ONE silver lining of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic for business-woman and Connemara Pony breeder Lucinda Kelly is that she has more time to produce her ponies.

From making a business plan aged 16 when buying her first pony, to starring on the The Apprentice, and founding a multi-million euro business, Lucinda has always had a commercially driven mind set.

“My first Connemara Pony, Flash, was bought from Buy & Sell as three-year-old. My dad made me write a business plan to buy him.

“I bought him for £1,200 and he won at the RDS in 2003,” said Lucinda.

The love of Connemara Ponies came from her mother, Avril, who breeds under the Dunran prefix at Dunran Castle in Co Wicklow. She rode plenty of ponies growing up, before college and work life took over, but she always came back to them and currently has three Connemaras in work, in anticipation for some sort of show season in 2021.

Two of them are stallions, which is an accident of sorts and, now based full-time in Dublin since the onset of Covid-19, following a few years of commuting to London, Lucinda keeps her ponies in Kilternan where she is trained by John Mulvey.

One of her stallions is the well-known Killaneen Boy, who won the Connemara Performance Hunter class at the Dublin Horse in 2017. There is a poignant story behind the stallion who was bought by Lucinda from the late Colm Costello.

“A lot of people know him from amazing photo that Susan Finnerty took with Colm at Mohill Show, which I still look at and admire,” she said.

“I bought him as a three, rising four-year-old from Colm. I had a few stallions before but wasn’t really looking for one, he just stood out as a lovely stamp. I drove to Roscommon on my own to look at him and loved him.

“I produced him slowly as a four-year-old, the he came out as a five-year-old at the Northern Ireland Festival and won the ridden and the working hunter class.”

Lucinda Kelly and her mother Avril Kelly with Dunran Love in the Mist at the Dublin Horse Show

Goose bumps

Lucinda missed the winning ride in Dublin, through no fault of her own. “He was winning the working hunters but he was always funny with water, so I asked Diarmuid Ryan to take him to the first qualifier at Scarteen and he ended up qualifying for Dublin and then he won in Dublin. I get goose bumps thinking of it. “I went in to visit Colm after, and brought him in a picture. A part of George is a part of Colm, I feel he is looking down on him.”

She wanted to add to her string for 2021 and recently purchased another stallion, the four-year-old Errismore Rocky-sired Coastline Cosmo, from the President of the Connemara Pony Breeders’ Society, Anne Marie Conroy.

“I bought him in January and he is broken and riding now. He is a lovely stamp of a pony and he will be aimed at the novice classes and the Green Hunter class in Clifden, which will hopefully go ahead.

“It is by accident that I have two stallions as it is not ideal at all. But sometimes, when you see a nice pony, you just buy it. I typically like to ride stallions and mares.”

The final pony in Lucinda’s 2021 string is the six-year-old I Love You Melody-sired Dunran Love in the Mist, who was bred by her mother. “She is being aimed at the Stepping Stones league and Dublin, if it happens.” To her delight, Dunran Love in the Mist won the opening round of the Stepping Stones at Wexford Equestrian on Thursday.

She is also very excited about a special two-year-old colt, Coillte Dubh Henry, who was bred by the late Henry Kelly, by Monaghstown Prince out of Callowfeenish Mary.

Lucinda’s mum Avril continues the breeding programme at home, producing a few foals every year. Her foundation line goes back to Cashel Kate, gifted to her by her good friend Susan Donnelly.

“When Sue emigrated to Canada, she gave mum a present of her ponies and that is how mum started the Dunran ponies from two of these Rathaldron mares. It is lovely breeding.”

She is very optimistic about the current marketplace for Connemaras. “The market is so strong at the moment; people are getting record prices for youngstock right through to older ones. Breeders are saying it is about time. People have saved up a lot of money, they are at home, they have more disposable income and can afford to take on project ponies. It is all about supply and demand, and the demand is high. People are paying big money for ponies,” she said.

Lucinda Kelly with Killaneen Boy \ Susan Finnerty

Business-minded

Some will recognise Lucinda’s face from Bill Cullen’s board room in The Apprentice, where she finished fourth. The entrepreneurial streak was in her DNA, with her father, Martin Kelly, running the premium menswear shop FX Kelly on Grafton Street while she was growing up.

She worked at Eircom and was then Head of Strategy for Marketing communications at Paddy Power, before taking the plunge to start her own business, Popertee.

Popertee is a platform that connects brands with retail spaces for short-term rentals and marketing campaigns, using data. “There are high vacancy rates in Dublin and London, so we work with landlords to fill units for short term. A lot of clients and brand are looking to create a marketing campaign – it could be Volvo or Diago or Coca Cola for instance; we use data to predict where the brand should locate their pop up and to measure the audience in store – we can tell the brand their age, gender profile, etc.”

Popertee gained international attention and they won the European Retail Start-up of the Year in 2018. It was on the up, with big international investors but, sadly, Covid-19 has badly affected business. However, Lucinda is using her time wisely and now she has more time to ride her ponies.

“I had been living in London up to just before Covid and was travelling to and from. The business was hit really badly, we had to let people go and the UK operation is on ice at the moment. We are retail and retail is the worst hit; we are trying to lay low and tick over quietly,” she explained.

The lockdowns also gave her a chance to start a podcast called Connemara Pony Tales. Her neighbours at the Dublin-based offices in the NDRC, EquiRatings, were on hand to give podcast advice when she was starting out, and each episode is attracting between 600 and 1,000 listens.

“I’ve always been an avid listener of podcasts. When I was home I thought ‘why not do a Connemara one’. I rang Diamruid Byrne and he really helped me, gave me the ins and outs.”

One thing is for sure, this but entrepreneur won’t be sitting around waiting for Covid to pass.