Lexington, Ky.—Sept. 1

At 81, Roisin O’Rahilly has had a lot of life experiences, but there were two things she’d never done before this weekend: Compete at the USEA American Eventing Championships or at the Kentucky Horse Park. This weekend she accomplished both and won the beginner novice master amateur division on her dressage score of 26.6 with Happy Times. Melanie Helms was second on Edelweiss Du Theil (29.7) and Susan Hamblen was third with James Baxter (30.8).

“I am feeling so relieved and so glad that I finished show jumping, because it’s my worst phase,” O’Rahilly said with a laugh. “But anyway, it was just a wonderful weekend, and I’m so thrilled I was able to be here.”

O’Rahilly grew up in Ireland and started riding when she was 3. Like many Irish riders, she spent years foxhunting, and she got into eventing because cross-country was the closest thing to Irish hunting. She moved back and forth between Ireland and the United States throughout her adulthood, owning a few farms and running the Little River Farm Horse Trials (North Carolina) for many years. In 2022 O’Rahilly earned her USEA Century Ride Award—open to horses and riders whose combined age is 100 or more—aboard Rachel Jurgens’ former five-star horse Ziggy.

O’Rahilly, who now lives in Southern Pines, North Carolina, purchased “Paddy,” a 12-year-old Irish Draught of unrecorded breeding, four years ago. Before she bought him, the gelding had hunted extensively in Ireland and England, and Kelli Temple competed him twice at novice.

“I had brought another horse in from Ireland, and he actually didn’t work out,” O’Rahilly said. “And so I decided I would just try to buy an Irish horse here, and he was advertised up in The Plains, [Virginia], and I went up, sat on him and fell in love with him.”

They started their weekend in the beginner novice masters division, open to amateur riders age 40 and up, with the lead in dressage. They never relinquished it, thanks to double-clear performances cross-country and in show jumping.

“It is my life,” she said of riding. “And my daughter is hounding me to stop riding, and so is my doctor, and I said, ‘No.’ I said maybe the AEC will be my last one. But I really don’t want to. I just live for riding.”

Click here for scores from the division.