THE decision to hold on to your potential superstar when all around you are lucrative offers to sell is one of the most difficult things for Irish owners these days. But it is one that is paying off in spades for Danville House Farm’s Jessica Stallard and her mare DHF Alliance.

By deciding to lease the mare to the Army Equitation School, she has given her the best opportunity to compete at an international level for Ireland, while holding on to the possibility of breeding from her in the future.

Jessica took some time to speak to The Irish Field earlier this week. “I didn’t go to Valkenswaard last week, unfortunately. I regret it now but hopefully it was just the first of many international wins for her. I’ll just have to make sure I’m there for the next one,” she said. “I was there for her win at the Breeders’ Classic so it was exciting to see that. It was a great day.

“I have a fairly small set up here in Danville, Co Kilkenny. It’s just me and my Mum Barbara. She gives me a hand when she can. At the moment I have four in work. I have the six-year-old gelding Malibu’s Son DHF (Malibu TN x Burggraaf), a five-year-old mare Nubalia DHF (I’m Special De Muze x Indoctro), the four-year-old mare Olivia Garden TN (Highway M TN x Cavalier) and a three-year-old home-bred who is just broken and riding, named DHF Defiant (United Way x Wang Chung M25).

“Up to now I have bought the horses in. Defiant is the first one I’ve bred. From her onwards they will pretty much all be home-breds. I’ve got five broodmares. I have sold some of the youngstock, so at the moment I have three two-year-olds, four yearlings, three foals and am expecting five foals next year,” she explained.

Jessica Stallard and DHF Alliance \ Radka Preislerova

Broodmares

“I’ve built up the broodmare herd over the past few years. Included is Queen 15 (Hagedoorn x Julius) who I competed up to 1.40m before she sustained a careerending fracture to her pastern. As well as jumping herself, Queen’s half-sister on her dam’s side, Angel, has also competed successfully to 1.40m level.

“She is dam to DHF Dakota, by Pilothago TN, and through embryo transfer we hope Queen will have a foal by 1.60m stallion Carrabis Z in 2024.

“Marit Loma W is a 2017 mare by Eldorado Van De Zeshoek. Her dam, Fame Loma SB, is by Quidam B Z and is sister to five-star jumpers Golddigger and Daveau. She had a filly, DHF Valentina (Jorado) in 2022 and colt, DHF Patriot (Carrera VDL) in 2023, and will be bred back to 1.60m stallion Button Sitte for 2024.

“The other broodmare is La Bete Rouge (Balou Du Rouet x Calypso I). She jumped up to 1.40m before an injury halted her career at just eight years of age. She is in foal to Ennisnag Stud’s Unicum H. I also have two Ermitage Kalone embryos from Defiant and Olivia Garden, two of the young mares which are in work.

“We are hoping to have a go at getting an embryo from Alliance, which is a little more complicated and difficult because she is up in McKee, but the lads up there have been nothing but helpful and brilliant at trying to facilitate us. So hopefully that will happen soon.”

International winner

Talking about the mare who won all three eight-year-old classes at last weekend’s WBFSH Studbooks Jumping Global Champions Trophy, Stallard said: “I bought Alliance as a three-year-old from a friend of mine, Ronan Tynan. Just a few weeks earlier I had bought DHF Lift Off (Harlequin Du Carel X Mr Clover) who I rode and produced until she was eight. In 2022 she was sold to Greg Broderick. She is currently competing at 1.50m level and won a Premier Grand Prix with Kevin Gallagher earlier this year.

“Another lovely one that came from Ronan at that time was his home-bred Warrenstown Tomboy (Quidam Junior X Cruising). I broke and produced her through her four-year-old year here at Danville before she was sold to Mitty Hardy and is now enjoying a successful eventing career in the UK.

“I broke Alliance and we did some of the four-year-old qualifiers and the normal age classes. The more we did with her we could see that she was just getting better and better. In her five-year-old year she began to show the scope and the carefulness you can see in her now.

“I was doing some work with Geoff (Comdt. Curran), some clinics and lessons during Covid times and he spotted her and asked what I intended to do with her. I said I thought she was really nice and I’d like to see how far I could bring her.

“During that year I was hounded by everyone; every time I brought her out someone was trying to buy her. My head was wrecked. I had some conversations with my mother and we figured if she is that talented, we need to give her the chance to reach her full potential.”

Lease agreement

“With the best will in the world, I’m not an Olympic rider and am under no illusions about my own ability so we figured to give her the best shot, the army may be the place for her.

“I had a chat with Geoff and obviously he knew her but the others, Lt Col Tom Freyne and the rest of the purchasing committee didn’t, so we brought her up to the barracks. They watched her jump and were impressed, so we went on to sign the lease agreement and that’s where we are now.

“As ridiculous, and maybe unprofessional as it sounds deep down, I’m still just a girl who loves her horse, so this worked out best for us. I can still hold onto her and be involved. I would always try to do my best by the horse and for her this was the best decision,” Stallard continued.

“The team at McKee are fantastic. Any time I’m at a show I can go over and say can I see Honey (DHF Alliance) and it’s never a problem. They have said any time I’m in Dublin I can call in and see her.

“Capt Charlene Keogh rode her first when she arrived and did a great job with her before Geoff took over the ride.

Kevin Gallagher and DHF Lift Off jumping at the five-star Dublin Horse Show. The horse was produced by Jessica Stallard \ Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

“For me, as a breeder, to have a mare like her and hopefully be able to put back into the Irish herd is brilliant. To think that her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be breeding here is a way to keep her talent in the country.

“It’s one thing to be dropping her off at five to the barracks and thinking, yes she has potential to go on, but now to see it start to come to fruition is surreal. Hopefully after a long and successful international career she’ll eventually come back to the farm here and retire.

“That’s the dream anyway!”