PETER Rice is one of life’s gentlemen, who prefers to go under the radar. He doesn’t brag about his achievements, yet his name appears almost weekly as a breeder of top sport horses.

Cooley Lands, Lagans OBOS Quality, Shannondale Que and Shannondale Rahona are just a few who have featured on these pages over the years.

“One time I would have had up to 40 mares foaling, I can’t remember names,” he laughed when asked to recall some of the older horses.

A resident of Keady, Co Armagh, the octogenarian has had an interesting life. “I came from a family of 14 – seven of each. I left school at 13 and worked as a blacksmith for a few years. I was the eighth generation of my family to do so,” he told The Irish Field.

“After five years, I packed it up and went into the building trade. It was only later in life I got into breeding, first Irish Draughts and then Irish Sport Horses.”

The number of foals he has passed through his hands is now well into the hundreds. “One day, I was in Ballinasloe with my brother John and we bought an Irish Draught mare named Duchess Belinda.” That was in the 1980s.

By Blackwater Lad, Duchess Belinda had already produced foals for her previous owner and produced several more, before being sold on at Cavan some years later.

One of the fillies retained by Rice was the Jack of Diamonds mare Lagan Diamond, who went on to produce several foals by the great Cavalier Royale. Rice was a great supporter of the stallion and covered many mares in the 1990s and again with frozen semen even after his death in 1999.

“I covered more mares to Cavalier Royale than anyone. At one stage, I had 37 offspring by him at home,” he remarked.

A glance at CapallÓir will endorse just how many animals boasting Cavalier Royale, Clover Hill and Cruising bloodlines that Rice has bred over the years.

International winners

The home-bred mare Marble Clover is one of note. Foaled in 1990 and by Clover Hill, she went on to produce no fewer than four foals by Cavalier Royale. One of those, Cavalier Hill, was the dam of Shannondale Rahona (by Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan), a national and international winner for the Army Equitation School.

Shannondale Rahona was returned to her breeder when retired in 2021 and, in 2023, she produced a colt by the ISH sire Cloonee Silver.

In 2001, Rice covered his Diamond Lad mare Killeenmore with frozen straws from Cavalier Royale. The result was the filly Cavalier Hugh. She went on to produce no fewer than seven foals.

A family friend, Alanna Morgan, had suffered serious injuries in a car accident some time earlier and, when Rice discovered her love for horses, he was delighted to gift her the 2008 produce, a filly by Hermes De Reve.

“We kept her and brought her to the loose performance competition at the Dublin Horse Show in 2011,” Alanna Morgan commented. “She won the filly section and was overall winner that year. I kept her and bred from her for several years and sadly she has since passed. I have kept a daughter out of her to continue the breeding line.

“Peter is an absolute gentleman and a pure horseman,” she added.

Then named Dysart Diamond Sky (later named Hermes Cavalier Diamond), the mare amassed the highest points at the RDS that year and is believed to still hold that record.

A gelding she produced by Womanizer topped the three-year-old prices at Goresbridge last October, when sold to British show jumper Holly Smith for €14,000.

Another Cavalier Royale mare, Cavalier Lagan, was the dam of the multiple Grand Prix winner Hilton Pacato, by Pacino. The four-star event horse Royal Encounter (by Lancelot) is from the same family.

New bloodlines

Rice often brought in new bloodlines. In 1994, he picked up a mare by Clover Hill from her breeder, Liam Shanahan in Co Clare.

Although never competed, Clover Light Girl went on to produce the five-star event horse Cooley Lands. He is one of the most successful sons of Cavalier Land, who Rice picked up as a three-year-old in Goresbridge.

By Cavalier Royale and out of the Imperius mare Miss Highland, this stallion boasted a pedigree second to none and would go on to stand privately and produce dozens of foals. “I just liked him. I just loved his pedigree given he was by Cavalier Royale and the dam’s pedigree was excellent also,” Rice said of the bay.

To date, he has produced no fewer than five horses to have competed at three-star level and above, with many more still to come up through the grades.

Born in 2008, Cooley Lands was bought from Rice that same year by Brian Cleary. Later sold to Shay Leacy as a yearling, he was picked up at Goresbridge as a three-year-old by Richard Sheane for €18,500. He was then sold to Kate Walls in the UK.

With Christopher Burton in the saddle, they placed fourth at the world breeding championships for young horses at Le Lion d’Angers (as a seven-year-old) and won a CIC*** at Blenheim in 2017. They then represented Australia at the 2018 World Equestrian Games and finished third at Badminton in 2019.

Christopher Burton and the Peter Rice-bred Cooley Lands at the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials in 2017 \ Nigel Goddard

Shining lights

Kate Walls has been a huge supporter of progeny by Cavalier Land. Although Cooley Lands is now retired, Walls has his up-and-coming full-brother, the six-year-old Cooley Cloverland, who was purchased from Rice as a foal. The last progeny of Clover Light Girl, the gelding placed second in the Burghley young event horse class as a four-year-old with Britain’s Ros Canter before going one better 12 months later.

Remarkably, in the 2022 final, three progeny by Cavalier Land were in the top 10, with Kate Walls’ Monbeg Lands (Ros Canter) in sixth and another of Rice’s home-breds, Lagans Ricardo Boy (JP Sheffield), in seventh.

The Michael Byrne-bred Monbeg Lands was previously named Monbeg Cavland when snapped up by Walls for €28,500 at the Monart sale in 2021.

Walls also currently has a promising four-year-old gelding by Cavalier Land, who is being aimed at this year’s Burghley young event horse series. Named Promised Land and a 2023 Monart graduate for €15,000, he is out of the Gothland mare, Joyful Moment, and bred in Wexford by Ros Devereux.

Cavalier Land has numerous other progeny on the Irish eventing circuit, including Kilroe Frolic, Kilroe Lego Land and Claragh Road.

Cavalier Land is also sire of the 148cm mares Redinagh Razzle Dazzle – show jumping with Grace Ormond, and Redinagh Raz Mataz – show jumping with Patrick McDonald.

Now 25, the stallion is still in great spirits and covering mares commercially at Redinagh Stud in Co Wexford, where he has been for the past 10 years.

When Clover Hill was also at the height of his breeding career, Rice used him regularly and many of his foundation mares still boast Clover Hill breeding.

Foresight

In 1996, he attended a dispersal sale in Mayo for the late Lord Rathcavan and acquired Miss Sue Ellen, a broodmare by Oxymandias.

“I don’t think the auctioneer had ever sold a horse before,” Rice commented. “I paid £5,300 for her at the time.”

She was in foal to Clover Hill and later produced a filly, only to be lost a few weeks later after being covered by the same sire.

Another one of Peter Rice’s prolific broodmares was Calvo Queen. Purchased from Hugh Treanor, the daughter of Cavalier Royale was sent to OBOS Quality 004 in 2013 and the resulting progeny was the show jumping stallion Lagans OBOS Quality.

The 10-year-old recently qualified for the Dublin Horse Show with young rider Christian Kennedy.

Lagans OBOS Quality and Willem Greve \ Moises Basallote

The dam later went on to produce two full-siblings in the form of Lagans KBS Calvo Lad (currently jumping 1.20m) and Global Narco, who is competing at CIC*** level with Tara Dixon.

Harry’s Girl produced one of the last foals by Cavalier Royale the year he passed away. This was Shannondale Que, who amassed over 300 points in his eventing career.

Roselier was one of Rice’s favourite thoroughbred sires. “I was one of the few who used him on a few half-bred mares at that time. He was a fantastic addition to Irish breeding.”

One of the resulting foals was Roselier Girl, who produced the two-star event horse Fernhill Encore, by Don Juan De La Bouverie.

Through his friendship with the late John Hughes, Rice was a loyal supporter of the Belgian import, who stood alongside Cavalier Royale at Williamstown Stud.

Rice had the foresight to use Roselier long before breeders were encouraged to use National Hunt sires on sport horse mares.

Over the years, the hugely successful breeder also had several mares by Cruising, one of those being Derrylea Grey Lady. She was the dam of Ard Ginger Pop (Luidam), the silver medallist from the FEI World Breeding Jumping Championships for five-year-olds in 2014.

Another was Cruising Star, a half-sister to Trish Ryan’s 2000 Olympic ride Don’t Step Back and dam of Lagans Rice Star, who is currently at intermediate level in the UK.

Peter Rice was rightly acknowledged for his accomplishments as a breeder by Horse Sport Ireland in 2011 and 2021, a year which also saw him included in the list of leading breeders according to prize money won by the 1.60m show jumper KBS Major Player. He is a full-brother to Derek Morton’s multiple Puissance winner, KBS High Quality. Morton also now has another sibling, Lagans Last Rolo.

In addition to the horses, which is a full-time job itself, Rice also contributes to a thriving family business. “My son Peter Jnr owns and runs Springisland Supermarket in Coalisland, which employs some 130 staff. We have been supplying the beef for customers for well over 20 years now.”

This summer Peter Rice has been kept busy at home attending to his broodmares. “Peter Jnr said to me ‘no more horses’, so I don’t have as many as I used to.

“Some are in foal to Cavalier Land. Ard Ginger Pop’s full-sister, Lagans Derrylea, recently produced a filly by him,” he concluded.