OUR AMBASSADORS

Georgina and Paul are excited to start their new venture fostering race horses with The British And Irish Thoroughbred Agency.

Paul and Georgina have worked together as Tapner Eventing Team for 20 years. They have produced a massive quantity of horses to excel at every level. Whilst running their successful competition team, they helped and guided many working pupils and trained many riders to reach their full potential. This varied from grassroots riders to top international riders, giving them experience in how to train a diverse range of rider and horse combinations.

Paul Tapner was a Professional International Eventing Rider for over 20 years, with accolades including numerous Australian Eventing Team representations, a winner of Badminton Horse Trials and also many other top international events. Paul was renowned as one of the very best cross country riders in the world. Paul has been involved with the Pony Club both as a member in his youth and as a coach throughout his whole career. Paul is now on the train committee for the Pony Club, a roll which he is very passionate about.

Paul moved from Australia to the UK in 1999. He is well-known in the equestrian community for being hard-working and totally dedicated to his goals. Notwithstanding his competitive achievements, Paul is also a highly sought-after teacher and trainer to riders of all levels throughout the world.

Georgina has managed Team Tapner including the horses, Paul! And the working pupils since Paul has been permanently based in the UK. Georgina also groomed for Paul at all major competitions and won many best turned out prizes for her grooming efforts. 

Along side this Georgina has evented up to 3* level successfully, but has recently concentrated on a pure dressage route, producing her current horse from a 4 year old up to Inter 1 level, winning many amateur championship classes along the way. Georgina also runs along with her sister Hannah Goddard Wickstead Horseplay, a training and competition venue offering showjumping and cross-country on all-weather surfaces. Paul and Georgina have two children – a son Joshua and daughter Madison.

Henry de Bromhead is an Irish horse trainer who specializes in training horses for National Hunt racing. He trained Sizing Europe and is based at stables in Knockeen, County Waterford. 

He commenced racehorse training in 2000, having taken over the family stable from his father, Harry. De Bromhead spent time learning training with Robert and Sally Alner  and Sir Mark Prescott, and worked at Coolmore Stud. 

He won his first Grade One race as a trainer in 2008 when Sizing Europe won the Irish Champion Hurdle and since then has gone on to have success in Ireland and the UK. 

His major successes include three Queen Mother Champion Chase wins,  with Sizing Europe in 2011, Special Tiara in 2017 and Put The Kettle On in 2021. His current stable jockey is Rachael Blackmore. 

A stellar 2016/2017 season confirmed his profile in no uncertain fashion. Henry sent out 75 individual winners, five at Grade One level. Among those Grade One was Special Tiara, who gave Henry his fourth Cheltenham Festival winner when winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase. In 2018 the yard celebrated winning the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham with Balko des Flos and have had continued success.

"We've had a great few years and I'm delighted with where we're at. You are always tweaking things and you always need to improve, but we have a great team of staff here and the support of some brilliant owners, so you'd like to think we can keep competing”. 

Immy Kennedy is 17 and is currently studying Equine Management. Having ridden for as long as she can remember she has competed in many disciplines from Showing and County Level Workers to affiliated Eventing, Show Jumping, and even a season of Pony Racing.

Immy was a familiar face on the junior BS circuit initially with Vicky Clarks super speedy ex 133cm race pony Mr Tangeroo and then with Coral McShanes 142cm coloured pony Gwyndyucha Ko-Ko. She had numerous wins as a junior show jumper, leading the BS Northern league on several occasions, named Cheshire Junior Champion and representing England North numerous times and was part of the (winning) BS Northern team at Stoneleigh. She is the reigning Pony Club Open Showjumping Champion with Ko-Ko, the only pony to have ever won it! 

2020 found her pony years sadly at an end and with new rides biased towards eventing she ‘reluctantly’ found her dressage mojo with BE U18 teams in mind. Although opportunities to compete were minimal due to Covid it did mean that school was closed giving her the opportunity to ride out for local trainer Lisa Williamson, gaining as much experience as possible in all aspects of a race yard, leading up her first winner and reminding her that nothing beats speed when it comes to having fun on a horse! 

It was love at first lot for the racehorses, the athleticism and intelligence of Thoroughbreds mean they are very easy to fall in love with! Immy currently rides out for Lisa when she is not in college and has also fit some working holidays in at Newmarket Pre-training under Alan McCabe. She finds both starting their education and re-training those retiring from the track incredibly rewarding. 

Immy plans to join The British Racing School later in 2021 with the aim of becoming a flat jockey one day.

We are very pleased to welcome Nicola FitzGerald aboard with us as an ambassador! 

Nicola is a true horsewoman with a great passion for racing and has already been an advocate for horses finding a life after racing, as well as being a very successful breeder and producer of Connemaras. 

She has a strong interest in racing, having created a breeding programme, and has successfully purchased some lovely horses who are in training with Willie Mullins. 

Nicola purchased Royal Rendezvous on behalf of her brother Peter FitzGerald who has won many races including the Galway Plate last year. 

We were lucky enough to break and pre-train some of her young horses, one of which was Feigh who was placed in a listed race. 

Nicola has always cared about what happens to ex-racehorses, especially the ones that don't make it in racing. We are very happy for her support and look forward to working with her to help all thoroughbreds find their forever homes!