LYNCH'S CAREERDENIS LYNCH was preparing for his first rides in point-to-points when he had the opportunity to join a top European show jumping yard. In 1994 the Tipperary native gave up any aspiration of becoming a National Hunt jockey to move to Germany.
Then 18 years of age, Lynch, who taught himself to ride hunting with the Scarteens, honed his skills under the tutelage of top husband-and-wife team Peter and Helena Weinberg in Herzogenrath, close to Aachen.
Just a few years later, urged on by his German wife Simona, he decided to strike out on his own and established a yard in Münster in the north of the country.
He found riding and administration a tough combination. Selling young horses is the way to survive but, if you sell the good ones, you have nothing left for the international stage. When, in 2000, he was offered a job as stable rider to the Straumann family from Switzerland, Lynch sacrificed independence for financial security.
Before he teamed up with his Olympic partner Lantinus, the horses which most brought the rider to international prominence were the black stallions Luigi and Schneesturm. The first gave Lynch his initial major success, the 1997 Liechtenstein Grand Prix. Schneesturm, which retired to stud last year, won the Sussex Stakes at Hickstead in 2005.
Lantinus, which hit the headlines as a four-year-old when sold for €215,000 at the Hanovarian elite auction, was previously ridden by Gregory Wathelet for the Ukraine. That team, whose presence in Hong Kong denied Ireland a place in the team event, got into financial difficulty last year and the horse came on the market.
Lynch persuaded Thomas Straumann to purchase the bay gelding, for a reported €1.5 million, and this season they had victories in Grand Prix events at Doha, La Baule and Rome.
Lantinus, recently ranked number one by the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses, combines two of the best sire lines, being by Landkoenig (which traces to the great thoroughbred influence Ladykiller) out of a mare by Angentinus.
Lynch, ranked 23rd in the world, came to the Dublin Horse Show with his second string, Nabob's Son, and recorded a single time penalty in both rounds of the Aga Khan trophy, his first time on the Nations' Cup team at Dublin.
The 32-year-old flew to the Olympics nursing two broken fingers after a fall in the Puissance competition at the RDS.