"I grew up on a farm, my grandfather is James as well, my father is Howard and I'll be the third generation dairy and sheep farmer on a family farm just north of Ballymena."

WHAT ARE 'MOUNTED GAMES'?

Mounted Games are fast-paced, high-speed Equestrian relay races and skill based-games for riders and ponies.

Organised as a sport in the 1950s, teams usually comprise 4/5 riders. Ponies are restricted to 148cm (15 hands) or under.

Competitions often include Weaving Through Poles, Flag & Cone games, Mug & Bottle games and Stepping Stones.

James McNabney is a A Man Called Horse...

A big Ulster back-row who was the surprise call-up to the Ireland November Nations Championship squad announced last week.

And, for sure, things have happened quickly for the six-foot-five, 118kgs unit since opting to take rugby seriously.

McNabney joined the Ulster Academy in 2022, made his Ulster debut in 2023, signed a Development contract in 2024 and a senior contract in 2025 and with 2026 bringing the biggest news of all - gaining Ireland squad selection.

This, on the back of only 24 Ulster games, 18 starts, and 1,497 minutes of senior rugby.

On the one hand it is another conspicuous example of Andy Farrell's attempt to widen his playing circle and is, in some ways, similar to the 2025 promotion of Munster's Edwin Edogbo (currently injured).

Nonetheless McNabney's chance to represent his country wasn't unexpected - it's just he thought it would be on horseback and not with a rugby ball!

“I have some horses in my background, yeah. I'd done the Mounted Games for Northern Ireland and represented Great Britain in that too.

"I went to Royal Windsor Horseshow when I was maybe 14, 15, and that was Northern Ireland, and then I went to America for an international Mounted Games exchange when I was 15/16.

“I rode horses up until I had to make the decision to put on weight and give up the horses.

"I was probably better at horse riding for a while until the rugby got better but it was an easy enough decision.

"I was getting to the end of that. I was looking for something different.” The Mounted Games were a reflection of McNabney's rural upbringing. "I grew up on a farm, my grandfather is James as well, my father is Howard and I'll be the third generation dairy and sheep farmer on a family farm just north of Ballymena.

"Farming is like my game of golf when I get a down day. I like to go and work there."

As former Ireland superstars such as Sean O'Brien, Rory Best and John Hayes can attest, there is a work-load that's more than equal to after school gym-work.

“When I was growing up as a teenager it was either horses or farming so there was exercise in all aspects of it.

“But the odd time in the summer we had to shear sheep and if anyone's ever sheared sheep, they know exactly what that entails. It's not easy.

“But, no, there's not physical work every day you're doing work on a farm.

"Some days you're driving, some days you're lifting things. It's all different. There's a variety of work, which is nice about it."

While Mounted Games with all that weaving and bobbing, dismounting and sprinting was a secondary type of work-out.

"You have to have that agility on a pony although I was not as big as I am now when I was doing it.

“In Mounted Games they can go up to like 14.3, 14.2-hand ponies so it's nearly just on the edge of becoming a horse."

At the same time there was a lot of fun to be had playing rugby in school even if he wasn't quite as serious as some wanted.

"When the Ulster preparation for the U18 Inter-pros was on, I took two weeks out of training in the summer to go to America.

"And Jonny Graham (now Ulster's Elite Player Development Officer) was raging that I had disappeared to do that but I still managed to play in the inter-pros.

"Fair play to him, because when kids get to 15/16, they are sat down and have to make a decision. 16 years-of-age was sort of a cut off.

"Well, I got the chat which went 'Unless you're really serious about it...'. To be fair, I'd sort of done everything I could do, gone as far as I could without committing."

There was also a stark reality, he was getting a bit big for an 148cm pony and...

"People do horses for a business, you know, they make it their whole life, but I had no real ambition to do that.

"It was always a hobby, and then I was kind of good at it and stuck at it."

It is at this point where fact and fiction starts to merge and McNabney's tale of how he acquired the nickname 'Horse' is, well, it's his version.

“Back when Dan McFarland was Ulster's head coach, he gave me an opportunity against Glasgow.

“There was a ball come out over the top of the lineout and I caught it and was running up the pitch and, typically, the way I run I gallop with high knees.

“And Dan said that I looked like a big old horse when I was running up the pitch, and it's stuck ever since then. And that's how I've been called 'Horse'.”

Hands up horsebox if you believe that how the player got his nickname? Not many hands, didn't think so!