IT’s one of the often-told stories of Irish breeding folklore; how Irish mares were sold abroad and frequently used to build up continental studbooks. So what ever happened to their offspring and are there any success stories from this exodus?

Precious few show up in Horse Telex searches. The Belgian sBs studbook provided a couple of leads but otherwise the search has drawn a blank.

“Not in the north of Germany but maybe more in the south and Switzerland, there were mares, mostly the Clover Hill mares, sold to those regions,” advised one Holsteiner stud manager. Then, as Padraig McCarthy pointed out, some of them came home. “Marion’s father, Seamus [Hughes] would have bought some back from Max Hauri,” said McCarthy, who himself trained with the Swiss dealer.

Looking northwards instead to Sweden, where his fellow Tipperarymen, the Hickey brothers – John and Eamon – have settled, is the key to finding out that some of the best Irish export success stories happened there.

For example, there was Shamsong, the Imperius-King of Diamonds cross mare that bred Jack of Diamonds, sire of Rioghan Rua. Shamsong was bought by Slyguff Stud’s Barbara Hatton from Andy Bell in the North of Ireland and then sold on to Irco Mena’s owner, Ann Gustavii, a great fan of Irish bloodlines.

Irco Mena’s own pedigree contains other near-lost Irish lines in Menelek and Battleburn. Gustavii, and her late husband Lars, also purchased Norson, a rare stallion son of Nordlys, from the late Jimmy Maguire in Ballycanew to stand in Sweden.

Maguire helped put Clover Hill on the map when he bought Viewpoint, the stallion’s first foal, from his breeder, Philip Heenan. In 1985, the little horse set Olympia alight winning two classes and finishing third in the World Cup qualifier there.

The same epiphany about this unknown Draught stallion happened for the Hickey family in Millstreet and ultimately ended up with John Hickey naming his Swedish farm West Gate after the feisty Clover Hill mare that made his name.

West Gate, the historic Clonmel landmark is steps away from the town’s famous Hickey’s Bakery and Cafe. Just the same distance lay between the Hickey’s house and a field, containing a young Clover Hill-Milan-Middle Temple filly, bred by Ralph Hayes, from ‘up near Nenagh.”

SWEDISH MOVES

“She ended up literally 15 metres from our gate, just across the road. I’d see her every day. She was there with another mare and I thought the other mare was nicer, they belonged to a farmer named Kennedy, a friend of my fathers. ‘That mare is good,’ he’d say ‘Would you buy her for IR£1,000?’ and we’d say no.”

“So we went down to Millstreet that year and the Clover Hills won everything, so my father [Edmond] said, ‘We’d better buy that horse!’ but she was sold to a dealers. He had to pay IR£24,000 for the two of them, we could have bought them for IR£1,000 each!”

That was West Gate and the pair went on successfully compete on the national Grand Prix circuit here.

“She was very tricky, very hot but she was so brave, if you steered her at a car, she would have jumped it. I did all the Grand Prix classes around Ireland with her, Cork, Galway, Eglinton, Balmoral, as an eight-year-old she did all the big classes. It was unbelievable then to be jumping in the same class as Eddie Macken, James Kernan, Harry Marshall.

“It was Michelene Croome-Carroll who got her to come good, she was a very, very good trainer. My parents weren’t horsey at all. My uncles John and Ger are, one had the winner of the Grand National and the other had the winner of the Gold Cup. Michael O’Leary flew John over to Cheltenham to see the horse run.

How, as the legend goes, did the 25-year-old Hickey end up arriving in Sweden with little more than his riding boots and a handful of kroner?

“I had a little falling out with my father,” he said candidly. “I took the truck up to Navan, a little bit against his will! I jumped there, I was third in the Grand Prix and then I sent the horses home with a friend of mine, Paddy Meaney. I got on a truck going up North, then another truck and ended up in Sweden.

“There was a job in the middle of the woods here, I mucked out and rode 10 horses a day for the first year there. I started helping people with the little bit of knowledge I had and made my way here, helping people. Then about two years later, my father sent West Gate over to me and that was a turning point because I was able to get into the bigger classes. I was in Belgium once and I remember Marie Burke rode West Gate for me and of course Chipmount, that’s how I got to know Willie Boland, a lovely chap.

“Then I brought West Gate back to England and trained for three months with Ted Edgar. When I had left for Sweden, Jim rode West Gate and he did very well with her, he did the Grand Prix classes at Millstreet and had his own very good show jumping career too,” added John, explaining how all three of the Hickey brothers from Clonmel competed at national level.

THE BROTHERS

Jim is now the well-regarded sport psychologist who has coached a number of Ireland’s Olympic and international show jumping and eventing riders. Eamon was the second of the Hickey brothers to move to Sweden too, after a spell with Max Hauri.

Eamon was involved with breeding Albfuehren’s Bianca. The Balou du Rouet mare won Steve Guerdat’s individual bronze medal at the World Equestrian Games in 2018, the same year as she won €637,151 in prize money.

She’s a product of the Swedish select breeding system. According to the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses statistics, Sweden’s SWB studbook has 4,110 registered broodmares and produced 2,642 foals in 2017.

Inspections were developed as far back as 1874 and stallion inspections became compulsory in 1918, with the SWB officially founded in 1928.

Bianca was sold as a promising three-year-old at the Swedish Select Horse Sales auction for 360,000 Swedish kroner (approximately €36,000) to her new Greek owner Hannah Roberson-Mytilineou. She had bought the mare online on the recommendation of the Swedish Rio Olympics team Chef d’Equipe Sylve Söderstrand.

“Bianca’s mother [the Cardento mare Coco] never competed. She did the three-year-old test and that was it, her grandmother [Maxia, by Maraton] never competed either,” Eamon had told The Irish Field after her Tryon third place. Eamon no longer breeds horses,

“That stopped five years ago. I’ve always broken in horses and gradually it took over. Instead of doing a little bit of everything, you’re better off to do something right,” he said.

At his brother John’s breeding and training farm in Björklinge, north of Uppsala, the ‘West Gate’ barn sign flies proudly at the entrance. Foaled in 1982, the Clover Hill mare has left her mark both in naming Hickey’s 150-acre ‘pure horse farm’ and in the pedigrees of some of the horses he’s both bred and competed on.

What did she breed after retiring from her international career? “She bred five. She had one [Cool Hill] that won at a five-star show in Helsinki and I got him sold for €100,000. He was by So What, one of the most winning horses in Sweden, he was selected for the Olympic Games in Sydney.”

Cool Hill was one of two stallion sons bred out of West Gate with Top Of The Hill, by Corland being the other. “He was a big winner up to 1.45m in Sweden and internationally.

George Morris rode him a few months ago at a clinic and he just loved him. ‘Adorable’ he said in French about him,” remarked Eamon.

“Top Of The Hill was an unbelievable horse. Unbelievably fast, the old-fashioned way! I sold him there just before Christmas, it was a sad day to see him go.”

ON THE MAP

West Gate’s trio of daughters include her first foal Aqua, by the Nimmerdor son Aram, foaled in 1998. Her last foal in 2006, is Off The Planet by Lux Z and slotted in between is the millennium year-foaled Domination, by Calino. “She was second in the six-year-old final at Falsterbo, then got injured.”

“West Gate’s grandson Family Affair is a huge winner in Sweden for Irma Karlsson and another The Right Way is already a winner at 1.40m at seven years old. Two of her [West Gate] progeny jumped at Zangersheide and there’s another four-year-old from that line that I can’t start wait to start work on this year, it’s jumping the top of the wings already. All of her offspring are just such triers.”

With half-a-dozen foals due this year, John’s preferred foaling season is May to June so that foals can benefit from better weather and grass, however ‘they do foal well indoors and earlier too.”

Did he watch Bianca jumping at Tryon? “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. IT was unbelievable. Everything stopped when that was on. I remember seeing her jumping in Helsinki three years ago and she seemed very gobby with her mouth then. He’s some jockey Steve Guerdat.”

“It all started with Royne Zetterman and the late Tom O’Dwyer, God rest him. They put Ireland on the map in Sweden. There has to be more Irish mares breeding here,” said John, talking about the strong links between Sweden and Ireland, especially those seen first-hand since his move here 28 years ago.

“Adrian Williams and I have sold a good few ponies here,” he added while his and wife Cassandra’s two young daughters Eileen and Amber already have their own Irish pony to learn on.

It’s all about generations in building up bloodlines and businesses. Ireland, he proudly points out, has delivered an abundance of recent Olympic riders such as show jumpers Greg Broderick, Denis Lynch and Kevin Babington, plus three-day-event rider Padraig McCarthy.

And where Clover Hill stood - did he ever see West Gate’s sire?

“Once! Philip Heenan asked me how many times I drove past the gate trying to find the place. It took three times but I did and even went into the stable to see Clover Hill.

“Eric Lamaze sayes that Cagney, [by Clover Hill] put him on the map. West Gate did the same for me,” said John Hickey about one Irish mare export to leave a paper trail and start her own Swedish bloodline.