Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Exactly eight years ago, I emerged, bleary-eyed and jet lagged from a train station somewhere outside of Birmingham, England. My boss at the time, Patricia Da Silva, and I had inadvertently gotten on the wrong train that morning, and we stood at the curb of the station, awaiting saving. Minutes later, photographer extraordinaire Nico Morgan swooped into the parking lot in his rugged SUV. We’d called him in a mild panic, and he’d modified his route to rescue us and whisk us off to our final destination: Gadlas Farm, the home base of Oliver Townend.
The shoot had come up a bit last-minute. Oliver was to be the cover story for a spring issue of Heels Down Mag, featuring a beautiful interview piece penned by Caroline Culbertson. We were already going to be in town for the British Equestrian Trade Association show in Birmingham, so we booked Nico and made plans to shoot Oliver at his home.
It was slow season at Gadlas. Leftover melting snow from the most recent storm decorated the brick house and barns, horses quietly tucked into their stalls. Oliver emerged from his house, which is situated directly across from the main barn, and immediately, a gray head poked out from the stall most opposite the house. Oliver went to the stall door, stroked the nose, patted the neck, before greeting us.
Ballaghmor Class (11 at the time) was still, somewhat, unknown — if you can call a horse that had just won his CCI5* debut (at Burghley, lol) an “unknown”. Perhaps, the better wording is that it was, then, unknown what “Thomas” would go on to be. A four-time CCI5* champion. An Olympic team gold medalist. A stalwart horse who would go on to complete over 40 international events and finish in at least the top five of nearly every 5* he started.
But Oliver knew.
Oliver posed with Ballaghmor Class during a Heels Down Mag shoot in 2018.
Thomas had already earned the best stall in the barn: the one where Oliver could see him from his bedroom window. At the dining room table, surrounded by empty champagne magnums from podiums past and trophies and datebooks, while making his plans for the season, he could look over his shoulder and see the horse that would become his greatest competitive success to date.
I had a conversation not long ago with a colleague, who mentioned the fact that we’re in this incredible era of horses who won’t be imitated in any near future. La Biosthetique Sam. fischerRocana FST. London 52. Lordships Graffalo. fischerChipmunk FRH. Ballaghmor Class.
What these horses achieve comes down to many things, including their rider, health and management, yes, but I don’t think it can be understated just how special some of these ultra-successful horses are. I believe that, deep down, the most experienced riders can tell if they’re sitting on something incredible. I’m not sure they can put that gut feeling quite into words, but I think they know.
Oliver continued to tell us in the mixed zones and in press conferences that Thomas was the greatest horse he’d sat on. Frankly, he’d usually leave it at that. For him, it sufficed to say just that. The performances and accolades Thomas earned spoke for themselves.
Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class take the scenic route. Photo by Peter Nixon.
It wasn’t easy. Thomas was sensitive and sharp. He wasn’t a simple horse to ride. He developed strong attachments to other horses and needed management around the resulting separation anxiety. He was purchased at a Tattersalls sale in 2010 as an unbroken three-year-old to Katherine Charlton, who nicknamed the horse Thomas after her son. Karyn Shuter, Oliver’s longtime supporter and now USEF Eventing High Performance Advisor, was the first to purchase the horse for Oliver to ride, eventually also selling shares to additional longtime Townend supporters Angela Hislop and Val Ryan. And it took time for the “gelling” to happen, but the supporters hung in, believing in what could be.
[You can read much more on Ballaghmor Class’ backstory in this piece by Horse & Hound‘s Catherine Austen — This article is behind a paywall]
Often when it isn’t easy, it’s that much more rewarding. Thomas has shown us this over the intervening near-decade. Now, he’ll be a horse used in campfire conversations as a standard for a true, through and through 5* horse.
Eight years later, that moment at Gadlas is still the one that sticks: the gray head over the door, the stall placed like a compass point, the sense that even on a quiet winter morning —- even for the one jet-lagged American, one jet-lagged Canadian, and one perky Englishman — the whole barn was orbiting something rare.
We spend a lot of time in this sport trying to define greatness with numbers. Wins, medals, completions, margins. But the real ones leave something behind that doesn’t fit neatly on a results page. They change what “normal” looks like. They make the hard questions feel briefly answerable. They set the bar somewhere uncomfortable, and then they just… keep it there.
We talk about eras like they’re made of headlines, but they’re really made of horses. The ones who hold the sport together while it changes around them. The ones whose names become shorthand for courage and scope and longevity and bravery.
Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class in what would be their final 5* victory lap, at the MARS Maryland 5 Star in 2024. Photo by Roya Brinkman for Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Ballaghmor Class belongs in that sentence with the others. Not because he had the right rider or the right luck or the right timing (though he had all of that, too). Because he had the kind of competitive soul you can’t teach, can’t buy, can’t plan.
Because horses like Ballaghmor Class don’t show up on schedule. They arrive, they rewrite the conversation, and then they leave us with the quiet understanding that we were lucky to be here when they did.
Now, for the deeply-buried lede: Ballaghmor Class will be formally retired in a ceremony at this year’s Defender Burghley, the site of his first CCI5* win and the happy hunting ground that saw him win twice and finish second or third on two other occasions. Oliver’s not quite ruled out a “tour” to stay active and let Thomas get out and about this year, but we won’t see him competing at the top levels.
“As the scene of two of his four CCI5* victories, Burghley is a very special place for Thomas, for me and for his owners, Karyn Shuter, Angela Hislop and Val Ryan,” Oliver said in a press release announcing the retirement ceremony. “It will be lovely to be able to bring him back to Burghley this autumn for a retirement ceremony and so that all his fans can enjoy seeing him once again. I think he will love the whole thing and will think he has won another Burghley!”
Defender Burghley takes place September 3-6, with the retirement ceremony scheduled for Sunday, the 6th. Tickets for the weekend can be found here, and stay tuned as we’ll be announcing a big contest soon to win a trip to Burghley yourself!
