SOMETIMES best-laid plans can be derailed in the most pleasant way possible. A visit down to Newcastle West to see the town’s agricultural show site, somehow turned into a Discover Limerick trail around the yards and homes of some of the county’s countless characters.
Tour guide for this West Limerick whistle-stop tour is Liam Ruttle, a gentleman who spins many plates, including his involvement with Newcastle West show. In the past, the show’s July date clashed with Louisburgh and so there has always been an amicable understanding by this Limerick fixture that nothing ousts Louisburgh from the calendar.
It’s different this year. Like many other shows seeking that ‘sweet spot date’ to entice entries and footfall, Newcastle West has moved to an earlier slot for 2024. Now, thanks to five Sundays in a row this June, the Limerick fixture is neatly tucked on Sunday, June 23rd, between Athlone (Sunday, June 16th) and Charleville’s traditional weekend fixture (June 29th-30th).
The Newcastle West recce has already turned into sightings of now USA-based show jumper Paul O’Shea’s home place in Kildimo; Mary McCarthy’s riding school in Clarina, that started off generations of Limerick riders and there on the skyline is the still-impressive ruins of the Gothic-style Dromore Castle.
If The Cap Fits: James Cregan, who produced World Cruise’s Clover Hill dam Curragh Queen, with his son Dylan and daughter Jessica \ Susan Finnerty
“I spent my childhood cub hunting there every August and September. Lord Daresbury, the Master of the Limerick Hunt, was my neighbour and my taxi. He had 180 acres across the road from my home place and his Bedford lorry was my pony’s lift to the hunt meets. All around here is Stonehall Harriers country too and we’re almost in Kilcornan, near Hollypark and Curraghchase Park, where Joan Bateman lives,” said Liam, mentioning one of the quiet driving forces behind the Traditional Irish Horse Association.
Hollypark Stables is the first stop on Good Friday, a good place to catch up with the next generation of pony riders coming through, such as Chloe Hourigan, who has just jumped a double clear with the 148cm Blessington Blacklier, owned by father Michael – a namesake of his own racehorse trainer father of Beef Or Salmon and Dorans Pride fame.
Another double dose of déjà vu is on the cards after meeting the Cregan clan and reminiscing with James about the Curragh-prefixed string of horses he produced. These included Curragh King and the Clover Hill mare Curragh Queen, the dam of Shane Breen’s 2010 World Equestrian Games horse World Cruise, owned by Sandra Duffy.
Analogue/Digital: Swish Equestrian’s Keith McLarnon maintaining a presence on the retail front \ Susan Finnerty
Rising stars
Hollypark is also the venue to put a face to the names of young Dylan and Jessica Cregan, two regulars in The Irish Field results section with their team of SNS show-jumping ponies. And on the Pony Tales page too, as a photo, perfectly captured by Catherine Power, of seven-year-old Dylan soaring over a stone wall while out hunting with the Stonehall Harriers in November 2021, featured that week.
“SNS comes from Shanballa Stables, our yard here in Kilcornan, located between Adare and Askeaton in West Limerick. Myself, Dylan and Jessica regularly hunt with the Stonehall Harriers, our local hunting pack, of which I’m the hunt secretary and I’m also the secretary of the showing section of the Limerick Show for my sins,” explained Ann, James’ wife.
It was another busy week for the family, with another pony sold at Cavan on Monday.
“The kids’ hunters are both already sold, so I need to get a few cobs broken and going for next season. Dylan turned 10 in January and is very passionate about show jumping, loves his hunting and also enjoys producing a Connemara pony or two every year.
Always Sunny In Limerick: Ella Moran with Bronheulog Sonny Boy, the Ruttle family’s schoolmaster on loan, pictured with Liam, Erin McAuliffe, Jodie Moran and James Braddish \ Susan Finnerty
“Jessica is seven and is equally passionate about ponies and is mad for hunting, along with having started her SJI career last year. They both love the challenge of producing young ponies.”
Hans Kühnle’s astute observation about less of the horsemanship trait found in families and youngsters (see Breeders’ 10 on page 93) rings true, however the Cregan clan defy that trend. And last year, a then nine-year-old Dylan recorded a remarkable feat, notching up 1,766 Showjumping Ireland (SJI) points, which his proud parents believe is a record tally of points earned by a pony rider in one year.
Hard-earned points too, mostly clocked up on a team of home-broken and produced novice ponies.
Horsemanship flourishes in the Cregan yard and Dylan has already qualified two ponies for the 128cm under 10s classes at Balmoral and also for the Pony Masters at Mullingar International Horse Show. Plus, after his second place in the Spring Tour at Maryville, this talented youngster has already secured a place in the Pony Academy.
“His top pony would have to be SNS Melody, a super competitive little piebald pony, who is only six years of age. He also has a bunch of promising young ponies coming up through the grades, as well as a couple of 138cm ponies.”
Horse Chat: Liam Ruttle and David Moran at Deelside Saddlery, run by David’s sister Trish \ Susan Finnerty
Swish via India
Growing up at shows is par for the course for show jumping families and the excellent facilities at Hollypark Stables, plus the Good Friday sunshine, made for an ideal day.
“Show jumping has changed though after Covid. You had your time, jumped your round, went home – that’s kind of carried on, whereas before, you were here for the day and stayed to watch,” noted another observer.
Audrey Hannan and Mary O’Sullivan still have plenty of competitors to oversee from the judges’ box and there’s even a short ‘infomercial’ over the PA system about Swish Equestrian’s on-site presence.
Hollypark Stables’ busy Bernie Roche makes the introductions to Keith McLarnon, who is manning his tradestand, surrounded by piles of rugs.
The retail sector was on the receiving end of an even bigger wallop than showring ambience during and post-Covid, especially amongst US ‘brick-and-mortar’ giants. A recent stroll through Macy’s near-deserted Philadelphia and San Francisco flagship downtown stores, included amongst a list of 150 Macy’s branches pencilled in for closure, was a stark reminder of how retail patterns have changed.
“I am only online, so this,” said McLarnon, pointing to his Swish Equestrian stand, “is my bricks and mortar. Coming out and meeting people is what it’s about, so I like to call this the analogue in the digital world.”
A balance of online and his presence at shows is his business approach.
“I was invited on webinars, people say we can set you up with a Shopify website, we can do this and that. It doesn’t work. You’ve got to set up your website, get a good manufacturer, but then you’ve still got to get out and do this. This is real.”
So, boots on the ground works for him.Waterproof ones at that, as the weather and the belief that it hasn’t really stopped raining in Ireland since July 1st last summer was the leading topic in West Limerick.
“Waterproof boots, literally. Our biggest seller is turnouts, turnouts, turnouts. And people are leaving turnouts on and using them as stable rugs because the horses are just getting covered in mud.
“I did a run up the country last week and everyone was just saying the horses are covered in muck every day and there’s no point putting stable rugs on them. They’re getting destroyed. And the amount of rain that we’ve had has just really influenced that, people are just buying turnout rugs.”
Swish Equestrian has also started stocking the Equine Products range, such as Gastro Sport, alongside horse rugs.
Lucky Horseshoes: Oorla Cusack, who is set to run in the Boston Marathon tomorrow \ Susan Finnerty
“James Kelly does this, it’s a family-owned business, so I’ve started selling those for him as well,” said Keith, who sources his own goods from China.
“The Chinese used just to manufacture and put it out there. They’ve become very, very good at the process, so now the quality is an awful lot better. There’s very few people that don’t have something coming from China.”
He also lived in Mumbai and Chennai in India. What’s the Indian horse scene like?
“A big change. Not too many horses, mainly Arab-y types, but they do a lot of point-to-point, polo and racing is big there.”
Good deed
Back on the road, more landmark pins are placed in the West Limerick map, including a postcard-like row of stables under a thatched roof.
“That was Sean O’Shaughnessy’s place. He was a show jumper and his ambition in life was to jump in the main arena in Dublin with a coloured horse. He didn’t achieve it, but Sean was a very well-known character around here.”
Dairy farms are plentiful in these parts and Michael and Loretta Enright, who combine dairying with their Ballyengland-prefixed horses and John Griffin’s farms were two sightings.
“John is a first cousin of Shane Breen and bred Cos I Can.”
The Olympic Lux – Carel View Lass, by Harlequin du Carel gelding was competed by Breen up to 2013 when the gelding was sold to American rider Reed Kessler. With both riders, he amassed five-star Grand Prix starts and competed across the globe from Doha to Los Angeles.
The next port of call is Jodie Moran’s yard near Askeaton. On the flip side of post-pandemic changes, what began as a side hustle with one-on-one instruction during Covid as riding schools closed, has now blossomed into a business for her, alongside producing show cobs and horses.
“I started helping out a few of my friends’ children and it just took off from there. It wasn’t something I had planned on doing.”
Vitaliy Halstyan also instructs from Jodie and husband James Braddish’s Foxfort Stables all-weather arena and is busy putting Sophie Cusack and her Connemara, Dunguaire Mick, through their paces in preparation for the IPS Easter show at Hollypark that weekend.
“Vitaliy is originally from the Ukraine and dressage is his speciality. He originally came to Ireland to Michael Hourigan’s yard to ride racehorses and to school Beef Or Salmon.”
Watching on is Sophie’s mother Oorla, who was set to fly out from Shannon yesterday to compete amongst some 30,000 entries in the Boston Marathon, which takes place tomorrow.
A more sedate pace is set by Bronheulog Sunny Boy, who has settled in well in his new home with Jodie’s niece, Ella Moran. It’s now a decade since a ribbon-festooned bay pony and his young rider passed by at the first agricultural show of the year at Newmarket on Fergus. That was the part-bred Welsh ‘Sunny’ and Liam’s daughter Carol and thinking how this ‘next generation’ photo would make a nice change from the usual young or ridden horse champion for the Irish Horse section in the Irish Farmers Journal, the pair was stopped for their close-up.
Standing alongside the pair that day was a beaming Liam, who nowadays is just as delighted to see the kindly schoolmaster bring on his next rider. Particularly after a sad turn of events.
“Ella’s new pony got colic and died. Sunny Boy was in semi-retirement due to being outgrown.”
So, he rang up Jodie and offered young Ella ‘Sunny’ on loan.
“Ella has him for as long as she wants him,” added Liam. “They’re after a great start to 2024 in starter stakes, open 133cm and young handlers classes.”
And the good form continued at Hollypark Stables that weekend.
“Dunguaire Mick won the 143cm show hunter pony class, Ella won the young handlers championship with Sunny, Tiger Eye – Oorla and Sophie’s new horse – won the intermediate show hunter with Sophie and went supreme horse with me.”
“He also won the intermediates at the IPS championship show on Thursday with Sophie and Ella won another young handler championship there with Sunny,” said Jodie in an update.
Shades of Askeaton Grey
There’s one more stop in Askeaton: Deelside Stud. While their mother, Jill, is in Dublin that day, Trish is busy with customers, trying new saddles at the Deelside Saddlery premises, which stands alongside her brother David’s yard.
Cos I Can was one West Limerick-bred to keep the Irish-bred flag flying on the international show jumping scene in the previous decade. Another was Limestone Grey, bred by David and ranked as the top Irish Sport Horse in both the 2016 and 2017 World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) results.
The Try Time gelding’s winnings with Italy’s Luca di Lorenza also saw him finish as the second-highest-earning Irish-bred in the Hippomundo rankings, having earned (€144,610) in 2017 and €154,320 in the previous year.
David is very pragmatic about horse breeding, citing the family of Limestone Grey as an example of how he regarded him as a fortunate freak of nature.
“The first one from the family – a mare called DS Alice – was by a thoroughbred horse. A nice riding mare, she went to England through Goresbridge and was evented to three-star by Alex Postolowsky. After, that, came Limestone Grey and I sold him one day out there in the yard, loose jumping, to Jim Roberts.
“And then there was two by Derg Cruise, the first one was an absolutely thundering hardy so-and-so, but he sprung a hock and the last was a 14.2 pony. She jumped to maybe 1.20m and went to England. He [Limestone Grey] was a freak. Like, we bred three or four Try Times here. One we sold to Jim Derwin as a hunter. I was jumping him over a wall outside and Clover Bishop [Jill’s Grade A show jumper] was alive at the time. He was retired and down the field and the Try Time I was on had seen Bishop galloping with his tail up. He couldn’t wait to catch up, so when I turned him down to the ditch, he gave a flash out over it and Jim bought him.
“It’s not easy breeding horses,” continued David. “You know, you have people saying, ‘Oh well, this is what you do: you cross this with this and you look at the mare line... it’s not that easy or else, everyone would be doing it. And it takes time.”
It’s time too to move on, as there’s a couple more calls to make at the end of the first part of an insightful day into the tapestry of Limerick horse life.