When Sarah Ennis was growing up in Howth, a few doors down from The Summit Inn and blessed with magnificent views of Dublin Bay, there wasn’t a horse anywhere to be seen or heard.
Until her mother Orla decided she’d love to take one in and raise it in their back garden. After one of her mother’s friends later gave them a loan of a Shetland pony for the summer, Ennis and her four sisters helped convert the garage at the back of the garden into a stable, and the rest could be Irish Olympic history.
“My mum loved all animals, but especially horses,” says Ennis, “And we used to always scream could we be out on the horse.
“Then one of her friends kindly gave us the loan of a Shetland pony every summer. He was cool, he was a brat, he used to drag our legs along walls and pull us off over things, but he was so much fun and it kind of started from there.
“My dad does sailing, he was all into the yacht club, and it was just as well because we had a lot of ponies eventually, there were three stables up the back garden in a row.
“So the ponies had to come in, walk through a patio, up steps, into the stables, and to get out we made a ramp down back to the patio. At one stage we had us five girls, a few ponies, cats, dogs, rabbits, budgies, guinea pigs, an iguana and a parrot.
“My dad used to answer the phone and say, ‘Hello Cats and Dogs Home ...’ and people would hang up. But you know what, I wouldn’t change anything.”
Fast forward a few decades on to the park at the Palace of Versailles, where starting on Saturday, the 49-year-old Ennis will compete with the Irish three-day Eventing team, riding Action Lady M, a 10-year-old mare bred and co-owned by Susanne Macken.
Along with Austin O’Connor (riding on Colorado Blue), and Susie Berry (riding on Wellfields Lincoln), they start with the dressage, then cross-country on Sunday, and conclude with the show jumping on Monday.
Also known as the triathlon of equestrian, the cross-country can be particularly unpredictable, featuring 40 solid fences over a 6km course, and within a time limit. But they’ve come to Paris in good form, finishing fourth at last year’s European Championships.
Ennis also has the Olympic experience form Tokyo three years ago, and finished fifth individually at the 2018 World Championships, also winning silver in the team event.
She’s now based near Batterstown, Co Meath with her husband Nicky Potterton, who is chairman of Eventing Ireland. Critical to their chances in Paris, Ennis is now suitably comfortable on Action Lady M, and it sounds mutual too.
“I was doing a final prep run in England, and it went really well, I’m delighted with the mare, she’s a cool, feisty woman. I love her dearly. And yeah, there’s a pair of us in it, definitely. We’re well matched.
“She came to me as a five-year-old from Suzanne Macken, Eddie Macken’s ex-wife, and was actually bred to be a showjumper, not an eventer. So she went to the showjumpers first and they said she wasn’t good enough. So I take on the horses from Suzanne that she thinks will become an eventer.
“But I do like figuring out horses, just to get her on my side and to get her to trust me. It took a bit to get, but once she did that, like I would take her with me as my fighting friend every day.”
Given the backdrop of Versailles, the event will also be one of the more spectacular to watch, and Ennis has grown to love and appreciative her sport with each passing year.
“I started off doing dressage on its own. I was never particularly in love with showjumping, but I loved cross-country, and I just think it’s a great sport because of the three elements to it, so it’s not over until the fat lady sings.
“You mightn’t do brilliant in the dressage, but you still have showjumping and cross-country to go, and all the scores have to be combined. So it makes for exciting watching, there’s no guarantees. You could have the best cross-country horse in the world, and they make a mistake.
“It’s not hard to understand, once you understand it’s just the three phases, it is so much fun. Yeah, it has its risks, they’re doing a huge amount to try to alleviate that, but I find it so exciting, I love it.
“I didn’t have an arena until I was 33, when I met my husband and we built one, so I grew up riding on the beach, riding in the field, riding on mountains and moors, but I realise now how privileged I was.
“I think it has helped me because I had to learn everything. We don’t even have a horsey relative, it isn’t in our family. It has made me work a bit harder and try to understand things and I enjoy that, love the veterinary side and the management side, I enjoy all of that.
“When I was younger there was a lot more showjumping and dressage on TV, it was funny, and I used to sit for hours watching Jennie Loriston-Clarke do dressage and Eddie Macken showjump, so yeah, the Olympics are what dreams are made of.”
She also enjoys escaping from the horses, a qualified deep-sea dive master, and still fond of the water in other ways. That part of her childhood in Howth never left her either.
“Diving is the most relaxing thing I have ever done. Go in after a stressful day, and I come out and feel absolutely elated because you are regulating your breathing for like an hour. It is like meditation or breathing exercises.
“I did my first one [dive] on the Barrier Reef in Australia, you couldn’t not take it up after that. There’s also really good diving off Galway, and off Cork. The water is so clear, it’s beautiful.
“When I was a kid growing up, I was also very lucky to sail. My dad has a 17-footer and they raced that. Then he moved on to different boats and every summer I did a sailing course. Back when I was younger sailing was very seasonal. You just did it in summer. Then sailing and horse riding started to clash.”
In Paris, all those who have qualified as a team (of three) are also eligible for individual medals, and Ennis has no reason not to aim for the podium.
“As somebody explained to me, if we all did our average best, then our team medal. You don’t have to rock out some unbelievable personal best. If we all have our best average day, together, we are going to take a medal. It definitely makes it more real.
“You do dream about it. But it is do-able. You just have to control the controllables, but there are so many things you cannot control and you just have to keep a level head. Hopefully, she [Action Lady M] won’t be overawed by the crowd or the stadium.
“She went to Aachen last year as a nine-year-old, was really good because you do your dressage in a 15,000-seater stadium. She went in, had a look around and then went, ‘let’s go’.
“Hopefully she will have her dancing shoes on.”
The Palace of Versailles awaits.
