HATHERLEIGH-based Padraig McCarthy is to climb into the saddle for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as part of Team Ireland.

Padraig’s astonishing ascent to the top of event riding has seen him go from his first event five years ago, an elimination at Bricky Horse Trials, to the pinnacle of the sport with an appearance at the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Fate has played a huge part in his story of being a showjumper to Olympic event rider. Padraig’s wife Lucy Wiegersma, a hugely successful rider in her own right, travelled to Ireland in 2010 to buy a horse from him.

Padraig said: ‘She quite liked the horse and she wanted to come back and see more and then she asked me out for dinner. That’s how I ended up here.’

The blossoming romance between Padraig and Lucy led to him, a former showjumper in his youth, trying his hand at eventing.

Lucy said: ‘I guess he wouldn’t have got involved in the sport if he hadn’t have met me, but he’s got a huge amount of natural talent and determination.

‘It has all been his will that he’s got this far and I am so proud of what he has achieved in such a short space of time.’

That determination saw eight rides between 2011 and 2012 increase to more than 60 in 2013 and his first international success at Aldon.

The following year he took over the ride on Simon Porloe, Lucy’s reserve horse for London 2012, and a win on their debut at Bicton Arena sealed the partnership.

Since then consistency has proved their forte and Padraig is hopeful that Sarita and Christopher Perkins’ 16-year-old will help Ireland win a team medal.

‘It is very competitive but as a team we have a realistic chance of a medal. I’d be very pleased with a top ten place as an individual, but the Olympics can throw up some very strange results,’ he said.

Years of showjumping at the highest level, working for a wealth of top riders in Switzerland, Sweden and the USA have stood Padraig in good stead and the expected technicality of both cross country and showjumping courses should be relatively straightforward to negotiate, despite having just two years of riding at international level under his belt.

‘Having showjumped is a huge advantage and I have a lot of confidence in that phase when the pressure is on.’

As Padraig’s career has risen, wife Lucy has taken a step away from competing herself to concentrate on motherhood at the family home of Warren Farm near Hatherleigh. Lucy herself is a gifted rider, the 2006 national champion. She has suffered Olympic heartbreak, missing out on Beijing in 2008 and then acting as first reserve for the British side which won a team silver medal at the London 2012 games.

The laid back Irishman from Tipperary admits it hasn’t really sunk in that he is riding next week’s Olympic Games at all, despite being hours away from leaving the safe and familiar environment of Warren Farm for a week of team training before heading off to Brazil for the Games, which start tomorrow (August 5).

‘It’s very surreal and I can’t really believe it. I felt last year that I had a chance of going but everything had to work. In the end I had two horses selected.’

He was also selected on Bernadette Utopia, a horse Lucy’s family own along with Pearl Chaffe. Her spectacular record has just one blip — elimination at Barbury Castle in the Event Rider Masters 3 star when Padraig jumped the wrong fence.

He said, laughing: ‘The less said about that the better. It’s right for her that she stays at home as relatively speaking she is inexperienced.’

Padraig has many strings to his bow, including fluency in German, having studied economics and finance in that language, a PhD in sociology and his and Lucy’s business, MGH Sport Horses, which sells competition horses across the world.

Horse Sport Ireland’s evening team manager Nick Turner selected the team. He said: ‘This has been a very difficult decision to make as there have been an impressive number of combinations who have produced some fantastic results to date.

‘We will be fielding a very competitive squad in Rio. I would like to thank all of the owners that made their horses available for selection. We will be working hard over the next 57 days in the lead up to the Summer Olympic Games in Rio to contend for a podium finish.’