I WAS born and raised in Emmet Road, Inchicore Dublin, which in the 50s and 60s was a working class area. No one had much disposable cash and the majority of arguments were settled with fists, rather than by verbal conversations, with the quip of the day being the area was so rough that even the Alsatians went around in pairs.
When I acquired my first bike, at the age of 10, I never missed an RDS show until their security was improved when they demanded me to pay for the privilege of attending.
In those days, some horses arrived by train and were walked from Kingsbridge Station to stables across the road from the RDS.
Of course, my enthralment at the show, along with being fascinated watching the posh people parading their show horses, was the large agricultural display located in Simmonscourt. I got the opportunity to climb about every conceivable piece of farm equipment before being told, in no uncertain terms, to bugger off by the frantic sales personnel.
Naturally, as a memorial of the visit, you took home every colour brochure you could lay your hands on, which would last a few days before ending up in the bin. Even if you could by some miracle afford one, a combine harvester would have had little use in Emmet Road!
1. Congratulations, yourself and Gina qualified at Charleville for The Irish Field Breeders’ Championship. Tell us more.
When Gina and I returned to Ireland in 2002 from the West Indies, where I was employed as a project manager, she continued her equine breeding programme which she started in 1994 with a Sheer Grit thoroughbred mare called Boonie. It was one of the proudest moments of my life when our three-year-old Carrowgar Herald, aka Gorgeous George, swept the board at the RDS in 2019 being the young horse supreme and home-bred champion.
I had thought that my position would always be the person in the background…assisting, fetching, horse dung remover, coffee go-getter, drinking companion and general dogsbody. I referred myself akin to ‘a Columbian drug mule!’
However, Covid changed this thought process and for the past year I was adamant that as part of my ‘bucket list’ I would compete a horse of ours at the RDS.
My first thought was to compete my cob Lilly in a ridden class or perhaps show one of our yearlings or two-year-olds but when Gina stopped falling around the floor laughing at the idea, this thought was also quickly abandoned.
However, in April, when our 1.40m show jumping mare Carrowgar Je T’Aime (Je T’Aime Flamenco) now known as ‘The Queen’, had her Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve foal, Gina thought maybe I could be given a crash course in ringcraft by her and Maria Griffin. And maybe, just maybe, be ready to enter the Breeders’ Championship qualifier in Charleville…and so began the training.
The rest is history as we did qualify and I quickly went off to purchase a bowler hat and showing jacket. And a hip flask!
2. What’s your aim as a breeder?
Simply to be one of the best at what we do and to one day have one of our horses compete at the Olympics carrying the Carrowgar name - however long and far into the future that may take.
3. Favourite bloodlines?
For me, it must be the top four stallions: Diamant de Semilly, Cornet Obolensky, Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve and lastly, Herald III who has been such a good sire for our own mare line. All of these stallions had brilliant competition careers themselves and they successfully transitioned into sires of Olympic-level performers too.
Emelyn Heaps with Carrowgar Je T’Aime, known as The Queen, after she qualified at Charleville for The Irish Field Breeders' Championship \ Susan Finnerty
4. What’s your view on prefixes?
I believe they are a wonderful and easy method for anybody to be able to identify the breeder and yard where the horse was bred. Our own horses’ names have the Carrowgar prefix. It’s a simple marketing tool that will register with people when they see one of our home-bred horses competing anywhere in the world.
5. How many mares do you currently have?
We have six in total and all in-foal, plus two now-retired foundation mares: Monchie, who bred the RDS supreme champion ‘Gorgeous George’ and Rosie, who has bred all of our good showjumping line.
6. Describe your regime for keeping mares/youngstock?
The mares are better looked after by Gina than I am! Our mares and youngstock live out all year round in fields with large shelters with the foals handled from the day they are born.
7. If you could have bred any horse?
This may sound strange but if I could have bred any horse, well, it would have to have been Seabiscuit, described as an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred racehorse.
He who was hugely successful, despite being written off as useless by some, but when given the right chance, he proved himself to be an outright winner in the USA, during the Great Depression.
8. It takes a team - who is on yours?
Of course, my wife, Gina who has created our breeding line that is now producing top class showing, jumping and eventing horses, I mustn’t forget to mention Maria Griffin, who works side-by-side with Gina and will be my co-handler in the Breeders’ Championship in Ring 1.
9. Best advice you ever got?
‘The fastest way to train a horse is as slow as possible’.
10. A long way from Inchicore to the RDS.
As the crow flies, Ring 1 in the RDS is exactly 3.8 miles from Emmet Road but for me it has been a journey of some hundreds of thousands of miles spanning the globe during my life.
If some person had told me 55 years ago that one day, not only would I be part of a small but very successful studfarm in Co Clare, but would end up showing one of our home-bred 1.40m jumping mares and her foal in the Breeders’ Championship, I would have assumed them quite mad, certifiable and suggest they quit drinking!
But thanks to Gina for the tremendous work she has done with her breeding mares and to Maria for the ringcraft crash course, the reality is about to happen shortly.
Emelyn Heaps with Carrowgar Je T’Aime, known as The Queen, after she qualified at Charleville for The Irish Field Breeders' Championship \ Susan Finnerty