Raised in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in the southeast corner of Ireland, Bertram and his siblings were born into a family with a strong equine influence. “My parents always had horses. My dad had racehorses and there was always a pony or two around. We started in the riding school and then got help from Mags and Con Power all the way through ponies. That was brilliant.” The Powers are well known in equestrian circles. Con jumped on the famous Irish team that won the Nations Cup in Dublin for the third year in a row in 1979. A former Army captain, his son Robert is an occasional showjumper but now a very successful national hunt racing jockey. Their daughter Elizabeth is also well known as an international eventing rider. Bertram and his siblings could not have had better support in their formative years in the sport.
Bertram Allen was only 11 springs ols when he won his first pony class at the Dublin Horse Show. A couple of years later (17 years old) he was first selected to jump on an Irish Nations Cup team. At 18, he finished 7th in the Individual competition at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy where he was the youngest rider to compete. At 19, he finished 3rd in the World Cup final in Las Vegas and ranked 7th in the FEI World Rankings.
In three years he has come from being unknown at the senior level of the sport of showjumping to being a recognized young talent on the world stage.
Horses
Bertram doesn’t have any involvement in breeding. Instead, he tends to buy horses as five-year-olds and produce them himself. He has become synonymous with the grey mare Molly Malone V. Molly is by the KWPN stallion Kannan (Voltaire x Nimmerdor) and out of a Cavalier (San Patrignano Mister) dam. She was bought as a five-year-old on the Sunshine Tour in Spain. Irish riders Billy Twomey and Anthony Condon produced her before Bertram took over the ride. “I’m so lucky that she turned out to be such a star.” With this mare, Bertram has accumulated many excellent results. In 2015, these included victory in the Grand Prix de la Ville de Dinard in France and the Grand Prix of Twente in Geesteren, The Netherlands.
His other Grand Prix horse at this moment is Romanov. This 1998 chestnut stallion is by Heartbreaker (also by Nimmerdor) and out a mare Narzisse by Fedor (Klimax) by Darco. This year the pair was 7th in the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix in Estoril and won the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix in Paris. “He was bought for Billy to ride and when I was progressing from ponies to horses Billy said that I should take him over to get me going. While I started with Romanov, Molly stayed with Billy to help her develop. It all worked out great.”
Managing and planning for international competition is a demanding affair. Horses need to be in peak condition and form. In this respect, Bertram emphasizes the importance of a good support team. “Travelling is demanding on horses but they become used to it and it doesn’t take much out of them when managed properly. Marlene, my groom, ensures that the horses are prepared for travelling. Marlene is brilliant and my sister April (21) is also here now and is a big help to me.
And what about nutrition? “Connolly’s Red Mills, the Irish feed company is on board now. They are brilliant. They ship feed out to my yard. They also work with Foran Equine, an Irish company who are nutrition specialists and they send a person out to me regularly to look at the horses.” On the veterinary side, Bertram’s horses get a weekly visit to check that they are all in the best of health.
His equine philosophy?
Allen offers the following advice: “Let them have their own specific training programme. It shouldn’t be the same for every horse. Make it easy for the horses, relax them so that they enjoy going to shows.”
