October 3, 2025 
Notorious B.I.G. captured the idea best in the lyrics of his profound, 1996 smash hit, Mo Money Mo Problems. Biggie would probably agree, though, that the moral of the song is about more than just cash in your pocket.
Success in almost everything brings with it a host of new, often unexpected challenges, and that includes moving up the echelons of the Longines World Ranking List. No one knows that better than Irish rider Simon McCarthy who, having cracked the top 100 for the first time two years ago, is currently riding one of the biggest waves in his career.
“It’s an interesting thing, the rankings. When you’re not going good, you say you don’t really care. But when you are going good, you’re looking at it the first week of every month, seeing where you lie,” McCarthy laughs.
“Climbing the ranks, it’s definitely a proud thing to be in the top-100, but it’s taught me a lot; that it’s actually not all about the rankings.
“While breaking into the top 100 has been a goal of mine, as it reflects 12 months of hard work and consistency—which I am very proud of my team and I for achieving—it is easy to get caught up in your ranking. It’s taught me a lot about planning ahead and aiming specific horses at classes that suit them best, and being okay with giving a class or a jump-off a skip.”
For his part, McCarthy has no illusions about two of the driving forces behind his ascension up the ranks: a couple of powerhouse mares by the name of Gotcha, a 14-year-old Holsteiner; and the Belgian-bred Narcotique V/h Dingenshof, 12.
Last summer, McCarthy campaigned both horses during a whirlwind, two-month European tour. While there, he made his 3* Nations Cup debut for the Irish team, and has since been tapped for squads in Caledon, ON and Traverse City, MI—where he and Gotcha jumped 4/0 for the squad this July.
“Ireland being so strong, with so many riders, it’s very difficult to get your opportunity. So you feel like when you do eventually have a capable horse and get your chance, that you really have to show up,” McCarthy said. “I realize my trajectory may be slower than that of others, so I constantly just try to focus on running my own race.
“Thankfully, when you’re riding [for the Irish team], you’re normally paired up with some quite experienced riders.”
Another experienced partner whom McCarthy is thankful for? His longtime ride, Gotcha, owned by the Towriss family’s Rock Ridge Farms, who joined his string in March of 2021.
“The thing about my relationship with Gotcha is that we were both very inexperienced when we started riding [bigger classes]. Neither of us had won any international classes, and now we’ve earned 20 together. It’s been really fun to sort of grow alongside her, and be on this journey with her,” McCarthy says, noting that the mare’s fighting mentality truly sets her apart.
“[Gotcha is] really unimpressive when the jumps are smaller, but when the pressure is on her, she normally does rise to the occasion. I think she can feel when I’m trying my hardest to win a class, and she normally gives that little bit extra. That’s a really fun feeling, when you’re riding a horse and know that they want to win as much as you.”
McCarthy is similarly excited about the talent of Narcotique V/h Dingenshof, a horse who came to his string from Ilan Ferder just over a year ago. But the mares’ personalities couldn’t be more different: If Gotcha can be ho-hum when the pressure is off, Narcotique is always just that little bit extra.
“She’s got a massive character when you ride her,” explains McCarthy of the “tricky” mare with “a really big personality.” For example, Narcotique can be particularly difficult in the warm-up area, something McCarthy says he learned the hard way.
“My first two shows on her, we broke the boards in the warm-up ring from her kicking. This was slightly embarrassing, and very worrisome for me, knowing what I was getting into, taking this horse on,” he jokes.
Fortunately, McCarthy continues, the experience he’s gained on Gotcha made him feel that he was capable of handling a horse with Narcotique’s character—something that wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago.
“[Narcotique is] very, very careful, and unbelievably fast, so I have kind of aimed her a lot of speed classes, where she’s been really successful. But I also jumped a five-star Grand Prix on her, and that feeling was amazing,” says the Irish rider of the mare who, according to Jumpr Stats, finishes in the top-10 51% of time in 45 rounds at 1.50m.
“She’s been a bit tricky to get to know, but she’s such a winner, and she’s so, so fast. Normally, if she’s going full-tilt and she’s clear, and it’s very hard to catch her.”
Another special horse for the future: Leonardo S, a 9-year-old KWPN gelding owned by Cedar Fox LLC, who McCarthy says is one to watch. “Of any horse I have ever ridden, I think he has the most ability to jump at the top level.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you see him achieve some really great things throughout his career,” he adds of the gelding who earned back-to-back, top 10 placings this season in a 3* Grand Prix in Lexington, KY and a 4* Welcome Stake in Traverse City.
Last winter, McCarthy split his time between Wellington and Ocala, spending the majority of spring and fall in Lexington, and summer in Traverse City. In 2022, he also helped coach his longtime student, Andrea Towriss, now 20, to a team bronze medal at Young Riders in Traverse City.
McCarthy said he brings his own experiences in the ring to coaching, while trying to put himself in his riders’ shoes. “Doing more and more shows has taught me how riders feel in the moment. When I am training, I like to think that I can relate to how they’re feeling,” he says. “I enjoy training people that want to get better and want do the sport correctly.”
And, as McCarthy himself has learned in recent years, “[doing] the sport correctly” is a moving target—whether you’re competing for a title in the junior ranks, or jumping a Senior Nations Cup for your country.
Three years ago, in his interview with Horse Network, McCarthy explained that, beginning in his Irish pony-riding days in Cork, every time he moved up to a higher level, he had to learn to fail again, to some degree. “It was never that I took anything in stride,” he said. “I really had to learn everything [the hard way].”
Three years on, McCarthy says, he doesn’t see those comments any differently. If anything, they’re truer than ever.
“The thing that I’m really learning is that, [while being] ranked inside the top 100 is great, I’m fully aware that this does not mean I’ve ‘made it’. I’m probably ‘failing’ more now than I ever have. So, ironically enough, I think I’ve gotten a lot better as I’ve gotten older about taking the losses and not seeing them [as losses].”
McCarthy’s challenges these days are less of pony kid’s “staying on” variety and far more nuanced: Things like how, when, and where to compete his horses, and in what ways he can keep them sound and comfortable in their jobs. “I think it’s so incredibly difficult to get horses that are good enough to jump in the FEI ring,” he says.
“It’s more than just not getting the result you want in the ring with them. It’s ‘failing’ to do your preparation and ‘failing’ to plan correctly. I think those are the things that I see now more as failures rather than having one down in the ring.
“I think [it’s about] listening to the horse, and letting them tell you when they’re ready to jump a bigger class, and not putting them in situations where they have to overexert themselves too often,” McCarthy continues. “Just trying to press when you feel like the horse is ready to press, and then to being okay with giving a horse a second when you think that they need a second.”
And with that weighty responsibility as a top-level rider also comes that obligation to live in the present and, McCarthy stresses, stay humble. “I don’t come from a horsey background [or anything like that]. So, for me, it’s constant work and constantly trying not to rest on my laurels.
“I’m fully aware that any day I wake up, this bit of success that I have could all go away overnight. I’m just really trying to enjoy the process.”
