GOING OUT: Marie-Claire Digby goes to an equestrian show whose star attraction is an Irish comedy double act - one man and his horse.
The adrenalin-packed equestrian show, Spirit of the Horse, returns to Ireland next Friday for a countrywide tour, and the undisputed star of the new production - The Legend Continues - is a Donegal man who was in the audience when the attraction first came to Ireland two years ago.
Texas Ollie and his Connemara/Thoroughbred cross, Silver, were already drawing crowds at small fairs and festivals around Ireland when the £1-million show arrived in Dublin at the end of its first tour in 2002.
"Nikki Fossett, one of the directors of the show, was shown a newspaper clip of Ollie and Silver performing, and through the newspaper we tracked him down and asked to see a video of the act," explains Tony Wilkie-Millar, publicity manager and writer of the two-hour spectacle. "He joined the production there and then, and his first gig was in Dubai when the entire show was flown 4,000 miles to the United Arab Emirates."
Texas Ollie's hilarious comedy double act with Silver, a seven-year-old grey gelding he discovered at an auction in Dungannon Mart, is slick and polished, with no hint of the rocky start to their relationship. "I knew when I first saw him he would be hard to handle," the former Texas Dude Ranch cowboy says. But even Ollie, with a lifetime's experience with difficult horses, was unprepared for Silver's reluctance to accept a saddle and rider.
On the point of giving up, having been bucked off and dragged down the street by the runaway, Ollie gave it one last try, and again Silver had the last word. "He tried to climb over the wall of the garden where I was trying to finish breaking him. My hat fell off and, exhausted, I walked away. 'Silver, that's it, I'm finished with you,' I said. We were eyeballing each other and then Silver turned around picked my hat up off the ground. That's it, I thought, he doesn't want to be a riding horse; he wants to be a trick horse."
Silver's repertoire of tricks is now far-ranging, thanks to a secret training method that Ollie is reluctant to divulge. The talking, singing, nut-catching, whiskey-drinking horse now revels in the limelight, and cast members says that if Ollie misses a cue, or doesn't follow the routine to the letter, he'll get a gentle reminder from his co-star.
The Irishman and his horse are just part of an action-packed show which also includes dare-devil Russian Cossacks, elegant Spanish dancing horses, a Lord of the Rings-inspired display by four Friesian stallions, and the graceful pure-bred Arabians, which perform at liberty. It's a fast-moving show, sort of a Riverdance of the horse world, and the standard of horsemanship is truly impressive. There's something for everyone, from the elegance of the equestrian ballet to the gravity-defying antics of the Ali-Bek cossacks.
In all, there are 40 horses in the production - 30 involved in each performance - and they are stabled in a purpose-built tented block.
Spirit of the Horse is one of a diverse selection of shows - from the Chinese State Circus to the Lady Boys of Bangkok - produced and directed by impresarios Phillip and Carol Gandey. The husband and wife team run World Class Productions, billed as "a powerhouse of creative ideas for entertainment" from their Cheshire base. They have staged shows in the Middle East and Asia in the most taxing of conditions - a major ice show in the Saudi desert being among the most challenging - but the demands of putting together "the horse show" as they call it, surpassed all others.
Two years of planning preceded the launch of the original Spirit of the Horse show. The new production is a bigger, better, more diverse show with slick choreography and sophisticated lighting effects, backed up by an original musical score. If you saw the first production, be prepared for a surprise, and it you didn't, book now for one of the eight countrywide venues. After the performance, the audience can visit the stable block and meet the stars, and the biggest draw - you guessed it - is Texas Ollie and Silver. Go say hello.
Spirit of the Horse is at Corkagh Park, on the N7, near Newlands Cross, Dublin (Oct 15th-31st); Wexford Racecourse (Nov 4th-7th); Cork showgrounds, Ballintemple (Nov 12th-21st); Limerick Racecourse (Nov 25th-28th); South Park, Galway (Dec 2nd-5th); Enniskillen car park (Dec 10th-12th); Templemore Leisure Centre, Derry (Dec 16th-19th) and The King's Hall, Belfast (Dec 26th-Jan 2nd). Tickets, priced from €20-€48, can be booked with Dial-A-Seat on 1800-943580