I LIVE in Milltown, Raphoe in east Co Donegal. I grew up here and the family link to horses spans back generations. The Carlin family were cattle dealers in this area and my mother Breda Gubbins-Hickie came from Oola, Co Limerick, where her brothers were avid followers with the Scarteen Hunt.

It was during my many summer holidays in Limerick as a child that I first came to love horses, attending the Limerick Show and horse racing at the “Junction”. My love for competition comes from my athletics days, where I competed for Ireland in 800 metres, culminating in a win in the 1983 World Masters in Puerto Rico.

My daughters Una, Caitriona and Eimear started with ponies at a young age and I inevitably became chauffeur, jump builder and pony holder from there. My late wife Mary and friends started the East Donegal Pony Club, which was based at Milltown for about 12 years. The RDAI moved into the yard after Mary’s passing and the Mary Carlin RDAI Centre was opened in 1996 by then-President Mary Robinson.

My first venture with Irish Draughts occurred in the mid-90s, when I bought Crosstown Molly from Fintan Brannigan. She was a gentle giant of a chesnut mare and was soon followed by Lough Gowna, another traditionally-bred mare. After both produced quality foals, my path with breeding Draughts was paved.

1. The Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) is coming up next week and you’re travelling over for a special reason.

Yes, we are absolutely delighted that Mongorry Cormac, or better known as “Big Cormac”, has qualified for HOYS. It is the pinnacle of showing and is the result of a lot of hard work over a number of years by talented and dedicated people.

2. Tell us more about Mongorry Cormac.

Cormac was bred here at home in Donegal. His sire is Gortfree Lakeside Lad and his dam is Hollyhill Classic (Donovan). His dam (Holly) was bought from Ger Sweeney in Gartan, Co Donegal, and she was a personal favourite mare of mine, gentle but single-minded!

I’m a big believer in letting horses be horses and not starting work with them too young, so Cormac was not brought into work until he was four and was backed brilliantly by Melissa Tinney. At 17.3hh, Cormac thankfully had no idea of his own size.

Cormac went to Shane McKenna’s yard and was treated like royalty by Shane, his dad Sean, Cindy Wagner, and all the McKenna team. He was shown for two and a half years, winning numerous accolades in heavyweight classes.

Twice-champion at Balmoral in 2022 and 2023, Cormac’s journey then took him to the UK. He spent time with Katie Jerram and Chris Hunnable before arriving with Kieran Price and Will Baslington, with whom he has had great success, including a win at the Irish Draught Horse Society (GB) championships recently and, of course, his HOYS qualification.

3. Proudest breeder moment?

Being awarded the Pearl Creighton Family trophy for breeder-owner at Balmoral Show in 2023 was a great surprise and reward for the work over the years. There was another similar award at the recent IDHS (GB) show in Onley.

I feel most proud however at home, seeing the magnificence of the youngsters coming forward. We lost Hollyhill Classic two years ago but, thankfully we have a quality broodmare Mongorry Pearla (Mountain Pearl) to continue the bloodlines and hopefully produce the next Cormac!

John Carlin at home in Raphoe, an area “with a long equine history” with his Gortfree Lakeside Lad mare Kitty \ Eimear Carlin

4. How many broodmares do you own?

I have four Irish Draught broodmares at the moment; Mongorry Saoirse, whose lines go back to Crosstown Molly and Suma’s Murphy’s Law. She currently has a filly foal by Galileo Dance and is in foal to him again.

Mongorry Pearla has a filly foal at foot by Gortfree Lakeside Lad and is scanned in foal again to him. I have a four-year-old Mongorry Muireann (Dunsandle Diamond - Mongorry Saoirse) and finally, I have Mongorry Lady Scrapman (Scrapman - Eastern Lady).

5. Favourite bloodlines?

My main love is the traditional Irish Draught horse; they are exceptional creatures, strong but quiet, intelligent and easy to work with. In saying that, I have produced some promising youngsters from thoroughbred lines. I have a lovely filly by Rosier and two cracking showy geldings by Lucarelli.

6. Mongorry is yours, view on prefixes?

Mongorry is a hill outside of Raphoe, where the Carlin family hails from. Raphoe has a long equine history and I felt that I wanted to keep the location recorded in my breeding lines.

We are a remote county in comparison to others further south, but Donegal has produced and continues to produce incredibly exciting quality horses. I think it is important to fly the flag, so to speak, for our county and the Raphoe area.

7. If you could have bred any horse?

Circling back to my childhood days at the races, I would have loved to have bred a Grand National winner. My uncle Barney Lafferty from Moy, Co Tyrone was travelling by train from Strabane to Stranorlar when he spotted a horse following the train, jumping hedges as it went!

He was so excited he found the owner, a Mr McKinley from Castlefinn, bought the horse named Master Robert, sold him on to Lord Airlie and the horse then went on to win the 1923 Grand National!

8. Best advice you ever got?

When going to a horse sale, leave the horsebox, credit card and chequebook at home.

I’ve adhered to this with varying degrees of success, much to the dismay of my daughter Eimear!

9. It takes a team - who’s on yours?

This year more than ever, I have been humbled by the support of those who surround me.

I lost my daughter Una and granddaughters, Ciara Mary and Saoirse, in a car accident in March and the support of the community has been incredible to both myself and my partner Jill Earls.

I would firstly like to acknowledge and thank the troops on the ground in Raphoe; notably Tony Keenan, Alex McKenzie, Mary Finneran and Eimear, who have kept the yard moving every day in a very difficult time. I would also like to thank the Earls and Henry families and Peter Smyth.

Our neighbours and the community in Raphoe have been a superb support and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all.

The horses have been a great comfort and distraction these past months and travelling to HOYS will be a much-needed lift for the close of this year.

10. If you could have played any role in a horse-based film, which role would you have chosen and why?

I think I would choose Robert Redford’s character in The Horse Whisperer. The way the character works with horses and the links to the Monty Roberts approach to horsemanship appeal to me greatly. Also, the location in the mountains of Montana looked so peaceful and picturesque.