Step In Time’s last international event was in 2013, after which he retired, fit and well.
“We thought he’d done enough,” Mark said. “I hunted him a couple of seasons; mastered the Quorn with him for a season and he enjoyed that. Then he went back to Ireland to finish his days on the farm where he was born. It was a lot of fun and he retired fit and well, and you can’t ask for much more.”
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