Unbridled success

When it comes to equine achievements, there are few to rival Tom MacGuinness, who shows no sign of slowing to a gentle canter any time soon, as Darlene Ricker discovers

Whether you’re watching a jumper class at the Dublin Horse Show, the Endurance World Championships in Slovakia or a polo match in Argentina, odds are you’ve seen, or will see, Tom MacGuinness in the irons. For decades, the multidisciplined 65-year-old rider has successfully competed at international levels in the most challenging equestrian sports, all the while revolutionising the equine-equipment industry. The founder and chief executive of Horseware is also an accomplished eventer, fox hunter and sport-horse breeder.

MacGuinness has spent his life mastering one new skill after another, and he’s not about to stop now. ‘I like to do a lot of things, not just one,’ he says. His curiosity has driven both his riding career and the success of his company, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015.

Horseware has long been known for the flagship product with which it launched, that is, the Rambo Original turnout, which raised the bar for blankets and turnouts. MacGuinness was driven to invent the rug in the 1980s, when he was running his family’s riding school and found himself and his staff spending too much time adjusting and refastening blankets.

‘Horse blankets were terrible back then,’ he recalls. ‘They fell off, they weren’t warm or comfortable for the horse, and they looked awful. Turnouts were no better. If they weren’t waterproof, the horse got wet and cold from the rain or snow. If they were waterproof, they weren’t breathable, so the horse got wet from sweating. It was very unhygienic.’

MacGuinness took it upon himself to design a blanket that would stay on and keep the horse warm and dry. He redesigned the back seam, made the neck smaller, added darts, and invented a secure front-closure system. Then he learnt about hydrophilics – a technology that absorbs water molecules and evaporates moisture. He made a prototype and found the heat inside the blanket dried out the vapours. Next, he combined a polymer coating with a ballistic nylon fabric called high-tenacity nylon 6,6, which is used to make bulletproof vests. That resulted in the Rambo Original turnout, which took the market by storm and developed into other popular blanket and fly-sheets lines, such as Rhino and Amigo. To this day, MacGuinness still buys the fabric for his Rambo turnouts in Scotland. ‘I ended up with a blanket that didn’t move or tear and was completely waterproof, yet still breathable,’ he says. It was this wonder product that inspired Horseware’s slogan: ‘Making life easier for the horse and rider’.

He considers that mission central to the company’s success. ‘If everyone is dancing to that same tune, it’s amazing how far you will go. You might go at different speeds and with different functions, but you’re all going in the same direction,’ he said. ‘I have a very spiritual view of business and how it works: always think about the customer and treat him or her properly. If you’re doing unto others as you’d have them do unto you, and you keep that as the essential motivational driving force within your organisation, you will succeed.’

His philosophy has its roots in the years he served post-university as a Christian missionary in Bolivia, Uruguay and other South American

Opposite The Rambo Original turnout This page Tom MacGuinness on the polo field

countries. He spent several years in Argentina in the 1970s, during the era of the military coup. Although he knew no Spanish when he arrived, he quickly picked up the language – and accent – because, as he explains, ‘If you didn’t speak Spanish, you didn’t eat.’

MacGuinness didn’t ride during those years, but got back in the irons when he was about 30 and took over a riding school in his native Ireland. He continued to improve his blankets and began offering them in three weights: light, medium and heavy. He designed additional models with unique elements, such as the patented V-front closure, high neck, detachable hood and leg arches. His most recent design is the Sportz-Vibe – a lightweight portable massage-therapy blanket for horses and dogs inspired by Horseware’s popular Ice-Vibe circulation-therapy wrap. In the past six months, orders have increased by 40 per cent for Ice-Vibe products, which use ice and vibration for preventative and therapeutic applications and are simple to use.

Over the years, Horseware expanded into innovative tack. It makes the Rambo Micklem bridle, which developed from the Micklem Multibridle invented by MacGuinness’s friend William Micklem. In 2016, it was ranked the top-selling bridle in the world. Micklem credits its widespread success to MacGuinness and Horseware, which was the only manufacturer to recognise its potential. Unlike its competitors, Horseware has manufacturing facilities itself and thus is able to control the quality of all its products from start to finish.

An avid polo player, MacGuinness also owns another company, Triple Crown Custom, which makes polo products, including coolers for award ceremonies, as well as shirts and knee pads. Next year, he plans to introduce a ventilated helmet with features at the very top of the industry’s safety standards (BAS/105).

In the 1990s, having been involved with the Pony Club, MacGuinness took up three-day eventing, specifically the ultra-challenging long format, which includes steeplechase as well as roads and tracks. He purchased, bred and trained champions that successfully competed up to 3-star level and, in 2014, was named Ireland’s leading event-horse breeder.

In 1998, with three horses – a 1-, 2- and 3-star mount – at international levels, he had to take several years off after a cross-country accident. In the interim, they went on to make their mark. Horseware Fabio, an extremely talented but ‘green’ horse he had purchased as a five-year-old and competed himself for nearly three years, was placed 17th individually under Austin O’Connor in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and Irish team rider Sam Watson competed Horseware Bushman in both the

This page The Rambo ionic fleece Opposite The Amigo padded head collar

FOUNDED: 1985 ANNUAL SALES: $50M HEADQUARTERS: DUNDALK, IRELAND US OFFICE: KINSTON, NORTH CAROLINA NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 700 WORLDWIDE

2010 World Equestrian Games and European Championships. Some of MacGuinness’s other top sport horses include Horseware Lukeswell and Horseware Stellor Rebound, which both represented Ireland in the Nations Cup Championships in April.

Although he likes to win, MacGuinness maintains a balanced perspective about riding: ‘I’m a world champion at what I do. I don’t need to be world champion at everything else. I’m competitive but not compulsive.’

MacGuinness came to polo the way many do. Several of his fellow eventers and foxhunters had tried polo and quickly became hooked. ‘They’d always be encouraging me to try polo, saying, “Come on, you’ll love it! You know you will,”’ he says. ‘The idea of hitting a ball from a horse just didn’t make sense to me at first, but as soon as I did it, I thought, “Well, what do you know? This is fun!”’

He started playing polo in 2009 and was immediately captivated by the complexity of the sport. ‘There was so much to learn – the horses, the rules, the team, the strategy – and such interesting people to meet. I liked everything about it from the start.’ The first tournament he had watched was the Argentine Open, in 2008. ‘To watch Cambiaso flying up the field with the ball as if he were holding a tennis racquet was simply amazing to me. I thought, “Wow, to do something like that on a horse at that kind of speed!”’

For the first year or two, he struggled with the speed. ‘There’s no other sport in which you go that fast, not even the Irish Derby. In polo, you’re going flat-out. It may be for only 100m, but it’s as fast as a horse can go. She’s on a loose rein while you’re swinging a stick and guys are bumping into you. C’mon – it’s crazy!’

He took up polo in earnest in 2010, renting ponies for the first two years. Then he started buying his own string and putting together a Horseware team. In the 2015 Florida season, he co-sponsored a 20-goal team at IPC Palm Beach with Tackeria and 5 Star Builders, and it won the Ylvisaker Cup subsidiary.

Back at home in Ireland, MacGuinness plays with his son and son-in-law in a 0–6 goal league. He owns a team – which is naturally called Horseware – and is also a member of the Wicklow and Dublin’s All Ireland Polo Clubs. In July, his team took 19 horses and two trucks to France to play in 4- and 6-goal tournaments in Chantilly, which he describes with obvious enjoyment as ‘so much fun!’.

MacGuinness’s most recent challenge was yet another thrill: endurance racing. He competed in the world championships at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy just two years after he took up the sport and, at the time of going to press, was about to take part in the Endurance World Championships in Slovakia.

‘I’d seen Endurance in Dubai and was amazed at the scale of it: 700 horses in a single stable!’ he exclaims. He bought two 3-star horses in 2012 with the dream of competing in Normandy and made it, but due to torrential rains, the course turned into a nightmare for the riders. It was only MacGuinness’s sixth race, but he surprised even himself by coming in second at the end of the first loop. However, as happened to a large number of competitors, his horse slipped and they were unable to finish the race. ‘We began at 6.30am, when it was just getting light, but when we got into the forest, it was pitch black,’ he recalls. ‘There were people perched in trees taking photographs with a flash and a helicopter was whirring above, with a big light shining down, like a scene from Apocalypse Now. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done.’ Praise indeed from a man whose life has been one hell of a ride.