Friday 8 April 2011

Iris Kellett

Iris Kellett, who died on March 11 aged 85, won many prizes for showjumping and trained some of Ireland’s best-known horses and equestrians. 

Iris Kellett
Iris Kellett on Rusty in 1949

In the then male-dominated world of showjumping, she won the Grand Prix at the Dublin Horse Show and the Princess Elizabeth Cup at White City in 1949 on Rusty, when she was just 22. She again took the Princess Elizabeth Cup in 1951, and in 1969, in Dublin, she won the Championship of Europe.
Iris Kellett was born on January 8 1926, the only child of a veterinary surgeon who had left the British Army to help run the family business, a well-known draper’s in Dublin. He also acquired the British Army cavalry stables in the city and ran it as a riding school — the future Taoiseach Charlie Haughey learnt to ride there. Iris Kellett once said: “I was lucky to have been an only child. I had enough business sense, even at an early age, to realise that, had I had brothers and sisters, I would have had to share a single family pony. As it was, I was the proud possessor of three ponies.”
Her riding ability was soon apparent, and she was teaching aspiring riders while she was still at school at nearby St Margaret’s Hall. Her mother died when Iris was a teenager and her father’s health declined; so she virtually took over the riding school, turning down a chance to go to Trinity College, Dublin, to take science degree. Meanwhile she was already a successful showjumper, and a member of the first Irish civilian team to compete in a Nations Cup event.
In 1952 she had a bad fall, smashing an ankle. She also contracted tetanus, and it was thought that she would not pull through; within 18 months, however, she was back in the jumping ring. A small woman who did not look especially athletic, Iris Kellett had great energy and demanded high standards. Although herself a Protestant, she would insist on her young pupils attending Mass on Sundays.
She trained many of Ireland’s most famous showjumpers, among them Paul Darragh and Eddie Macken. When Macken was a teenager, she paid for his board and lodging in Dublin so he could attend the riding school. He originally rode Pelé, a horse which she had trained, and later on went on to triumph on Boomerang, which she had also schooled.
In 1972 Iris Kellett sold the riding school and moved to new premises at Kill, outside Dublin, where she built what was then said to be the finest equestrian centre in Europe. Pupils were sent there by the governments of Oman, Iran and Kuwait. The Kuwaiti team had never won anything, but having been with Iris Kellett they won gold, silver and bronze at the Asian games with the youngest competitors, two of whom were women. She also trained many private pupils from all over the world. Later she sold the equestrian centre and moved her horses to Daffodil Lodge at Naas.
Iris Kellett was a reticent woman, and unassuming about her achievements. She once remarked: “I often wonder why I was so much better than my contemporaries — maybe it was a bad period.” Always generous with her time and her skills, she taught many people — such as those from the Trinity College Equestrian Club — without charge, and she took a great interest in Riding for the Disabled.
She was a member of the Irish Horse Board and an adviser on the development of Equestrian Science as a degree subject at the University of Limerick.
Her first husband was Ben Brennan, who owned the Eblana bookshop in Grafton Street, Dublin. After his death she married the show jumper and trainer John Hall.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/8435996/Iris-Kellett.html

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