MYSELF and my brother Laurence’s breeding story began over 50 years ago, when we bought a Blue Cliff mare on the advice of our good friend, Joe Rohan. We bought her locally from Jimmy Duffy in Castledaly and were particularly interested in her because of her breeding. She was bred by Dick Vaugh, The Island, Ballycumber.

A few years later, we bought a second mare, Dolly 23, from my wife Maura’s brother Sean Mahon, in Cloghan. Both those mares are the bloodlines we breed from to this day and we’ve have had many success stories from both.

1. Congratulations on breeding Cash In Hand (Sayarshan - Toorphelim Lady, by Carrabawn View), competed in the Paris Olympics by eventing rider Noor Slaoui (Morocco). Tell us more about him.

Born in 2013, in the field behind my house, he was the first colt of Toorphelim Lady (AKA ‘the little white mare’). He was completely different from her two previous fillies, particularly the first one. She was a real looker and won plenty in the showring.

He was nice, but nothing special… or so we thought. We sold him in Cavan and the rest is history!

2. Cash In Hand is traditionally bred, why do you breed traditional?

If it’s not broken, why fix it! We were lucky to breed some top-quality Traditional Irish Horses in our early years, I don’t know if it was beginners’ luck or just that the mares were the secret to success. This, in turn, led to return customers for our foals and word of mouth in those days was better than any social media platform. We’ve had a number of mares over the years, including Irish Draughts, Appendix Draughts and half-breds.

3. The Traditional Irish Horse Association (TIHA) recently made a presentation to you at Dublin Horse Show. Was that, along with watching Cash In Hand in Paris, your proudest breeder moment?

Obviously, we were over the moon when we realised Cash In Hand was competing in the Olympics, particularly when there were only seven Traditional Irish Horses in total eventing in Paris. This is definitely up there with our top achievement as breeders.

Having said that, Cash In Hand is not the first of this bloodline to bring great pride to us as breeders.

Way back in 1982, a colt by Terence, a thoroughbred stallion standing with the Finn brothers in Moigh Stud, Ballymahon, won the supreme young horse championship at the Royal Show in Stoneleigh. This was massive for us at the time.

We sold him as a foal to the late Colonel Ronnie MacMahon, who had previously shown him in Ireland for two years, winning numerous shows, including the Bord na gCapall national two-year-old championship.

I think the reason this is so memorable is that Terence was not the horse we had intended the mare to be covered by, but due to a time delay on our side, we went with him. We never dreamt we would pick up the then-28p Irish Independent on Wednesday, July 7th, 1982, to read about Celtic Gold.

Jim Norton’s article read: “Yesterday’s win by the Irish horse could not have come at a better time, as this year, for the first time, both the Germans and the French mounted a determined hard-sell promotion for their horse breeding industry at the show.”

This newspaper cutting, together with a picture of Celtic Gold, still has pride of place in our home and is now joined by the beautiful framed photo of Cash In Hand we received from the TIHA.

Maura and John Gillivan with Cash In Hand’s framed photo, presented to the Moate couple by the Traditional Irish Horse Association at Dublin Horse Show \ Susan Finnerty

4. Favourite bloodlines?

We are very lucky to have Tullaghansleek Stud on our doorstep. Apart from the selection of top-quality stallions to choose from, the help and advice on selecting a suitable sire for our mares is invaluable, not to mention the care they’re given by Tim and Claire [Carey].

5. Toorphelim is yours. Thoughts on prefixes?

After seeing Toorphelim Lady’s name during RTÉ and other media channels’ Olympic coverage, you can guess I have a pretty positive view on prefixes. We also use Knockdomney, the townlands where the foals are born, as a prefix for the other bloodline.

6. How many broodmares do you currently have?

We are down to where we started with two broodmares. Croghdomeny Hill Lottie, a Golden Lariat half-sister to Cash In Hand. She is nine and has had all fillies so far. She has a stunning Another Pleasure filly foal. We also have a lovely three-year-old potential eventer by Shadow Gate and she is now ready to continue her education for whoever would like to own her.

Our other broodmare, Knockdoomney Cruise is in foal to Steeped in Luck. We have a Shadow Gate yearling colt and Another Pleasure two-year-old out of her. We’re located in Moate, just off the motorway and happy to show off our stock currently for sale.

7. If you could have bred any horse?

The legendary carthorse-turned-champion Dundrum, who lit up the RDS back in the day under Tommy Wade.

8. Best advice you ever got?

Breed the best to the best and hope for the best. Or ‘Not to judge a book by its cover’, which we’ve learned over the years. For example, I had someone tell me once I had a nice foal, but the sire wouldn’t really do it any favours. The sire in question was Sayarshan, Cash In Hand’s sire.

He also sired a filly foal we bred in 2014 out of our Bahrain Cruise mare, Knockdoomney Cruise. Power Away is competing at British Eventing intermediate level under Aimee Penny and is owned by Power Sport Horse UK’s Gary Power. Aimee is confident that this lady will go all the way, so watch this space.

9. It takes a team - who’s on yours?

It’s a family concern and everyone gets roped in at times. My niece Joanne, and Larry, still have a good interest in showing, but don’t get to as many as we used to. My nephew, Pete, and neighbour, Pairic McNeill, help Joanne show the foals.

10. Where do you sell your youngstock?

We’ve been very lucky over the years to have returning customers, as well as always being able to sell at a show or fairs back in the day. This has obviously changed dramatically and now we try to sell online; the pros being your horses get instant exposure to international markets, the con is the risk of scammers.

There was a lot to be said for the person coming to your yard and either liking what they see or not.