I STARTED my riding school when I was 20 in a corner of the farmyard owned by my father Matt and my uncle Joe in Swords. At the start I had one pony and I worked on the farm for my keep. In the early years I did try some breeding but nothing came of it and I stopped breeding for around 10 years.

At this point, the business had relocated to Ashbourne and I had two mares that I had bought for show jumping but had taken injuries: Jermanji and Colette B. They were to become the foundation mares of my breeding programme.

Then during the last recession I bought some mares from Sammy McQuade and now also have other mares in partnership with him, namely Drumagoland Girl, who is the mother of BEC Infrared.

1. Proudest moment(s) as a breeder?

For sure, BEC Lorenzo for what he has achieved but also two others that stand out are BEC Armani (Livello - Colette B) a stallion who unfortunately died as a four-year-old and BEC Infrared (Diamant de Semilly - Drumagoland Girl) who I bred in partnership with Sammy McQuade.

2. Tell us about breeding BEC Lorenzo, one of the top-ranked Irish Sport Horses in the WBFSH rankings in 2020 and now competing with Catherine Tyree (USA).

I bred his mother B (Guidam - Jermanji). I thought she, as a type, was suited best to breeding and, at the time, I had a close contact with Gerry Mullins. He had left a stallion card on the noticeboard in Broadmeadow one day for a young stallion he had recently purchased. So from looking at the picture and hearing Gerry’s description, I decided to use Livello.

I sold a half-share in Lorenzo as a six-year-old to Andreas Wendenburg, who [daughter] Anna was working for at the time. Then, about six months later as a seven-year-old, Andreas Kreuzer bought him.

Catherine Tyree and BEC Lorenzo, bred by Brian Duff, winning a five-star class at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida last February \ Sportfot

3. How many broodmares do you currently have at Broadmeadow?

In no particular order, these are the mares in foal this year:

4. Your favourite broodmare, past or present?

BEC Jermanji (by Emilion). I bought her from Paul Schockemöhle and jumped her very successfully, she took an injury and this is when I moved to breeding.

5. Favourite stallion/marelines, any particular go-to bloodline you look for in a pedigree?

Luidam, Diamant de Semilly and Livello.

6. It takes a team – who is on the Broadmeadow team?

Yes and without all my team none of this would be possible. The team is myself, the riders Luigi Federico and Craig Hopkins. Sinead Linehan is the manager and Sandra Turner is in the Broadmeadow office. The instructors are Claire and Abi and the yard staff are Shauna, Michelle, Rowlands, Eoin, Abbie and Alannah.

7. How does breeding sport horses dovetail in with running Broadmeadow as a competition and equestrian centre?

The breeding and production of show jumpers is a rapidly developing business and is now becoming the central activity of Broadmeadow EC.

8. You think outside the box with your business, for example targeting the overseas students market and drive-in movies. Do we all – breeders, businesses – need to do that?

Yes and no. Yes, we all have to adapt and survive in changeable times but also no, in that we have to have strong long-term vision as to how we want to develop our own particular breeding programmes.

9. Best advice you got?

Don’t forget to tighten your girth!

10. With technology in breeding changing so fast at the moment, where do you see the future for breeders?

As long as the sport maintains its popularity and a demand continues to exist, then I think there will always be a demand for a healthy, sound, athletic animal with good temperament and character. And so each individual breeder needs to look at each technology and assess if it is of benefit to them.