In Claremorris, Ireland, a town in County Mayo with a population of just under 4,000, the Hanley name is synonymous with horses.
The Hanleys run the Claremorris Equestrian Center, which they established themselves more than 35 years ago. Cormac Hanley, the patriarch of the family, sold his pub in Claremorris to open a riding school in 1980, which his son Charles now operates. Charles, one of four children, all of whom rode and competed growing up, breeds and produces his own horses, teaches riding lessons and even holds a show on his property, which boasts an indoor ring and several other outdoor sand arenas.
“It’s a pretty nice place,” Charles’ 18-year-old son Cormac, named after his grandfather, will tell you. But the third-generation Hanley is far from Claremorris now. He’s based in Wellington, Fla., and will represent Team Ireland in the Hollow Creek Farm Young Rider Nations Cup on Saturday.
In a family that owns five European Championship medals for junior/young rider showjumping—including two gold medals—the up-and-coming Cormac stands out, and that is saying something. The teen won a gold medal as a part of the winning Irish team at the 2011 European Championships in the children’s final and bronze in that event in 2010. At age 7, he was the youngest rider ever to jump in the Dublin Horse Show at the Royal Dublin Society (Ireland).
In any other family, Cormac might be seen as a prodigy, but riding—and doing it well—is an assumed way of life if you’re a Hanley.
“I grew up around horses,” Cormac said. “I’ve been around them all my life. I probably started riding when I was 4 or 5, and I began competing when I was 6. It’s all one big family, all involved with horses.”
A Familiar Path
Perhaps the biggest name in the family is Cormac’s uncle Cameron Hanley, an international show jumper and veteran of the 2006 and 2014 World Equestrian Games. Hanley is based in Furstenau (Germany). Another uncle, Carl Hanley, is also based in Germany, where he runs his own business producing and selling horses.
“We were very close when I was very young,” Cormac recalled. “We used to go to all the shows together. Then in the summers, when I was 12 or 13, I used to go over and visit Cameron and get some training from him when I was off school.”
Cormac has followed in Cameron’s footsteps in many ways. Similarly to his uncle, Cormac traveled to Switzerland in 2015 to further his riding. He trained under Irish rider Niall Talbot for one year after graduating high school.
“He gave me a lot of good opportunities. I got to jump some [FEI] ranking classes with him, and that was kind of the start of my international career,” Cormac said.
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It was through Talbot that Cormac earned his first ticket to the United States. In 2014, Cormac was named the National Young Rider Champion at the Young Rider National Championships in Ennis (Ireland) with Talbot’s Oldenburg mare, Queen Carola. That victory earned Cormac an international training bursary to train with American-based Irish rider Kevin Babington.
“I learned a lot from him,” Cormac said of Babington, who provided Cormac with a mount for last year’s Young Rider Nations Cup in Wellington (Fla.); Cormac and Babington’s Navy Blue Tarroy were part of a bronze medal-winning team. As a 17-year-old, Cormac was also eligible to ride in the Junior Nations Cup, and the Irish team took home the silver medal in that event.
“Last year was a great experience,” Cormac said. “It was the first time any underage Irish team had come over [to the United States], and I think we all learned a lot jumping in the big International Ring. It’s totally different from Europe—it’s a lot bigger, and it’s fast. The standard is getting better and better over here all the time.”
A Second Opportunity
Cormac returned to Europe and continued to ride for Talbot; he competed at both the two-star and three-star level in classes up to 1.50-meter. For his success at the international level, he received a second bursary and found himself back stateside, this time under the tutelage of Missy Clark and John Brennan of North Run, who helped support another successful Irish rider, Darragh Kenny, in 2007 after that show jumper received his own bursary at the Dublin Horse Show.
“A number of people connected me with them,” Cormac said. “Kevin Babington was a big help and Niall Talbot knew John very well. They were looking for a young rider at the time that they could work with. It was really just knowing the right people and being at the right place at the right time.
“They’re super trainers,” he added. “Everybody knows them, and they have great success with all of their [riders]. At the moment, they have a lot of horses in work. They help me a lot with my body position and working with the horse, trying to make the horse happy. The No. 1 thing is making sure the horse has everything it needs to jump a clear round. You’re only there to help it and not try to go against it.”
Clark and Brennan paired Cormac with his Nations Cup mount, Twan, last fall. After just two weeks of partnership, Cormac rode the 16-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Lux—Hallenger, Jasper), owned by Clark and Stephex Stables, to a third-placed finish in the $250,000 Junior/Amateur-Owner Jumper Prix at HITS Saugerties (N.Y.), the richest junior class in the world. “That was my first big result over here, and hopefully it’ll go from strength to strength,” Hanley said.
“He’s done it all,” Cormac said of Twan. “Julie Welles rode him before me, and she had great success. She won a lot of national grand prixs and speed classes. He’s a really cool horse. He wants to do his best every time he goes in the ring, and I’m very lucky to have him.”
The immediate goal is to move one step up the podium in the Young Rider Nations Cup with teammates Noelle Barry, Jenny Rankin and Paraic Kenny. On March 3, all four Irish young riders jumped clean rounds in the Young Rider Welcome; Rankin finished third in the class, while Cormac was sixth.
Cormac Hanley and Twan jumped clean in the Young Rider Welcome on March 3 in Wellington.
Photo by Catie Staszak
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A Piece Of Ireland
Cormac has another horse with him in Florida, and that is his own Captain Caruso, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Captain Clover—Chantel S, Caruso). The bay is a Hanley homebred, bred by Cormac’s father Charles at Claremorris.
“He’s like a brother to me, because I’ve known him all my life,” Cormac said. “He’s 10 now; he’s a fully-approved Irish stallion. My [maternal] uncle in Ireland, Gabriel Slattery, produced him as a 4-, 5- and 6-year-old, and when I was old enough, I got to ride him. He’s done all the national classes in Ireland, the national grand prixs, and he’s come up through all the young classes there. Last year when I was in Switzerland I brought him out, and he did one or two ranking classes, and he’s jumped up to the three-star level over there. I brought him over here with me, and hopefully he can go in and win some classes.”
Cormac plans to ride Captain Caruso in the semi-finals of the Artisan Farms Under 25 Grand Prix Series during the ninth week of competition at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
“I’ll probably focus on Under 25 series the rest of the circuit,” Cormac said. “I just want to try to move up in the grades and maybe do some more ranking classes. The plan is to go to Europe for a month in the summer.”
For motivation, Cormac can look no further than within his own family. In 2011, Cameron Hanley suffered a knee injury while playing with Cormac’s cousins and was out of the saddle for almost 1 1/2 years. It took 17 surgeries to repair the knee, but Cameron made a remarkable return to competition. Additionally, Cameron’s top mount Anthello Z was put down after injuring himself at the Liverpool International Horse Show (England) in January, just two months after winning the 1.50-meter class at Stuttgart (Germany). Cameron has continued on and recently won the CSI** Grand Prix at Lier (Belgium) with his own 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, Cas 2.
“For sure, I can learn a lot from him,” Cormac said of his uncle. “This sport is not easy. That’s one thing that I’ve learned. You just have to take the good with the bad, and you’re in it for the love of the sport more than anything else. You learn to deal with it. It hasn’t turned me away from the sport, but it’s made me realize a lot of things. When you get a good horse or when you get a big win, you have to really appreciate it, because they don’t come around that often. I’ve learned a lot from Cameron’s attitude. You have to stay positive.”
The young Hanley says he’s not ready to return to Ireland just yet.
“I really like it over here,” he said. “There are great opportunities. Missy and John are such great trainers, and I want to learn as much as I can from them. I think I’ll be here for a while, hopefully.”
