Equestrian Inspirations: Megan Hamill
Strong Pony Club roots gave Megan a firm foundation from which to expand her equestrian expertise...
**A podcast accompanies this article!**
This country has been blessed with a huge amount of equestrian talent, not only in the form of the equines themselves, but also the people who handle and ride them. Horse&Field would like to feature some of these people, across all the disciplines, and give recognition to their achievements. If you know of someone who should be featured, please email: horseandfield@gmail.com
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When I started this series, I thought it would be really interesting to find out more about the many talented people that surround us in the local equestrian world… But I am blown away by the stories people have to share that you just don't have any idea about, when you see someone on a nice horse at a show.
I approached Megan Hamill for a chat, as she competes in showing and working hunter and is currently the chairman of the Northern Ireland Side Saddle Association.
Megan works in her family business, Pro Paramedics, and also has a halotherapy business called Worth Their Salt. I had no idea what that was, so it was fascinating to find out more about it, about Megan's horses and what she hopes to do with them.
Are you from a horsey background? Do or did your parents ride or have horses?
My parents would definitely be the reason that I am into horses, but they weren't really horsey. My mum and dad both rode a wee tiny bit, sort of happy hackers, so it was through them that I got into horses.
My mum got her first horse in her 20s and loved horses, so that's how we then ended up getting ponies and getting into it. But they weren't horsey people, they weren't knowledgeable about horses and riding and looking after them and all of that.
It was a bit of a ‘learn on the job’ type thing whenever we had our ponies as well.
It's still good that they introduced you to the equestrian experience, so that's all positive! So at what age did you start to ride?
Well, my sister is four years older than me and she had a pony already. So really, I started to ride from sort of as soon as I could sit up. I was sitting on ponies and having a walk about on them and that sort of thing. Because she already had a pony there, I would have been allowed to sit on it and things until I got my own pony - so really from as soon as I could sit up on ponies and around them.
And who taught you to ride then?
I'm not really sure we were taught to ride at the start. I suppose it was mostly self-taught with my parents at home.
And then, as soon as we were old enough to join Pony Club, I think I was about four years old… That's when we were really taught to ride and really learned how to ride.
Pony Club was excellent because you got so much tuition from different instructors all the time and instructors who were specialised in those areas and disciplines. So that's whenever I really started to learn to ride properly… it would have been from sort of four years up and in Pony Club.
And did you do lead rein and things then?
We did a few bits of lead rein at the start, because I started riding when I was so young - I was basically too small to be let off, so we did a bit of lead rein at the start, but really I was mad keen to ride, so as soon as I could be let off and doing my own thing, I was very happy to do so!
You've got an independent streak then!
Absolutely, yes.
So, which pony club were you in?
I was in North Down Pony Club. They were some of the best years of my life with ponies and horses. We just had the absolute best time.
Pony Club was so much fun. We travelled all over Ireland and all over the UK, going to the UK Championships in all the different disciplines.
It was excellent, we stayed in tents. There was a really good crowd of North Down ones when I was in it. But not only that, then there would have been an Irish team as well. So we were so closely linked with the Route Pony Club and East Down Pony Club, you know, all of us really joined together and it was just a really brilliant time.
In Pony Club, the tuition that you get with all of the instructors, it is really good.
Well, it's clearly set you up well for everything that you're doing now. So when did you start to compete then and in which disciplines?
I was competing from as soon as I was in North Down, as soon as I was allowed to, I was out competing.
As a child, I really loved jumping the most. My sister hated jumping, so she went pure dressage and only did dressage, but I loved the jumping, especially cross-country.
So my main discipline, while I was in Pony Club was tetrathlon, because I just wanted to do cross-country and then I did eventing as well. And then I also did show jumping and dressage.
But I would say I was more like, you know, ‘we need a fourth team member’, so I would have been the fourth team member in those (teams). But I would have borrowed my sister's dressage horse and been like, ‘yeah, I'll come and do the dressage’ and had good fun with it. But really, I did a bit of everything.
Tetrathlon and eventing were the two main ones that I enjoyed the most.
And what age were you when you got your first pony? And can you tell us a bit about him or her?
I was about three to four years old when I got my own pony. She was called ‘Pixie’. She was a Welsh Section A.
She was called ‘White Hills Jubilee’ as her show name and she was a games pony… So she was not really the most suitable first pony, because she was for games, really!
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And I didn't do games and I never liked games, but I rode a games pony as my first pony! And boy, did she teach me to ride.
‘Pixie’ was a great pony. And in the end, we bought her daughter as well, ‘White Hills Mischief Maker’, who my sister rode.
She was bigger, so we had both of those ponies at the same time. But yeah, I loved Pixie. I had her for a good few years.
And what height was she?
She was 11.2hh.
She really was a pixie!
Yeah, she was a Welsh Section A, 11.2hh and I had her for a good few years. And my sister that had her daughter, Zoe, she was actually about 13.2hh.
We had good fun with them.
Just to stray a little bit from the horsey side of things, what is your educational background and at what stage did you leave school or did you go into further education?
I left school after my A-levels. I actually did four A-levels and then I left school and went on to university.
Horse-wise, I did all of my Pony Club tests and finished with my AH test and then I have my BHS stage three and my PTT for teaching and I'm also a certified halotherapist.
Then academically, I did a law degree at Queen's University, so that kept me busy, but yeah I loved university and had a brilliant time doing that.
Then, after I left university, I did a couple of business courses, so I have a few courses in business management and things like that.
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I had no idea that you were so intelligent, so academic. That's wonderful!
Well, I don't know I would say that, but yeah, I enjoyed school. I liked school and I loved university as well. I lived in Belfast, even though I'm from Donaghadee, I'm not that far from Belfast, but I wanted the whole university experience, whilst also being able to do a bit with the horses.
So I lived up in Belfast and came home at the weekends and rode the horses and things like that. And I had a great time.
Sounds like it. And what do you work at now then?
My main job is working for our family business, Pro Paramedics.
So you didn't follow the law route then?
No, whenever I graduated from law, it was back at the recession. There was not many jobs, so although I looked about trying to get law jobs, I wasn't as interested in being a solicitor. I would rather have been a barrister.
And it was just very tricky to get into either of those career pathways at the time. So I ended up managing Maud's ice cream and coffee shops.
I was a barista and I managed Maud's in Donaghadee and Maud's in Hollywood as well and I loved it.
Nice ice cream too!
It was brilliant and everybody knew that you worked there. So everybody would have come in and you were having coffee and ice cream with your friends all the time, because people would have come in and been like, ‘oh, I was in Donaghadee or I was in Hollywood’ to call in to see you. So it was great!
Oh, lovely, that was a very sociable job!
It was. It was great. I really enjoyed it.
And then, eventually, I ended up, the time was right for me to go into the family business. My dad died at 56 very unexpectedly.
Oh, Megan, I'm sorry to hear that.
Oh, it's okay. Thank you.
So because of that, I sort of went, right, okay, I'll go in and help my mum in the business. And that sort of... gave me a bit of a shove in that direction to go, right, okay, I'll go into the family business and give her a bit of a hand and see what we can do.
So I've been in Proparamedics since 2018.
Very good. Well, I'm sure your mum's delighted that you're, you're with her.
Well, I'm not sure. Sometimes family businesses can be hard enough, but no, we get on well. So it does make it a lot easier that we do get on well together.
And Proparamedics, it's a great environment to work in. There's great people and it's always good fun.
So tell us a wee bit more then about Proparamedics.
Proparamedics is an independent ambulance company. So we do things, such as event medical cover, first aid training, repatriations and then both private patient transfers, as well as working for the NHS and NIAS, so we would be contracted by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service to do their patient transfers to sort of free up their paramedics to do the more emergency 999 calls.
It's a hard industry to work in, but rewarding as well. The part that I work in then would be the training department and I have a fantastic team in the training department.
We look after the internal training of all of our staff, as well as then the external training. So we would provide courses for businesses and organisations and things, such as first aid, safeguarding, fire safety, kids courses, all sorts of different training that we provide them.
Oh excellent… Actually I'm sure your law background comes in quite handy with some of those topics?
Yeah, I have to say, ever since I left university, whether I was working in the coffee shops or working in the family business or even with the horses in the yard, law is really a degree that will always stand you in good stead.
It is very useful. You know, it's a good background to have.
And so to get back to the horses again then, do you have your own horse now? And if so, tell us about him or them and about your plans for each of them.
Yep, I have two of my own horses at the minute.
I bought both of them as unbroken three-year-olds and I've just spent the last couple of years breaking and producing them.
One is a full-brother to a competition horse that I still have, but he's retired now. He was one of my favourite competition horses, so when the opportunity came up to get his full-brother, I bought him! He's called ‘Chill in the Air’ and is by ‘Chill Out’, who's by ‘Abdullah’.
‘Chill Out’ is the same stallion that Oliver Townend's ‘Swallow Springs’ is by, so really he's an eventer-type.
And then the other one I have is called ‘Redwood Quality Street’ and he's by ‘Lagan's OBOS Quality’. He's a middleweight hunter, who I really hope will eventually carry the side saddle for me and he's a bit more of an all-rounder. He'll do showing, side saddle, hopefully a little bit of eventing and things, as well.
Are they both five-year-olds at the moment then?
Yes. I bought the ‘Chill Out’ horse going, right, okay, it's the full-brother. He's the one I want and then, when I saw ‘Redwood Quality Street’, I just couldn't not have him. I just couldn't have not bought him, so I ended up with two.
And at the time, I thought this will be fine, because if anything ever happens or one needs off or anything, I'll always have something to ride. But it's really hard riding two horses in the same classes, in the same age classes.
I was going to say, that's a lot of hard work!
It is, because you’ve then got them both in the four-year-old classes. And, you know, I sort of went, ‘why did I do that?’.
I should have bought them at least a year apart in age… but no, they're both the same age. So that can be fun doing the same classes with them all the time.
That will keep you on your toes, Megan!
It does, it does.
And what disciplines are you currently competing in?
At the moment, I'm currently competing most in showing, working hunter and dressage. It's just to get the young horses out, let them see out and about, gain good experience and set them up to be confident for the future.
Just, you know, seeing banners and seeing all the rest of it, before you're starting to event or do side saddle, where they might still be spooky or green, things like that.
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Good idea. It's good to get them a bit of education, like all-round education before you go down the serious competition route.
Yeah, exactly.
And what are you aiming to do with them in the future? Are you hoping for side saddle or eventing or both - what calls to you?
Yeah, I'm hoping for a bit of both. As you know, I spent a good few years hunting with the Newry Hunt and I absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved hunting.
So, yeah, I would like to get back to sort of hunting, eventing and riding side saddle. Most of those things, I don't usually do with my horses until they get to about six, so that they've got a bit of experience and seen around them.
So those are the things that I'm hoping to do in the future, when they're a little older and hopefully wiser and a bit more experienced that I'll be able to do a bit more of those.
Brilliant. And something that I have often wondered, when I see people out, particularly with show horses in the summertime, what do you do with your horses over the winter months? Do you get them out to compete or are you just working at home or how do you educate them prior to taking them out to summer shows?
I compete most of the year. I've only ever really rode young horses. I've never really actually rode any horses older than six.
So because of that, I very much learned to just take it as it comes, because every young horse is so different. They progress so differently.
They need breaks at different times that you maybe weren't expecting, both physically and mentally. So I would be out and about most of the year.
Usually through the winter, if I have a young horse, I would do something like riding club or just local shows at the weekends and things like that to get them out and about or a bit of schooling.
But I do mostly have something ticking over all winter and then I usually have maybe one off for a month's break, while another one then is doing six weeks of work and then vice versa type thing. So yeah, I would be competing really all year.
Very good. That keeps you motivated, I suppose. And when you've got two, actually, it's quite good, if you're able to give them a break, you can then move on to the next one. So that actually sounds like it works very well!
Well, that was the plan. It doesn't always work that well, depending on who needs to break when.
And, as I said, when you're entering the same classes, you're like, ‘why did I do this?’, but that was the theory behind it.
Keep me posted on how that progresses for you!
Yeah, I will.
You've already mentioned side saddle. How did you get into side saddle in the first place?
Well, I got into side saddle... really just accidentally, I sort of fell into it.
My sister did used to ride side saddle a little with her dressage horse, so I'd always seen her a wee bit side saddle.
And then my dad bred a few horses, which I broke and produced. But breaking and producing them, I realised they could jump, but they were never going to be the most talented jumpers. They weren't going to be eventers.
So that's when I started showing rather than eventing and then I had seen advertised that there was going to be a meeting about trying to get side saddle up and running in Northern Ireland again.
And as I said, I had a young horse who we bred, broke and produced, and he was just so civilized, so laid back and easygoing and was much more suited to showing than jumping.
So I just thought, well, why not maybe try side saddle with him?
So I went to the meeting and we did get it going again and that's how I started riding side saddle.
And how long ago was that?
Oh, that must be 10 or 15 years ago now. There used to be a Northern Irish side saddle association years and years ago, but it had all folded and closed down, so then, when it started again, we tried to get it up and running again, there was all these saddles that the association had, that had just been then left sitting there. So we were able to get the saddles and start hiring them out and letting people, who wanted to maybe be members and have a go, use them.
And in the end, then sell them all to the members, so that they have their own side saddles and get started.
And I started with that home-bred horse and then ended up treasurer and now chairperson!
So, for anyone who's interested in side saddle in Northern Ireland, please get in contact with us. We're always looking for more people to try it out and come and join us.
It's such an elegant discipline. And, when you're at the shows and you see the side saddle classes, they're so lovely to watch. And there are some really talented side saddle riders. I am so impressed whenever I'm watching, whether they are pony riders or horse riders - I have to add that some of the younger people who are on ponies are just incredible!
Yeah, they are and definitely, the younger that you start it, the better. But it is, it's a very elegant part of our sport. And it is, it's really lovely to watch.
We have more and more talented riders coming up and trying it and starting it and doing very, very well. It really has had a good revival.
Oh, that's great. Long may it continue, Megan. Can I ask, what is your favourite show within Northern Ireland or across the island?
Showing-wise, I always enjoy riding at Balmoral, because it's our only Royal show and it's the biggest show in Northern Ireland. So I always think it's nice to compete there and go there, whenever it is the biggest show that we have in our country.
Then eventing-wise, I always loved Necarne, Loughanmore and Tyrella. The traditional eventing courses are just always good fun.
How long were you eventing for then or what level did you get to?
Well, I would have evented with Pony Club first and would have done UK championships and things with it.
So I would have been on a horse and been sort of 17 or 18, I suppose, by the end of Pony Club and had a brilliant time doing it.
Whenever you leave Pony Club, it is so much harder, because you get so much tuition in Pony Club and everything is very much in a routine for you with Pony Club, because you go to rallies every week and lessons with all the different instructors - dressage, show jumping and cross-country - so when you're suddenly an adult and on your own, it definitely was a much harder transition to make than you'd think, because you're suddenly going ‘well, now I'm on my own’…
I evented two horses then for a good few years after Pony Club just in Eventing Ireland.
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Good for you - it must have been hard to keep two on the go!
Yeah, while I was at university and things as well, but yeah, I was able to do it and had a good time and loved it and, as i said, just with changes of horses and things, I was always quite tall, so my Pony Club horse was 16 hands and sort of got to the stage, where I was like ‘right, okay, I'm sort of too big for 16 hands’ as well and then that's whenever I changed and would have been riding then the horses that dad bred. And it just so happened they just weren't eventer types.
That's when I went a bit more into showing them.
So can I please go back and ask you some more about your paramedic business? What sort of events have you covered? And how frequently are your services required?
We cover a huge range of events. We cover all of the events that run at the SSE Arena in Belfast - every event that runs there. And that's the same with the Ulster Hall, the Waterfront Hall, IFA, Eikon. So we cover any and every event that's there, whether it's a big music concert or darts or the ice hockey, all sorts of things.
And then we also do things, such as Christmas lights turning on, athletics. Really, you could be at absolutely anything and that's what makes the job fun and exciting. You could be watching anything at all, so it's always good fun.
Wow, that sounds incredible - unless, of course, something happens, that somebody is in distress and needs your assistance, because that might change the slant of it a bit…
I know there's always something happens everywhere, but I suppose it's just part and parcel of the job. All the staff are very much used to that being a big part of it and very, very good at dealing with any situations.
That's brilliant and I suppose for any organiser of an event to know that there's a well-trained team of people ready to step in if there's an emergency, that's bound to help their stress levels no end!
Yeah, it's a necessity in this day and age now, it really is. And especially with horse riding, it's such a dangerous sport.
I was just going to ask, then how often do you cover equestrian events?
We cover equestrian events all the time, because we cover every single event at Down Royal Racecourse. We're the provider for Down Royal, so we're at every race looking after the jockeys and the members of the public both.
Then, as well as that, we cover all of Balmoral Show and everything at the Eikon, so that would be National Balmoral as well as Balmoral Show, things like that.
And then we cover other events, such as Castlewellan Show, so all sorts of things for the horses. We're always covering different bits and things in the equestrian world.
Very good and do you have other business interests? You talked about halotherapy. Can you explain a bit more about that?
I have a wee sideline halotherapy business. It's called Worth Their Salt. And I treat humans, horses, dogs, and really any land animals.
So halotherapy is a salt treatment, which is salt infused into the air and then inhaled when you breathe, as well as absorbed onto the skin.
It's really excellent for treating any respiratory problems, such as asthma, COPD, coughs, and that's for both humans and horses or other animals.
Then it's great for skin conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis, rain scald, mud fever and then other things like allergies to pollen, hay fever, hives.
A lot of the racing yards in the south would have a halogenerator installed in their yards. And that's mostly for performance enhancement.
So it's good for performance enhancement, stress reduction, sleep promotion.
It's 100% natural, so totally legal for racehorses, eventers, anything. And it's antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory. And it helps to aid recovery.
So it's win-win! There's no contraindications, no side effects, totally natural and beneficial. So really it's win-win for a wide variety of things.
It's something I have never heard of before, I have to admit. When it comes to administering the treatment then, how does that work? Whether it's with the human or with the horse, how do you actually, how do you administer it?
I have a halogenerator machine and the halogenerator grinds the salt into dust-sized particles, which is then infused into the air with a fan system.
The halogenerator is specially built into a horse box that I have, so it's a mobile unit. I drive about the country with the horse box with the halogenerator inside it and fill it up with salt, load the horse on, human, dogs, anything at all, onto the trailer and the trailer's specially designed for it, so it's closed up and you stay in there for 20 to 30 minute treatment.
It's all in the air in the horse box, because it's obviously then in a confined space, so it's good. It's been really interesting for me as well, because I have now people coming to my yard to have halotherapy treatments, as well as driving about now giving halotherapy treatments, so it's been so interesting going around… We have so many talented people in Northern Ireland!
Oh yes, I know! I'm trying to speak to some of them! And where did you learn about this? How did you find out about it in the first place and where did you go to train for it or buy your equipment? There are so many questions I have!
I first found out about it last year. I was having lots of difficulties with my own eczema. It was really flaring up and torturing me all the time.
So I had tried a bit of sea swimming, which was just absolutely horrendous. I do not do cold. This is not the country for sea swimming for me.
Awful. No, that was just horrendous. And I then saw a vet and physio talking about halotherapy. It was her business… halotherapy in England and I saw her talking about it and I thought ‘oh my goodness, what's this?’ I'd never heard of it, so I did a bit more research on it and things and was able to become a certified halotherapist, did a training course for that and became certified and bought the horse box and halo generator all together and started here.
I actually used it last year just for myself and a horse with very bad rain scald. We just stayed in it. And then a friend of mine at the start of the year asked me, she said she had a chest infection and could she use it? And I said, yeah, come on ahead, get in, no problem.
So she used it and said to me, why on earth are you not advertising this? She said, I had a chest infection for two months and the results were fantastic. Why are you not advertising this?
So I bit the bullet and went, ‘well, I'll just advertise it then and see if anybody wants to use it’. And oh my goodness, I have been so busy and I still am really, really busy with it.
It's so popular, because the results have been so good for a huge variety of ailments.
Yeah, and the benefit of it being natural is that the side effects will be minimal, if at all!
There are no side effects at all and it doesn't matter whether you have, it can be a child any age, it could be a pregnant lady or animal, and it doesn't matter.
It can treat such a wide variety of person or animal for such a wide variety of things.
We've had really good results and I have so many really top end, talented show jumpers using it, which is great. And they are always messaging me saying, brilliant results for both skin and performance enhancement for them mostly.
I was just going to ask is it for the riders or for the horses or both?
A bit of both usually… if I'm going to treat somebody's horse, I say to them go and stand in, see for yourself what it's doing and stand in the horse box with your horse and inhale it and see how you feel after as well.
I've went to some yards, where I've treated their horses and then all the yard have had a bit of ‘craic’ and all went in and I've treated them for a session - all the riders after and they booked me week on week then. It can be for either horses or riders or both together.
It's going really, really well and it's really popular and the results are speaking for themselves, which makes the job easy.
That must be very satisfying for you whenever, if people are feeding back to you that everything is working and they're making the progress that they maybe hadn't made previously.
Yeah, I love it, it's great. I love hearing the results from people, either in terms of I've seen the horse's skin maybe for myself and then the next day they've texted me or messaged me and been like ‘the change is unbelievable’ and they send me pictures or maybe I've went on a Friday to treat show jumpers because they're jumping at 1.30m and above on Saturday and then they're all texting me going ‘yeah brilliant results’, so it's great. I love that!
Oh that's super, very good. I'll be reading up on this now to see what else I can find out about it and I'll be back in touch with you about that!
Come and see me any time!
Thank you very much. So what are your ambitions in life then, in horses and beyond? Is there a particular show that you'd like to compete at that you haven't as yet? Or is there anything in the way of horses that you'd particularly like to do?
I think that's quite a difficult question for me, because I'm not great on ambitions and looking ahead. I mostly take things as it comes, because riding the young horses, everything is so unpredictable in how they progress.
But I would like to ride at Dublin Horse Show. That would be an ambition for me, because I've never rode there. And it's a show I always love going to.
Usually any time I've had a horse that I thought, oh, I'm going to take this to Dublin, this is the one, then something's happened. It's been sold or wasn't able to go, so I would love to ride some time at Dublin Horse Show.
Well I'm sure that's quite manageable with the two horses that you have at the moment, so we'll watch this space for that one!
I hope so, I hope so…
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And where do you see yourself in five or in 10 years time?
I think this is quite a difficult question for me… my biggest enjoyment with horses is producing them at a young age, giving them a good experience in life when they're just starting out.
So I find it a little hard to look ahead and I just think life has such a tendency to be so unexpected, so it's made me someone who would very much more live in the present.
That's a fair point. That's understandable.
Yeah, so I just sort of, see what horse I have at the time and how is it going, but really, I just love riding the young horses at the time and giving them a really good start, where with me, I'm very lucky, I have really good rural hacking and the horses get to see tractors and cyclists and go to all the different shows in different disciplines and just get a good a good foundation.
That means such a lot. That's invaluable. And where are you for next with the horses?
So I am actually, next weekend, I'm away on foot to watch Hickstead Derby. Yeah, so looking forward to that. Haven't been to Hickstead before, so going to see that next weekend.
And then the following weekend... I think that's Castlewellan (correct date is Saturday, July 13). So we'll be at Castlewellan Show and just out and about really at any of the shows that are running again. I'm really looking forward to getting out and about every week.
I've had a bit of a holiday and some time off, so we're ready to get going again.
Well, I will hopefully bump into you around some of the shows then, Megan. But thank you very much indeed for having a chat with me this evening. It's been really interesting.
I've learned so many things that I would never have known about without talking to you. So thank you very much indeed for your time.
No problem. It's always a pleasure talking to you. So hopefully I'll see you out and about soon.
Thanks very much, Megan. All the best.
Well, I definitely learned something today. What an interesting concept halotherapy is, particularly with my learnings on natural therapies in recent years!
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Stay tuned for the next Straight from the Horse's Mouth podcast on Horse and Field. Thank you.