BROOKFIELD Farm is based in Ballina, Co Mayo, where we have a small, self-sufficient farm of just under 48 acres on the town outskirts. We keep an average of 25-30 horses at most, which I normally buy as foals and, in recent years, we’ve dabbled in breeding.

It all started in 1979. My late father, Tiernan Snr, bought a Shetland pony called Beauty to eat the grass around the house, because a ride-on lawnmower was too expensive at the time. And that’s when I got the horse bug.

Our stables are based beside our Gill Group business. We’ve a very diverse portfolio of businesses, from Gill’s Driving School, Brookland Gas, Brooklands Bedding to Brooklands Oil Company.

Very diverse, so when the pressure comes on at work, it’s great to go over to the stables and be with the horses. It’s actually a sense of relaxation for me.

The stables are run by a great girl called Susan McGinty, who came from our equine course, which we run through the Education Training Board. She’s been with me now for nearly three years and is part of the family.

My family are also a big part; my wife Caroline, son Alex, daughter Alli, and then the real boss, my mother Maura. It’s a real family affair and the horses are one bond that keeps the family together.

1. Do you believe, as the Irish Horse Board chairman, that it’s important to breed horses too?

Yes, it’s very important as IHB chairman to be in the trenches with the breeders in Ireland.

Irish breeders, who understand the market requirements, are actually getting well rewarded if they breed the correct stallion to their mare. Just look at the prices from the Cavan elite foal sale. For me, breeders do need a little more education, sales technique for example and they’re getting no help.

I’ll be quite honest – it’s crazy that it takes so long for Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) to produce passports, foal passports, it’s a joke. And the Department of Agriculture needs to wake up and so does the Minister, because breeders in Ireland are in turmoil. If they don’t have their passports, they cannot sell their animals.

The Minister and his counterparts get paid every week or month, but not the people looking for passports. They can’t get paid, because HSI are not doing their job correctly.

2. Proudest breeder moment?

I only started breeding, to be quite honest, in the last couple of years, and now my oldest are three-year-olds. I buy about five or six foals every year and I hope the home-breds will one day match them, such as Ucarado B (Gran Corrado x Nimmerdor). He won Dublin as a three-year-old, qualified as a four-year-old and won the Millstreet and Cavan five-year-olds.

Another was Cas 2 (Indoctro x Numero Uno). I bought him as a foal, jumped him myself as a four-year-old, he went to Vinnie Duffy, Cameron Hanley, Harrie Smolders and was one of the top horses in Europe.

“Family are a big part” - Alli, Caroline and Tiernan Gill at Dublin Horse Show \ Susan Finnerty

3. Favourite bloodlines?

Where would you start? For me, you can’t have enough blood. The sport of show jumping has changed so much, it’s so fast now, but you also need to breed something that’s very careful. You need rideability, you need scope and above all temperament.

You could name names, but it’s the bloodlines with all those attributes. And it still has to be a nice, good-looking individual looking out over the stable door. A nice, attractive horse will always sell.

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

Yes and no. Some breeders get very well paid for foals, for example, Cavan with foals making over €30,000. I was in Holland, Germany and Belgium last week at some sales and there was nothing like that.

You’re getting well paid now, if you breed the right foal. It can be an excellent return, but it doesn’t always happen for me. I normally buy five or six foals every year, and it’s like gambling.

I pay a fair price for them, keep them and then as three-year-olds I get them vetted and there might be something wrong with them. And it’s very simple for things to be wrong with them. So I could be the fool at the end of the day.

5. Do breeders get enough recognition/financial rewards?

For me, breeders need more recognition for what they do. Again, Horse Sport Ireland is the governing body for breeding and, in my mind, they’re supposed to be doing an awful lot more for Irish breeders. Irish breeders can’t even get the passports off them.

It’s deplorable the job they’re doing for breeders in this country, and it should be out in the open how pathetic it is. And it’s not sour grapes because of the Irish Horse Board, I mean that sincerely, it’s just being very honest.

6. Winter regime?

It’s a very simple one. The foals stay in, they’re handled, get walked and are fed normally. I don’t overfeed them and let their joints grow. Normally, the yearlings and two-year-olds are out on grass, rugged up and the three-year-olds are in to get broken.

You cannot beat Mother Nature; if they’re rugged up, warm, the horses’ heads are down and they’re getting Dr Green (grass). That’s more natural.

We’ve used Gain feed for years, I get a great service and could never fault them. I don’t really use supplements, but worming is very important and we keep the paddocks clean.

We have a good farrier, who comes every six weeks and every horse has a file, so we know when they’re done.

7. Prefixes, your views?

For a breeder, it’s brilliant. They keep their name out there and all their hard work is noted, but competitors are sponsored and the sponsors want their name there too. So there’s for and against.

It’s happened to myself, I had a bit of a fallout with somebody who had a prefix, I bought the horse and changed the name, as I have a sponsor to keep happy as well. So, for me, it’s good and bad both ways.

8. If you could have bred any famous horse?

You could say Cruising, Boomerang, Ryan’s Son, there’s loads of them. The horse I really loved one time was Plot Blue. He was so balanced, with rideability and scope. If you want to breed something, that’s what you need to breed all day.

9. It takes a team – who on yours?

I’ve a small team in the yard: Susan, the head girl, Johnathon McDonald and his wife Sonja. They’re hardworking, enthusiastic, grafters and we’d always try to do the best for each other.

Alex is studying for his Leaving Certificate, but he’s there during all the holidays. And I have loads of good horsey friends and acquaintances around the country, who helped me a lot. I don’t know everything, absolutely not, but I can get a lot of guidance from them as well.

10. The ultimate dinner guest?

Richard Branson. I’ve really admired him because he overcame a lot of obstacles and just ploughed on. He said he wasn’t the brightest buck in the world, but he had cop-on and for me, you can have all the brains in the world, but if you don’t have cop-on, you have nothing.

He built up a huge multi-million-pound business. And I love people who, when they see obstacles, they just move the obstacles out of the way. It just gets them more motivated.