MY farm, Greenacres Stud, is located near Kells in Co Meath where I breed and produce sport horses for show jumping and eventing. Having grown up with work horses from a young age, I always had a keen interest in horses as my father Charles always kept Irish Draught mares that he worked with and bred foals from.

My brother Donal also breeds sport horses, he has some very special broodmares with good performance records.

I’ve been breeding sport horses for up to 30 years. I sourced my first mare, named Rock House Girl – a thoroughbred mare by Paddys Stream – from Michael Hickey in Garryrichard Stud in Foulksmills, Co Wexford. Paddys Stream was by the great Pampered King, who was the sire of the legendary National Hunt sire Deep Run.

Rock House Girl was out of a Ragusa mare and I started off by breeding thoroughbreds from her. She bred two bumper winners and later on, I started breeding sport horses from her by Clover Hill and Ginger Dick.

Rock House Girl bred four Clover Hill fillies, I retained them all for breeding and that really got my breeding programme off to a great start.

I then started to cover most of my best mares with one of the all-time greats: the legendary Cavalier Royale, that, no doubt for me, was the best broodmare sire of our time. Again, I retained most of his fillies for breeding.

I’m so lucky at present to have nine Cavalier Royale mares. The rest is history!

1. Proudest moment as a breeder?

Winning the Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) show jumping foal championship in 2017 with Greenacres Jordan, a colt by Air Jordan Z out of Greenacres Quality (O.B.O.S Quality – Imperious Lux, by Lux Z) was one particular moment.

And breeding his half-sister, LLC Lux Like Cavalier (Cavalier Royale – Imperious Lux), a mare that represented Australia at World Cup level and was short-listed for the Australian team for the Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro but got injured.

Then there’s a four-star event horse Greenacres Special Cavalier, competing with New Zealand’s Caroline Powell. I’d think a lot of both of them. Special Cavalier is another Cavalier Royale and she’s out of the Touchdown mare Greenacres Touch, a daughter of the foundation broodmare Rock House Girl.

New Zealand's Caroline Powell competing at Blenheim CCI-S four-star last September with Greenacres Special Quality \ William Carey

2. How many broodmares do you currently have?

I have 16 broodmares, half of them are by Cavalier Royale and these range in age from 22 years right down to two-year-olds.

My top mares include Greenacres Quality, her dam Imperious Lux and then Lux Like Royale. Lux Like Royale is a five-year-old Cavalier Royale mare and a half-sister to LLC Lux Like Cavalier.

Greenacres Quality is in foal to Emerald van’t Ruytershof, Imperious Lux to Conthargos and Lux Like Royale to Pegasus.

Another mare is Darco Black Diamond (Darco – Quidam Diamond, by Quidam Junior I). She goes back to a Master Imp-Diamond Lad mare and is in foal to Livello.

A fifth mare is Greenacres Luidam (Luidam – Kinduff Cherry, by Chair Lift), she’s in foal to Cornet’s Son.

3. How many foals are due in 2022?

I have 13 foals due this year. Foaling starts in early April right through to August.

I’ve used nine different stallions on those 13 mares. Conthargos, Cornets Son, Emerald van’t Ruytershof, Livello, Pointilliste, Nixon van’t Meulenhof – he’s a half-brother to Emerald – and then two Connemara stallions: Pumpkins Pondi and Greenacres Mirah, a Connemara stallion I stand.

4. Last year, your Emerald van’t Ruytershof – Greenacres Quality filly sold for €17,500 at the Goresbridge Supreme Sale of show jumping foals, held at Barnadown. She’s one of several foals you’ve done well with at foal sales.

There has been four foals over four years selected for the Barnadown elite sale: by Cavalier Royale, Cornet Obolensky, Air Jordan Z and last year’s Emerald, all out of Greenacres Quality. All sold there as well.

5. To breed a top show jumper or eventer – do you have any preference?

I think it’s a great honour to breed a top event horse and I’d love to breed a top show jumper too. For me, the most important way of breeding one is using good dam lines with blacktype pedigrees and then cross with top performance sires.

6. Cavalier Royale, Emerald, Kings Master and O.B.O.S Quality feature in several of your mares/foals pedigrees. Any particular reason why you first chose those sires?

I like their pedigrees and they’ve been very lucky sires for me.

7. Greenacres is your prefix. Do you think a foal’s name, registered with a breeders prefix, should be changed later on?

No, I think if a foal is named it should carry on with the same name.

8. Best advice you ever got?

Start breeding from good, sound correct mares with good performance and cross with the best sires. You try for the best and hope for the best.

9. What advice would you give to a younger breeder starting off?

Take your time in selecting a broodmare, look for sound mares with blacktype pedigrees with at least three to four generations with top sire lines and in particular that she’s by a good broodmare sire. That’s very important in a broodmare, that she’s by a proven sire of broodmares.

10. Does Horse Sport Ireland do enough for breeders?

I think they do a great job, especially in the loose jumping classes for fillies and the foal championships. In addition to that, the training grants they offer for young horses, as well as the embryo transfer grants, all helps to produce good performance horses.