WE probably did too much talking!” laughs Christine O’Donnell of Bramblestown Sport Horses and Ponies after we’ve had a long chat about her family’s life in horses.

Her mother Miriam and father Kevin are dashing out the door to watch a match, but before they go there’s one more story.

Some are priceless, but there’s also a serious side to this family, and it’s their dedication to the industry, and their many successes as producers of top equines that have brought about this long overdue feature today.

Thoroughbreds, hunters, show jumpers, show ponies, event horses, Connemaras and even racing ponies have all been educated at Bramblestown House, just outside Gowran.

Records of the family’s involvement in horses go back as far as the 1950s, when Kevin’s grandfather James O’Donnell trained a runner for the Aintree Grand National. “That was Prince of Aragon for Tommy Connolly. Only for he was so low in the handicap, my father (Kevin Snr) would have ridden him,” Kevin commented.

Kevin Snr also enjoyed many a day out as an owner with the likes of Kerry National winner Gabhran and Prince Tammy, first home in the Galway Hurdle in 1978. Both were trained by Paddy Mullins.

When Kevin Snr took out his own permit he had some nice horses too, including Nicholls Cross who won his maiden point-to-point at Lingstown in 1997 under Kevin Jnr. The son of Mandalus later made a record price of some IRL£100,000 at Doncaster and turned into a useful chaser for Eddie O’Grady.

The Bob Back mare Aine Dubh was another success story, and being a home-bred was rather special. “My father bred her and owned and trained her to win a few good races, including the €50,000 Dawn Milk Handicap Hurdle in Galway under Sam Curling in 2003.” She went on to breed a few winners, including Dubh Eile and Triopas.

Kevin Jnr also had a winner as a trainer at Galway, with Sophie’s World winning a handicap there in 2014.

Kevin Snr, who died in 2021 at the age of 95, was a keen hunting man and had served as both a master and chairman of the Kilkenny Hunt.

“There’s always been horses here at Bramblestown. In fact, my father used to say ‘a farm is a boring place without a horse’,” Kevin commented.

Christine O'Donnell with her father Kevin

Like his father before him, he continued the passion for both horses and farming, specialising in sheep and tillage. They mostly train National Hunt horses to sell – some are ridden on the track by Kevin’s sons Philip and Andrew – but they have had other decent Flat ones such as Shersha, who was placed in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Epsom.

How she ended up in Bramblestown is quite a story.

“We were looking for a Flat filly for breeding and actually swapped her for Coolgreaney, who we bred ourselves,” noted Miriam. “The one we got in return was Shersha, who didn’t go breeding straight away and was instead invited to run in Nad Al Sheba. Kevin ended up out there for three months. The kids and I got a holiday out of it too.” Shersha went on to breed no fewer than seven winners.

Luck money

Miriam had her grandfather Paddy Moore to thank for getting her interested in riding, him having received a pony instead of luck money after buying some cattle.

“I started off in Pony Club and hunted as well. In fact, when I was working in London as a PE teacher I used to come home every few weeks to hunt.”

It was at a hunt ball of the Carlow Farmers that the couple first met in the mid-1990s, later settling in Bramblestown.

The arrival of their five children - Philip (28), Christine (26), Grace (25), Andrew (24) and Sarah (22) - made for a busy household, but there were always ponies about and horse shows to attend.

Kevin was also DC of the Kilkenny Pony Club for a time while the children were members.

Christine remembers her first outing to the Dublin Horse Show at the age of 11. “That was on a pony called Blessington Springdale. I was competing in the 133cm working hunters and won my class before going on to be reserve champion.”

One of the first Connemara ponies to arrive at Bramblestown was Mayfly Green Peter. By Ballinaboy Tom and bred by Justin Barrett, he was picked up as an unbroken three-year-old. The 138cm gelding showed great promise early on with Grace in the saddle, winning at several shows, and as a six-year-old was sold to Ger Foley in Carlow.

Over the following decade he accumulated many prestigious wins with several of Ger’s children, including Ruben who rode him to victory in the 138cm championship at the RDS in 2022.

“He was a serious pony, so much so I bought his half-brother by Grange Finian Sparrow as a yearling,” Miriam said. “Named Mayfly Black Pennell – who is also named after a fishing fly – he was later sold to Marion Hughes and from there to the Boland family in Wexford.” He too qualified for the RDS, placing fifth with Annie Boland in the 138cm final in 2022.

Winner of the Connemara Performance Pony Championship Final at Oughterard Show 2024 was Trapper Lad, ridden by Christine O Donnell. Pictured with judges Laura McWeeney and Glenn Farrell Walker, and owner and mum Miriam O Donnell (right), and sponsor Rory Clancy \ Rynes Walker

It was also in 2022 that another Bramblestown graduate, the 148cm mare Glor Tire Cruise (Ars Vivendi x Cruising), brought home team gold for Ireland under Eoin Brennan.

She had been picked up by Miriam as an unbroken three-year-old and produced along by Grace, who had also campaigned Orchids Vienna internationally before the Dutch-bred mare went on win the 148cm championship at Dublin under Sean Monaghan.

Connemara junkie

Miriam O’Donnell is a self-confessed Connemara Pony junkie. As Christine said: “some people buy handbags or shoes, my mother just buys ponies.” Many a trip to Clifden to sell one pony has resulted in several more coming home in the box. There have been some superstars among them.

“Once I got into Connemaras, I was hooked. I love them because I can ride them myself,” Miriam admitted. “I never really breed too many. I prefer to buy a few as foals. That way you can watch them through all the stages of development, and you can model them. You get the pick of them in Clifden at the October sales.”

Miriam goes through the catalogue with a fine-tooth comb. “I mark off a few and go through each pedigree on the app. The damline is very important. If I like the breeding I’ll give it a double tick and go look at it.”

Miriam and Christine adopt the same attitude when it comes to sport horse foals, and they currently have a few nice youngsters by Conthargos, Valent, Diarado and Emerald. “I prefer warmblood breeding now over TIH because the warmbloods have a trainable mind and are often more athletic,” Christine said. “For top-level eventing you also need a fancy mover and a good jumper.”

One of their biggest success stories in terms of Connemara ponies they have produced is Woody Sammy, who was ridden by Bonnie O’Neill to claim team silver for Ireland at the 2024 European Pony Eventing Championships. By Woodfield Sammy he was bred in Creggs, Co Galway by Brendan Noone.

“It was pitch dark one night and we were at Kieran Egan’s in Ballinasloe looking at ponies,” Christine explained. “He had bought him at Clifden the day before. Mum saw him over the door and went in for a closer look. He was a gorgeous dun and stood out a mile. She bought him there and then.

“We did a lot of work to get him going on the flat and, in 2020, he did some of the Stepping Stones and won a qualifier. We later advertised him.”

Eoin Brennan and the Bramblestown Sport Horses' graduate Glor Tire Cruise won a team gold medal at the 2022 Pony European Championships \ FEI

‘Woody’ was purchased by the O’Neill family in Kildare, and brought on first by Eva and then her younger sister Bonnie, who earned selection for the championships when winning the pony two-star at Kilguilkey last summer.

Woody Sammy has since been sold to the UK, but the O’Neill’s have another special former resident of Bramblestown in the veteran Blessington Prince Royal.

“He was initially my hunter, and a fantastic one at that, but my daughters wanted an event horse, so he was basically robbed from me!” laughed Miriam.

The son of Bonnie Prince proved to be exceptional in his new career and took both Sarah and Christine to championship level.

Christine outlines his achievements. “He brought me to my first four-star event as a young rider and he was selected for four championships in all. He made the junior team with me but sadly went lame beforehand, but went on to bring me to young rider championships twice, finishing 11th individually in 2018. He was also selected for juniors with Sarah.”

Now aged 19, he has since given Eva O’Neill some great days on the circuit and will be ridden this year by her younger sister Bonnie.

Susie Berry won the CCI2*-S at Thoresby with Wild Atlantic Way. The gelding was produced at O'Donnell's Bramblestown Sport Horses \ Tim Wilkinson EquiConsulting

Graduates

Other smashing Connemara ponies to have gone through Bramblestown include Rathkeery Melvin (by Lough Melvin Gorteen) who was sourced at Clifden as a four-year-old in February 2023 and went on to win the Green Hunter at Clifden Show that August before topping the adjacent sale at €14,000.

Graduates also include Ballylee Copper Boy, who qualified for the performance classes at Dublin, and Gurteen Annika (from the same family as 2013 Clifden champion Gurteen Cathal) who was sourced at Clifden as a yearling and later sold to Sweden.

While still in young riders Christine got a fantastic opportunity to represent Ireland at world championship level with Shanagore Jenga, by West Coast Cavalier.

“We went to see another horse that was with Bob O’Keeffe and out of that visit I got the ride on Jenga. We were selected for the 2018 FEI World Breeding Championships for Young Event Horses where she placed 13th as a seven-year-old. She was a potential medal horse but she sadly died of colic at the age of eight after being sold to the US.”

The TIH gelding BGK Valentine (by Craigsteel) was one of the first to sport the BGK prefix, which stands for Bramblestown, Gowran, Kilkenny.

“I was in college and Mum saw him at the Goresbridge Go Fo Gold Sale,” Christine explained. “He was never a top jumper but very good on the flat and was selected for Le Lion as a seven-year-old in 2022. He did a lovely test to score 27.5 and went clear cross-country, but sadly had two down show jumping which left us out of the top 20.” He was later sold to the US and won for novice rider Lily Story just last month.

Anyone who knows the O’Donnell family and who was watching Christine’s cross-country round live on FEI that day would have been amused to hear commentator Jo’ell Stafford remark: “And there goes Christine’s dad Kevin!” It later emerged that Jo’ell was a neighbour of long-time friends of the O’Donnells, some of whom are deeply involved in the running of the championships. They had met at several dinner parties in France.

“Sure everyone knows Kevin!” his wife exclaimed. “When he was at Nad Al Sheba he was known as the ‘Mayor of Dubai’.”

Sixth child

Christine also started off BGK Ditto (now Global BGK) who is since a winner in the US; BGK Love Affair, who had some decent results here before being sold to the UK where he is now show jumping, and BGK Beloved who is jumping here with Ella Clancy.

More recently Christine has been following the progress of Wild Atlantic Way (Puissance). “We got him as a yearling. Sarah started him off as a four-year-old and I rode him in a few one-day events, after which he was sold to the UK.”

Now being ridden by fellow Irish rider Susie Berry, the eight-year-old notched up his third consecutive win (and second international) at Thoresby Park just last month.

Wexford-based MJ Kavanagh is credited as breeder of both Wild Atlantic Way and also BGK Third Time Lucky (Vittorio) who was ridden by Christine to place in the top 20 at the Burghley Young Event Horse Final in 2024.

“I still have him – he’s one for this year – and I have some other nice horses coming along too, including one by Future Trend and a lovely four-year-old by Valent,” commented Christine, who is customer success executive with EquiTrace.

“Of course, we also have some up and coming Connemaras, including Trapper Lad (Robe Earl). He came through Aisling McGreal in Longford. We went up to buy an event horse and came home with ‘Freddie’.

“Mum competed him in Mullingar (her first show in years), but I rode him to win the performance championship at Oughterard last summer. I hope to aim him now at Balmoral and then Dublin.

“We have to give him a special mention, he’s Mum’s sixth child!” Christine concluded.