FOR my very first Christmas in 2004, Santa brought a rocking horse: Opal. That was the first time I was put in a saddle, so it was inevitable really that life would be surrounded by horses.

My first memorable RDS win was back in 2014, I was nine years old and won on Thursday in Simmonscourt with Little Lord of the Hills. The following day, I was reserve champion in the 128cm final on PARC Epic. 2024 was the 10th consecutive year that I’ve qualified for Dublin.

My first European Championships was in 2018 in Fontainebleau, probably one of the most memorable moments so far in my career, after winning the individual gold medal and team silver with CES Cruson. Six years later, I’ve managed to collect five medals from four different championships.

1. When did you start breeding horses?

I’ve always had a great interest in breeding and foals from the very start. The people that would have influenced me most are dad and the late Tom Casey. Most evenings, Tom would take me around to different farms to look at foals and youngstock and tell me their pedigrees. He could go back generations. I found it interesting how some of them could be distantly related to one another and still do, looking at startlists.

It was 2018 when I got my first broodmare and I think we’ve made great progress since. Six years later, we have 20+ foals a year and are now doing ICSI and embryo transfer with some mares. All our foals are by proven stallions and all come from some of the world’s best damlines. Hopefully, if we keep up the work, there’s no doubt we’ll fall into a few future superstars.

2. What’s your aim as a breeder?

I think our aim is the same as every breeder: to breed a famous horse that will some day jump at the Olympics, win an Aga Khan or a 5* Grand Prix. We hope to have several that could achieve something like that some day.

3. How many broodmares do you have?

We have 12 broodmares at the moment. We also take embryos from some of our competition mares, so altogether, we aim to have 20 foals born every year. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

4. The broodmares timeline?

We aim to cover the broodmares around May, so they can have an early-born foal the following year. After foaling, they are usually covered after nine or 30 days, depending on whether we use fresh or frozen semen. At the start of the year, we break our three-year-old mares, put them under saddle and then cover them at the beginning of summer. They raise their foals when they’re four and then start their jumping career as five-year-olds.

5. What’s the PARC recipe?

I think if you want to breed a good foal, you need to start off with a mare that is well-bred and is a nice type. A saying that I stand by is, ‘A mare can’t give what she doesn’t have’.

If her model and type isn’t good and her pedigree is below average, you’re only fooling yourself thinking she’s going to give you a good horse. You can give her the best stallions in the world and she’s still not going to give you what you want.

As long as you give the right mare a stallion that’s going to suit her, you usually end up happy with the foal you get 11 months later. There are more stallions than ever now available for breeders to use, so there’s a great variety. It definitely helps make it easier to breed the type of foal you want.

6. “Fools breed foals for wise men to buy.” Agree/disagree?

I would have to disagree. If you look at 1.60m classes, very few of those horses are flukes. 90% of them all have nice pedigrees that breeders have put together over a number of years.

I actually think it takes a clever person to breed a good horse, because you need to be very selective for it to be successful.

If we didn’t have breeders doing their job, we wouldn’t have any horses for riders. So I think they deserve a lot of credit for the hard work and dedication they put into this sport.

Obviously, it’s easier to buy a good foal when you can see it on the ground, but at the end of the day, you’re going to have to give plenty for the one you like. Sometimes it’s cheaper to try to do it yourself and breed your own. We also get great satisfaction seeing our own home-breds take their first steps when they’re born and seeing them compete at shows a few years later.

7. Favourite stallion(s)?

The stallions we used the most on our mares this year were Dominator Z, Casallco, Ermitage Kalone and Aganix du Seigneur. One that we might use more next year is Comme Il Faut; reason being after watching the Paris Olympics and seeing Checker (Comme Il Faut) take individual gold and then the talented young horses by him in Lanaken this year.

8. Favourite damlines?

My favourite damlines would include mares like Fragance du Chalus, Qerly Chin, Carthina Z and Ta Belle van Sombeke. It’s hard to pick one favourite out of them all, as they’re all legendary broodmares and have been so influential in our sport. They are somewhere in the pedigrees of almost every horse jumping at 5* level now.

We are lucky enough to have broodmares and youngstock from all these lines and look forward to what the future holds for them in breeding and sport.

9. 2025 plans?

This winter, we performed ICSI with my brother Coen’s mare Conthanja PS (Conthargos). In 2023, she won team gold at the Junior Europeans in Italy and jumped four consecutive clear rounds at the championships. After doing ICSI with her, she’s given us several embryos, all by Chacco-Blue and Dominator Z. We’re looking forward to implanting them next spring and hope her progeny can be as successful as she was for us.

Two foals that we’re looking forward to welcoming next spring are by Casallco out of a Codex One x Plot Blue mare. Their mother is a sister to my former European gold medalist, Playboy JT Z, who is now competing with Charlotte Jacobs and jumping successfully up to 5* 1.60m level.

And, finally, as dad (Adrian) mentioned last week, one of the two-year-old fillies that we’re most looking forward to breeding with is an Emerald out of the London Olympic mare Sancha LS (Chin Chin x Polydor). Her grandam is the famous Sonora la Silla, that won at World Cup level with Jan Tops.

The filly is owned in partnership with Gareth Cassidy and we have high hopes for her, as she is a machine to jump and we hope she can follow in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps.

10. Tell us about the Young Riders’ Academy.

The Young Riders’ Academy has had a massive impact for the better on my career. There’s a great group of riders put together this year, most are friends from past international youth shows. I find the educational trips extremely beneficial, we go on several trips every few weeks just to learn everything horse-related.

The YRA recently managed to get me a job riding for Jos Lansink at his Belgian base. It’s an unbelievable opportunity, as I find his training great and he’s got an amazing string of horses. I got to take two of my own horses there and I’ve already taken them out to some shows.

After we graduate next year, the Academy will help me get into some of the biggest five-star shows in the world, which I’m very excited about.