WHEN I first visited Ashford farm in 2015, I thought it was one of the most charming and beautiful stables I had ever been to. It is nestled in the middle of the Belgian countryside, in a town called Bocholt, 35 minutes from Eindhoven and just over an hour from Brussels.

It felt like it had always been there, but in reality, it was an old pig farm that was carefully restored into a red brick horsey haven by Galwayman Enda Carroll after he bought the 17-acre plot in 2014. Fast forward 10 years and every aspect of Ashford Farm is bigger and better.

From Carnmore in Co Galway, Carroll made a name for himself as one of the biggest horse dealers in Europe and America at a young age and has always run Ashford Farm as a top show jumping stable alongside his art of dealing. As we speak, his stable rider Jana Wargers is in the running for a place on the German team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a horse Carroll owns.

From a humble 17 acres, Ashford Farm now extends to just over 86 acres all in one combined plot and Carroll has big plans in the pipeline. But first, we go back to the beginning.

Enda and Stefanie Carroll with their children, Chloe and Charlie, at home in Ashford Farm in Bocholt, Belgium

“We bought a 17-acre farm and then I think me being Irish and a bit old fashioned, I’ve always sort of been taught you try to buy more ground, it’s not a very popular thing to do in Belgium. But I always like to buy as much neighbouring ground that comes available. So over the course of the last 10 years, we’ve put together just over 86 acres,” the 38-year-old explains.

“We recently bought a 30-acre farm right next door, which was a cow farm, and we’re going to develop that into a breeding and training facility, completely separate from Ashford farm. It will be a whole other stable with its own riders and trainers for our young horses and for training up-and-coming talent.”

The “missing part of the puzzle” according to Enda was the development of the exceptional office, lounge and viewing area at the farm which was completed in 2021. With floor to ceiling glass looking out on the huge outdoor, a bar, a lounge area for clients to chat and relax, plus fantastic office spaces for the staff, it has transformed the farm.

“We designed this office with our architects, and it was ready to build just when Covid-19 hit and the whole world stopped. I said, you know what, I think this is a huge investment and we’re just going to cancel it for the moment. I called all the architects cancelled everything but I just woke up in the night thinking about it, and I called everyone back the next day, and we just said, ‘we’ll just go for it and do it now’.

“It was the best thing that we could have done, because the year that we were building, there was no clients really coming and there was a lot of construction at the farm. For welcoming our clients, it a really beautiful facility. And actually, we’re just going to develop the mirror of it now, with just office space. When one project is finished, I look forward to starting the next! I really, really enjoy it,” Carroll says.

FAMILY MAN

Also key to the expansion of Ashford Farm is Enda’s wife, Stefanie, who has ridden at the top level of the sport herself for The Netherlands. The pair met through show jumping circles and Stefanie joined the farm in 2016 before they were married in a beautiful wedding at Adare Manor, Co Limerick, in April 2019.

Now parents to two children, Chloe and Charlie, Enda and Stefanie live in a beautiful house on the farm which, in total, comprises of 40 stables, an indoor, outdoor, canter track, paddocks and a big Grand Prix field.

“Stef rode at a high level, and then after having the kids, she came back riding at a decent level with a nice group of horses. Unfortunately, in 2023 she had two quite serious falls, and in the second fall, she broke her knee and the recovery of that was quite long. And in the meantime, when she couldn’t ride, we started another company called Ashford Real Estate.

“She’s been developing some apartments and some renovations of older houses for resale and for renting in our neighbouring towns. She’s been very busy with that. It’s going well and she is really enjoying it. I don’t know if she will come back to riding full-time, I would love if she did, but if she doesn’t that’s fine too.”

It seems these two entrepreneurial brains together is a recipe for success. “She is smarter than me, that’s for sure!” Carroll quips.

SPECIAL TALENT

The main rider at Ashford Farm now is Germany’s Jana Wargers who, with Enda’s backing, has emerged as one of the leading German talents in recent years, riding on winning Nations Cup teams around the world – including Rome CSIO5* just a few weeks ago, Aachen in 2022 and the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona last year.

With the classy 15-year-old gelding Limbridge, owned by Enda and Jos Lansink, 32-year-old Jana was ninth individually at the FEI World Championships in 2022 and when this interview was taking place, they were still waiting to hear about their Olympic team status. (Update: Jana was selected as the alternate for the German team with Dorette.)

Jana and her business partner Michael Cristofoletti - an Italian rider and trainer – joined Ashford Farm officially in March 2021, after a few attempts by Enda to get the talented pair to Belgium. “Jana was obviously a super talent in in Germany, who I actually offered a job to a few years before, but she declined it because she had just started her business with her partner, Michael Cristofoletti.

“I continued to watch her, and was a big fan of hers. So after about a year, I sent her a horse to ride. And then fast forward another year, she was riding about 10 or 12 horses for me at her stable in Germany. I made one more attempt to employ her and Michael. It’s been fantastic for Ashford to have both of these key people working for us.”

Jana Wargers and Limbridge, owned by Irishman Enda Carroll

Her superstar horse talents are the aforementioned Limbridge and a 15-year-old mare named Dorette who spent time in Ireland with the Wachman family.

In a busy dealing yard, these are the only two horses that are not for sale. “It’s a lovely story,” Carroll says about the gelding Limbridge who he bought as an eight-year-old in Belgium and sold to America’s Eve Jobs. After two years and some success, he came back to Ashford Farm, around the same time Jana arrived. “It was just the perfect timing for him to come back. They started together in April and by the end of July, she was very successful in Aachen with him.”

The Olympics are the main aim for the year and it would be a big honour for Enda and his business. “It would give me great pride for Jana’s career. We started this journey three, four years ago and we’ve sort of come from the bottom and to get to the Olympic Games, what would be a dream.”

BUSINESS

Ashford Farm is first and foremost still a dealing yard. “Our clients are the priority. I always feel that if you’re a horse dealer and you’re not selling horses, you’re not a horse dealer anymore. Our best horses are for sale. The only ones that are not for sale are Limbridge and Dorette because, first of all, they are older and second, they’re the flagship of our stable to do high level sport, and looking forward to the future, we will be adding Dorette to our breeding farm.

“Limburg will retire happily in the paddock. We sold him once and he’s come back. I feel like it’s a little bit of a sign that he was supposed to come back with the success that he’s had with Jana, and I just wouldn’t feel right to sell him again. But apart from that, all of Jana’s top talent is for sale.”

Enda’s partnership with Dutch chef d’equipe and former champion show jumper Jos Lansink is strong and long standing. “When I was starting out 15 years ago, obviously I was a very small name in the industry. I found a very, very good seven-year-old, named Nice Stephanie, and I called Jos… we started with that horse and we just snowballed from there. We have done a lot of deals over the last number of years and I think as partners, we’ve had a lot of success together.”

Another arm of Ashford Farm is the breeding operation which continues to grow and he has two lovely Irish mares breeding on the farm. The first is the Heather Dean Wright-bred Ard Ginger Pop who Enda bought as a five-year-old at the 2014 Goresbridge Supreme Sale of Show jumpers and later sold to Alison Firestone Robitaille in the USA.

“I am very proud of my eight-year-old De La Pop AF Z (Diamant de Semilly – Ard Ginger Pop) who is an outstanding talent. We have done a nice partnership with Alison and Ginger Pop is back at our breeding farm, and we do a joint venture on the breeding.”

Another partnership with the Magnier/Wachman family sees the gold medal-winning jumping pony Cuffesgrange Cavilidam, bred by Eamonn Sheehan, breeding at Ashford. “She’s an exciting one. It’s nice to have these special mares in our breeding programme.”

HORSE SHOW OWNER

If Enda Carroll wasn’t already busy enough, he will be soon as he embarks on a new venture as a horse show venue owner. A two-week ‘riding holiday’ to Vilamoura with Stef and the children ended in Enda buying a 210-acre farm in the centre of the town on the Algarve and he has huge plans to develop a high end equestrian venue on the site.

“We just fell in love with Algarve and Portugal. I just felt it is a unique place in the south of Europe that could really host a top-class equestrian facility. Vilamoura can really offer something very special for family, for quality of life, and that trickles down to parents and riders with families. So, it was kind of a no brainer, and I’m always looking for opportunities outside the horse trading. We’re currently, hopefully at the final stages of all the building permits, and we can get start building in January 2025.”

In terms of running the shows, Enda said: “I will definitely have an input, because I will try to run as good and as professionally as possible. We will try to create a really good in-house team, but knowing me and knowing the level that we will want, I will definitely be involved. I bought the place myself but when I start building, I will definitely take on several partners.”

The wheel never stops turning for Enda Carroll or Ashford Farm.

Rolex coming to Dublin:

My opinion is, it’s the best thing that’s happened to the Dublin Horse Show. It’s going to give it longevity. Is going to give it a breath of new air in the tires and it’s just going to vamp it up to the next level. Dublin Horse Show is already one of the most special horse shows in the year’s calendar, but having Rolex - such an elegant, strong, visionary brand - injecting their flair into Dublin Horse Show, I think can only bring us to an even higher level. It is really exciting.

Traditional shows vs Global Champions Tour:

What Jan Tops has created in the Global Champions Tour is incredible. That has also brought a huge flair to the industry. Popping up on Miami Beach or in the middle of London or the middle of Monaco, it’s incredible. But nothing will compare to the real traditional horse shows like Dublin or Rome where we were just two weeks ago, these are traditional horse shows with thousands of spectators there just to absorb the atmosphere. You can never replace that.

This interview appeared in The Irish Field's Dublin Horse Show Magazine.