Breed | Irish Sport Horse |
---|---|
Sire | Battleburn (Thoroughbred) |
Grandsire | Shapoor (Thoroughbred) |
Dam | Girl From The Brown Mountain (Irish Draught) |
Sex | Gelding |
Foaled | 1966 |
Country | Ireland |
Colour | Bay, Star, near hind sock |
Breeder | Jimmy Murphy |
Owner | Eddie Macken |
Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Equestrian | ||
World Championships | ||
1978 Aachen | Individual jumping | |
European Championships | ||
1979 Rotterdam | Team jumping |
Boomerang, later Carroll's Boomerang, was an Irish Sport Horse who stood 16.2 hh (168 cm), ridden in show jumping competitions, most successfully by Eddie Macken. Boomerang was also ridden by Liz Edgar (Broome), Johan Heins and Paul Schockemöhle.
Boomerang was bred by Jimmy Murphy of Maifield, Grangemockler, County Tipperary, a well-known sportsman and local politician from Grangemockler, Co Tipperary. Jimmy and his wife Mai, a successful racehorse owner, sent their Irish Draught mare, Girl From The Brown Mountain, to Battleburn, owned by John Shine, Meenroe, Meelin, Co.Cork. Jimmy and his family broke the horse, initially known as Battle Boy, and recognised his prodigious ability. They hunted him with the Kilmoganny Harriers and jumped him in novice classes on the Tipperary/Kilkenny/Waterford gymkhana circuit and then sent him to "finishing school" with Iris Kellett, the 1969 European showjumping champion, at her stables at Mespil Road in Dublin. There, the horse was first ridden by Eddie Macken, then a working pupil at Kellett's. He first jumped at the RDS Dublin Spring Show as a four-year-old in 1970. Two years later, Jimmy sold him to Ted and Liz Edgar's yard in Warwickshire, England. Liz Edgar jumped him with success. He was then sold on to Paul Schockemöhle, who took him to his stables in Mühlen, Germany and renamed him Boomerang.
Macken by this time had moved into the heartland of continental competition when he went to the Schockemöhle brothers Paul and Alwin in the Spring of 1975. A rich German owner, Dr. Herbert Schnapka, eased Macken's way by providing horses for him to ride in the Schockemöhle yard. Easter Parade, Macken's best horse at the time, broke his back in a freak accident on his way back from the cancelled spring meeting at Hickstead in 1975. By way of an interim replacement, Paul Schockemöhle said to Macken: