SOMETIMES a ‘people version’ of Hippomundo would be handy for looking up families and results.

Although piecing together the family tree of Boleybawn Horses’ and Irish Breeders’ Classic founder Ronan Rothwell, you can see how a life with horses was a given with his own bloodlines.

His grandfather Derek Rothwell started him off with his first broodmare, his uncle Derry and cousins Sharon and Mary are some of the show ring’s best-known exhibitors, brother Philip trains racehorses and there’s a link too to one of the most coveted trophies at Dublin Horse Show; the Croker Cup.

“Willie Hatton, my grandfather on my mother’s side, stood stallions. We’ve a picture of him in the house after winning the stallion class at Dublin with Royal Graney. He bred some thoroughbreds and Philip spent a lot of time in Borris, so we got it from both grandfathers,” Ronan remarked about the brothers’ inevitable ‘horse gene’.

At first, Ronan looked set to follow his father Noel into dairy farming. “I was about 10 when I was brought for riding lessons but I wasn’t really into it. My plan was I was going to be a dairy farmer and have horses on the side. I left school after Junior Cert, I always said school was getting in the way of my learning!”

One year at Gurteen Agricultural College and one Green Cert later, Ronan found himself drawn back to horses. “It wasn’t that conscious of a decision but the horse side just kept growing and growing.”

Before he settled back at Fairwood, there were a couple of apprenticeships to be served with the McDonnell family at their Pallas Stud in Nenagh and international show jumper Marion Hughes.

“I learnt a lot from both,” he acknowledges. “I was with Willie McDonnell [junior] for six months. Willie taught me a lot about how to evaluate a horse. Before I went there, I didn’t know about what type of horse was suitable for what market or how to correctly evaluate a young horse. Willie was very good at that.

“Then I went to Marion’s yard. I got the chance to do the Sunshine Tour in 2001 and I got to bring my own horse. That was a real eye opener as I’d never competed abroad.”

Ronan Rothwell \ Philip Doyle

A precious gift

The horse he brought was the 1994-foaled Boleybawn Riverdance, by the local thoroughbred stallion Nearly A Nose, out of the Kildalton King mare, Fairwood Princess. “She was gifted to my parents by my grandfather [Derek] and my parents gifted her to me.”

This mare, whose granddam was the prolific Dublin winner Greenhall Madam, by Lucifer, became Ronan’s first broodmare.

“One of them, Boleybawn Perfection, jumped up to 1.50m,” he remarked about the Ard VDL Douglas gelding, competed by US rider Caitlyn Connors. By then, horses had started to take over from dairying. “I got very interested in horse breeding and genetics.”

One of the first stallions to catch Ronan’s eye was the Belgian-bred Ramiro B, now one of the world’s top-ranked eventing stallions. “He was jumping with Maurice Cousins at that stage. I remember that Boleybawn Riverdance was the same age and she jumped in a four-year-old competition at Ballinteskin. She was second and Ramiro B won.

“He was just the nicest horse. At the time, he had more elasticity than any other horse I’d ever seen. He was just jaw-dropping, the movement and that jump.”

That was the start of Ronan using continental-bred stallions on his original group of broodmares. “I covered very normal mares and the most success I had, when I took the first step forward to breeding, was with Douglas and Ramiro B.

“I don’t have a favourite stallion as such but the one I owe the most to is Douglas. I’d say he had the most impact. I covered, in hindsight, average mares with him. People tell me that Darco, his father, did the same; you could cover an average mare with him and you could breed a very good horse.”

Despite the advice of a Belgian contact, who cautioned him about the lack of performers in Douglas’s damline, Ronan’s instinct about the stallion paid off. “I’ve been very lucky with them anyway. At the time I didn’t know anything about Douglas’ damline because nobody really knew what HorseTelex was back then. I bred seven by him and all of them made a profit.”

The milking parlour increasingly took a back seat as his sport horse business built up. “I sold a lot of horses as three-year-olds when I was working on the dairy farm, then I started to spend more time with the horses.”

When asked what type horse he aims to breed for modern markets, Ronan had this interesting angle on what, to him, is the most valuable commodity.

“The aim is to breed a 1.60m amateur horse. Rideability is very hereditary, it is the most valuable asset a horse can have in the sales world. The value goes down 66% if they’re not rideable.

“Even as you go down the markets, a rideable 1.30m horse is worth three times more than a difficult 1.30m horse.”

Ronan and Suzanne Rothwell \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Under the hammer

One off-farm career that developed around this time was as an auctioneer. “It was just from going to the sales that manifested an interest in auctioneering. It was very hard to get into because there’s no training available and it wasn’t in the family, most auctioneers tend to be family businesses.”

“It was Stuart Clarke that let me sell my first horse. I’ve sold at Brightwells too, in Goffs and mostly in Goresbridge.”

He describes the move to online bidding and auctions as “the best of both worlds. Online bidding is a huge gamechanger,” he said, before remarking on the contrast between real time and virtual auctions, with no noticeable drop off in bidding in the evening time. “Often at the latter end of the day, the internet gets even busier.”

Facilities at Boleybawn include the original outdoor arena, resurfaced last year and an indoor school built 10 years ago. A team of four full-time and six part-time staff has replaced the original one-man operation and there are currently 20 in-foal mares on the farm, of which 16 are embryo transfer (ET) recipient mares.

“I generally use up-and-coming or retired stallions as I don’t like to use frozen semen and generally, when they’re seven years and upwards, and competing, they’re not as freely available.”

The foaling boxes cameras will go live once the Boleybawn mare herd start to foal from early April. “We start foaling from the first of April because I try to get the young horses out to grass before the mares come in. We’ll have about 12 foals due in the first 19 days of April.”

Aganix du Seigneur, Livello, Rock n’Roll and Castlefield Kingston are just some of the stallions selected last year. The recently Preliminary Approved stallion Castlefield Kingston, owned by Castlefield Breeding Team, was selected for two mares; D’Amour du Nenuphar (Vagabond La Pomme x Diamant de Semilly) and Emma van de Wolfsgracht (Mermus R x Latano I).

“It was actually me who broke Kingston in,” revealed Ronan. “From day one, he could trot a figure-of-eight, balanced and with a good contact. He was naturally very rideable and because I knew him, I was keen to use him.”

With the French-bred D’Amour du Nenuphar continuing her own competition career at national Grand Prix level, her foal is being carried by one of the resident recipient mares. How did Ronan get into the business of supplying recipient mares to breeders? “We’ve nearly 100 mares now. Initially, how I got into it was when Clem McMahon offered me some recipient mares and it took off from there.

“Sixteen hands and above. For me, the plainer, the better as they’re kept in big groups and the thoroughbred mares don’t do well in big groups. They’re [plain mares] easier maintained, their food conversion rate is better, their feet are better and they’re hardier,” he said, describing his preferred type.

Michaeli Byrne and Ronan Rothwell's home-bred mare Boleybawn Bella won the Mo Chroi four-year-old final at the 2019 Dublin Horse Show \ Meadbh Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Serendipitous

Back to the subject of breaking in horses, which typically takes five to six weeks at Boleybawn where youngsters are long-reined for up to 14 days.

Another youngster started off here is Dutch rider Andrew Heffernan’s five-star event horse Boleybawn Ace. From the eventing family of Fernhill Revelation (Philip Dutton), Balham Houdini (Austin O’Connor) and Kingpin (Mike Winter), his serendipitous backstory centred round that great Irish tradition; the luck penny.

“I bought a Cavalier mare [Queen Cee] from Kieran Lennon in Borris and part of the deal was the luck penny was to drop her down to Paddy Quirke to get her covered by Harlequin du Carel. I think I only owned her for five days when she conceived Boleybawn Ace!

“I sold him to an English dealer as a four-year-old, the owners contacted me when he started his career and I watched him closely as he climbed up through the ranks.”

The pinnacle was Badminton in 2015 when Ronan, accompanied by wife Suzanne, went to watch him compete there. “We loved seeing the horse there. My wife is a schoolteacher, she teaches with Mary [Rothwell] in the same school in Carnew.

“Suzanne did a PhD looking at the genes that contributed to racehorse performance in muscle. So she is very helpful when it comes to breeding decisions, because she understands the science behind the breeding.”

The couple have two children: Louis (2) and Naomi, born last October. Louis, “He’s animals-mad” has his own pony amongst the Boleybawn stock, however it was a very different experience second time around for his parents as pandemic protocols in hospitals meant Suzanne had to attend her antenatal appointments solo.

“I was at every appointment with Louis and wasn’t at any appointments for Naomi,” said Ronan, the brainchild behind the Irish Breeders’ Classic.

Ronan Rothwell's home-bred Boleybawn Actor and Darragh Ryan winning in the main arena at the 2017 Dublin Horse Show \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

Making a positive impact

Billed as the richest show jumping championhip in the world for young horses, why did he take on the challenge?

“I started it off in 2012 because I’d observed the positive impact prizemoney had had on the racing industry. I’d been involved in racing at one stage, I trained 10 winners so kind of got to know the industry and that prizemoney is the lifeblood of it all.

“I felt that if young horses could jump for a lot of money, it would incentivise every part of the sport horse industry. It would make it very attractive to owners to buy young horses and then compete for the big prize fund, so they could turn their investment around quickly.

“I just wanted to give the industry a bit of a boost because, in 2012, I’d say the industry in Ireland wasn’t in a very positive place after the recession. It needed a bit of a kickstart. It was something I thought should be done and I was in a good place to do it.

“In 2019, I took a step back from the Breeders’ Classic. It was a committee that has taken it on and ran it in 2020. I basically headed it from 2012 to 2019. I felt I’d given what I could to it, also my business was growing rapidly and I had a young family.”

While he feels that support from Showjumping Ireland (SJI) was lacking for the venture, he felt the current organising committee “did a fantastic job in 2020. Even with the pandemic. I thought it was one of the most successful Breeders’ Classics that was run.

“I owe a lot to Jim Bolger and Horse Sport Ireland, among many others for getting it off the ground. I didn’t know Jim Bolger at all. I rang him one morning and said ‘I’m Ronan Rothwell. I want to run the richest young horse competition in the world. Can I meet you?’”

And what was the reply? “‘Would you not have anything better to do?’ That’s what he said to me!” replied Ronan recalling the trainer’s wry response.

Not only did Jim and Ronan meet several times but the former accountant-turned-trainer of classic winners offered sound advice. “He advised me about the best way to approach things, he contributed financially, introduced me to people and he was just so helpful.”

Looking back over the Irish Breeders Classic, any standout memories? “There’s several but I’d have to say my greatest memory was when the first horse, on the first day, in the first year, went into the ring. It was actually Tomás Ryan on a mare by Indoctro, I couldn’t believe it was actually happening until then.”

Professionalism

Just as the pandemic has accelerated the growth of online auctions, another silver lining is the increase in online entries and start times for shows. Ronan had commented on social media how SJI Live and pre-entry have been game changers for the sport. Why so?

“I think a lot of people are unaware of how important it is to look after the owners. Often the disadvantage for an owner is they don’t know when their horse will jump. If they own a racehorse and that horse is entered in the 2pm race, that horse will run at 2pm.

“Obviously for owners and buyers, it’s a massive boost to know when a horse is jumping. I hope, when we come out of lockdown, that show organisers won’t bend to pressure to take entries on the day or, if they have to, maybe charge a premium on the day for the late entries.

“Realistically shows will slip back… the problem is, if you’re running a show and somebody turns up with five horses to enter at €25 each, you’re just not going to say no to that €125. But if they could accept the entries and maybe charge a premium, or some sort of a penalty, for not declaring on time?”

Professionalism in any business relies heavily on marketing. Who created the clever ‘You are better off with a Boleybawn horse’ hashtag? “I’d never done anything really with marketing but I came up with that and it’s just kind of self-explanatory.”

There’s a mixture of science and tried-and-trusted methods in use on the farm but no regrets by the thoughtful Rothwell about switching from dairying.

“I prefer the horse industry because you can increase your margin by having a better product. In the dairying industry, you can only increase your margins by cutting costs. I’d call that the race to the bottom.

“When you’re able to create your own brand that has a limitless value, you can make a profit by increasing the value of the product and that’s what makes it more exciting for me.”

And for that reason, the end result at Tinahely is Friesians: 0. Boleybawn Horses: 1.