IT’s a long, long way from the sunnier climes of Philip McGuane’s winter base in Wellington to West Clare. “Philip is a loss to Ireland; he was very under-rated in my opinion. He’s a horseman, a tremendous worker and he will do whatever he thinks is the best for the horse,” says Martin O’Dea, who, with wife Lisa and their three daughters: Lily (18), Daisy (14) and Kitty (11), run West Clare Equestrian Centre.
Storm Bert has passed over and the winter sun glints off nearby Tullabrack Lake, site of MHS Going Global’s impromptu swim, when jumping as a youngster at the West Clare Show. “I helped fish him out!” Martin reveals.
Shows were part and parcel of summer life growing up in the O’Dea household. “My father [Jimmy] and uncle [Marty] jumped a lot at the shows, they’d take ponies for neighbours and bring them on. Greyhounds, coursing and show jumping, that’s all that bothered my father, nothing else.”
Jimmy O’Dea was also a great fan of the nimble Irish Draught mares found then in West Clare, that worked in the fields, did a day’s hunting and bred a foal. Their other transport option for going to early shows was a tractor and trailer, with the ramp at local marts ‘borrowed’ for unloading and loading.
“I jumped two ponies, Black Lace and Brown Lace. When he’d bring me to the show, my father would head over to the showring. There’d be a hundred people around it back then and then when he’d hear my name called, he’d land over to watch.
“You did the whole lot yourself, the ponies all jumped the same practice fence, often poles and tar barrels. There wasn’t a whole lot of fancy stuff! He was a show jumping man, but everyone else was more showing.”
‘Wizard Wing’
In the same way, the O’Dea show jumping yard is now one of the few in this area until you reach Ennis, where there’s the Williams family, Marie Burke’s Clare Equestrian Centre and Banner Equestrian Centre, where a young Philip McGuane, profiled last week, started off with the Barry family.
Sales of a ‘good one’ have bought land, paid for building work and, in the case of one of Philip Heenan’s customers, put a family through third-level education.
Likewise, the sale of LVS Wizard, co-owned by the O’Deas and McGuane’s old boss, Barry O’Connor, helped expand their yard and even built on the ‘Wizard Wing’ extension to their home.
“He was third and fourth in the Dublin seven/eight-year-old classes, second at the Breeders’ Classic, won two or three Horse Board classes with Philip,” Martin says, summing up the young horse class career of the Cobra gelding bought from Anne Marie O’Gorman.
Changes to the original farmyard include a new barn, where the silage pit once stood, and the conversion of the stone-cut cowsheds to stables.
“I left school when I was 16, did the farm course and then Leader gave me a grant for a training centre. Bord na gCapall did courses here, there was a West Clare Breeders’ scheme and I broke a lot of horses for the members.
"Then, before Goresbridge sales, Paddy Murphy, Paddy O’Hanlon and Ned O’Flynn would set up shop here for two days to vet the horses.”
CSF Zurich, one of several bought from lifelong friends the Connollys, with Daisy and Kitty O'Dea at home at West Clare Equestrian Centre \ Susan Finnerty
Eastenders
Changing markets made for a different direction.
“What happened was the horse was making five or six thousand pounds at the sales and sure, it was great. You were charging 100 quid a week to break him, the horse was costing roughly a thousand quid to that stage and he was making five. Then he started making four, three and then he went down to €1,500 and it was costing a thousand to get him up there. So people just gave up. And then we changed to doing riding lessons.”
The ‘we’ by that stage included Lisa Hartley, originally from New Ross, “at the back of the John F. Kennedy Arboretum”, where she had set up her own livery yard.
“We were always into horses. I eat, sleep, drink horses, but did third level too.”
The couple first met at Millstreet Horse Show, where Lisa’s family were selling a three-year-old and Martin was competing.
Phoning Lisa in the middle of an Eastenders episode to complete the sale was very nearly a cardinal sin, however, the romance blossomed. “That’s how we started really, that telephone call. I moved down here. We stopped breaking then, the indoor was being used for riding lessons, that would have been around 2000, 2001 and then we started buying horses,” said Lisa.
“Ardfinnan, the first horse we bought, we sold to the Army. He was an Errigal Flight from Baden Powell’s breeding.
“Well, people had lost interest in horses a bit, like the Irish language or music and dancing. It had gone from the people who always had them to the next generation, who really weren’t that interested,” Martin remarked about the drop in the breaker-to-sales market.
“All the Errigal Flight and Laughtons Flight, they were good, genuine horses, great triers. There’s a lot to be said for a horse that’s a trier whatever he does. The way I look at it is, I want a jumper. If he doesn’t jump, he’s an eventer. If he doesn’t event, he’s a hunter, that’s it.”
Another genuine sort that passed through their hands was WCE Irish, later a prolific amateur horse for Gary Higgins. “Sure, we don’t breed them like that any more. He was by Ard Grandpa, I bought him at the sales and I remember coming home as my father was giving out about this Draught, ‘where are you going with him!’ But he was a great jumper and very careful. He jumped 1.30m in Millstreet and it was kind of like a stepping stone, you knew what a good horse was then.”
Italian dealer Enrico Pedroni was a good customer. “He bought a couple of horses off me, mostly Cavaliers. I would have been jumping at St Mullins, Graiguenamanagh, New Ross Gymkhana, Waterford Show. They’d [agents] pop in and out of there, that doesn’t happen now,” remarked Lisa.
Connolly connection
Rising prices for buying young horses saw them switch to the foal market instead and an Irish Farmers Journal classified advert led to a great friendship with the Connolly family in Cummer, Co Galway.
Vis Ta Vie Van De Farm, a Darco mare, caught Martin’s eye. “I saw her jump and I said whatever she has, I’ll buy it. She had a Cruising chesnut colt foal and he was €10,000, it was a huge price. He was expensive because his mother was so good and we bought his brother the next year.”
WCE Cruco and WCE Falco were the first pair of foals in a steady stream sourced from the Connollys. One that Martin later passed on was CSF James Kann Cruz.
“I can remember it now, even where he was standing in the field. There was a water trough and I passed him out. The next thing Lisa stopped and she said, ‘What about this fellow?’ She had a notion about him and I just passed him out.
“So, anyway, time went on and I was watching the Dublin livestream qualifier and this James Kann Cruz was jumping with John Mulligan.
"And I said, ‘He’s a right one, brilliant’. I rang Connolly and bought his two brothers over the phone right there. One was a yearling and one was a foal.
“He’s a freak, he has that plainness but he leaves the ground like a bullet, which is unusual, he bounces off the floor. He had two down at Mullingar one day and Francis Connors, who was riding him then, says ‘Well, how are you?’ ‘Jesus Christ,’ I said, ‘I’m bad. I’ve two brothers at home!’
“‘Well, if you have, hold on them.’ See? Francis always loved James Kann Cruz.”
Those two half-brothers of the Aga Khan hero and Paris Olympic horse - CSF McGregor and CSF Zurich, both by Glasgow van het Merelsnest - are out in the stables.
Education
The pair have just returned from the Sunshine Tour with Lily, who is taking a year out before starting her third-level studies. “I was there for three weeks, loved it. I learned a lot working with Trevor Breen and his crew,” Lily says.
Beezie Madden (“she has won everything”), is a great role model for Lily, while James Kann Cruz is nominated as her favourite horse. A place on the FEI Young Riders’ Academy, whose 2024 group includes Rhys Williams, is an ambition and Lily has already completed the SJI young rider bursary, spent at Carlos Pinto’s Milestone Farm in The Netherlands, where Alex Butler is the stable jockey. “A big thank you to Alex and the Pintos!”
But first, there’s that UL place to study Law and English waiting next September. While all three daughters excel in producing horses and ponies, their parents see third level education as a pragmatic grounding, even if they opt then for a career with horses.
“Give them an education before they head off into the unknown, because it’s a tough business,” Lisa points out. “Lily is visually impaired, so it’s pretty amazing what she’s doing really.” Which already includes a place with Seaspray on the Children on Horses team at the 2019 European Championships.
Daisy was also selected for the Irish team at this year’s Children on Horses European championships with CSF Zurich (VDL Zirocco Blue).
Not surprisingly, CSF Zurich, another sourced from their lifelong friends, is her favourite horse and Francis Connors’ work ethic sees him nominated as Daisy’s pick among the riders. “The proudest moment was definitely going to the Europeans this year.”
The French combination of Julian Epaillard and Donatello D’Auge are Kitty’s favourites. “I really like his horse,” says the youngest, who qualified Killaneena Cookie for the Dublin 128cm classes and was placed at the Home Pony International as a nine-year-old, with the aptly-named WCE Little Star.
She has also inherited the DoneDeal buy Shanvally Potter that Daisy qualified with for both Dublin and being on the second-placed team at the Home Pony International in Cavan.
Lily and Daisy O'Dea with Catch My Rebel De Grandin Z, co-owned with Vanessa Mannix, at home at West Clare Equestrian Centre \ Susan Finnerty
Paperwork
Seaspray came from Duffy Sport Horses and the O’Deas have fond memories of early Spring Tours, with Vinnie Duffy, Tiernan Gill and Barry O’Connor.
“Martin, Shane and Trevor Breen, Alex Duffy, Darragh Kenny, Alexander Butler… they were amongst the first of the Irish to go to the Spring Tours too. Jan Tops was involved in running it,” Lisa recalls.
“I couldn’t get over how professional they were, so helpful. There was maybe 3,000 horses there and three women in two prefabs ran it like clockwork. They were way ahead with online entries,” adds her husband.
Both are regular users of the SJI Live app, although there’s a hankering for the former bulletins. “You could look at the calendar and know instantly what was going on then,” says Lisa. Martin is not enamoured with Facebook and the “constant scrolling. Now everyone knows what everyone is doing!”
One valuable contact made was Canadian owner, Vanessa Mannix and several of her retired competition mares are now based at Tullabrack.
“Vanessa was there with Barry O’Connor and Conor Swail. I met her in Dublin and she said ‘Right’, so we did up a [breeding] contract. It’s going fine. The only way that a contract is good, is if it’s never needed to be looked at again!
“The recipient mares come here from John Carey, we keep the foals and we just decide, which is a good foal and how they’re getting along.”
Diamant de Semilly, Conthargos, Emerald and Untouchable are among the sires of the Mannix-owned youngstock, with one of the Untouchable offspring being particularly well-regarded by the couple.
Wild Atlantic ways
Ermitage Kalone is one of the current international stars that Martin likes to watch online. “Maybe Paris [Olympics] was too soon for him, he needed another year, but he did well in the Global Champions Tour final recently. Gilles Thomas, the young fellow that’s riding him, and his owners are very good. Horsemen.
“Otherwise, I never have a favourite horse. I don’t like bad horses, but still, they have to get fed, looked after and find a job somewhere. We were brought up with you feed everything and you look after everything.”
Careful production and “knowing when a horse is really ready to take the next step” as Lisa puts it, are their principles.
“You can prepare a five or six-year-old for Dublin and you might get ‘x’ price. Whereas, I think if the horse is really, really good, leave him alone if the owner can and, as an eight-year-old, you’ll get a lot more.”
“There’s no guarantees of course,” Martin continues. “He might be a top-end horse, but there’s so many avenues otherwise. You can make him into an equitation horse, a hunter, an amateur horse, a young rider’s horse.”
Their stable jockeys are also an asset, with videos galore loaded on Martin’s phone of Lily and Daisy producing ‘mileage’ rounds with their horses, including CSF Alma (Carrera VDL).
“Maria Costello Hayes had sent Cian O’Connor a video of CSF Alma jumping. Cian then rang and asked, ‘What height will she jump?’ I said ‘I couldn’t tell you’. Because we don’t push them, it’s the production of horses more or less, not so much the competing.
“He said ‘Will she make a 1.40m ranking mare?’ ‘She’ll definitely do that.’
"I went up to Cian’s, she jumped and, half an hour later, I was out the gate. Sold. And he even said that the girls do a gorgeous job with the young horses.”
It’s nearly time to start tacking up for three sets of lessons, held five nights a week. “We gave up the sales, started lessons, buying these good foals off Patrick Connolly and producing young horses.”
And another string to their business is beach rides along the Wild Atlantic Way. 2024 marks its 10th anniversary and the coastal route generated €3 billion in annual revenue last year, up 58% since its inception.
Guests at the Trump hotel in Doonbeg, which employs 190 staff, are among the West Clare Equestrian customers. “The spin-off includes ourselves, the butchers, vegetable suppliers, the gardeners, it’s all local. The hotel will arrange if guests want to go on the beach and we’ll bring the lorry over with horses. It takes over an hour to walk the beach, the views are breathtaking, especially when the swans are rising off the river.”
Adapting to market changes, from the era of coach tours to self-drive holidays, has been the key to tourism thriving along the west coast.
Same as with the O’Deas, who have moved through the changes in the horse scene to find their perfect niche at their Tullabrack base.