I live in Menlough, Co Galway, on the family farm where my father was born. About 30 years ago, we bought our first horse, on the Fair Green in Ballinasloe, when my father, Denis, bought a White Clover filly foal from my father-in-law, Michael Kennedy.

Of course that filly needed company and so the numbers started to grow. I fell in love with the horses and then bought a Rich Rebel filly myself. I’d never heard of a traditional Irish horse until the Traditional Irish Horse Association (TIHA) held a meeting at Ballinasloe in January 2012, around the time they were setting up local branches.

I went along to hear more and have been involved since. You couldn’t help but be influenced by the passion that people like Hugh Leonard and Valerie Thorington have for the traditional horse.

1. A busy weekend with the TIHA AGM tomorrow in Portlaoise. Why take on the chairman’s role?

I don’t really know; it’s a question I always ask myself, but it is an absolute pleasure to work with the people on the council. They don’t need a chairman, no task is too big and, when a task is taken on, you can be sure that it will be done.

I find myself looking forward to our meetings, which we try to have face-to-face about every two months, particularly in the busy time of the year, with follow-up Zoom calls. There’s a huge amount of experience in many different fields, all brought together by the TIHA.

2. 2024 - what do you think are the greatest challenges facing traditional sport horse breeders?

In my view, one of the big threats facing the TIH is the narrowing of bloodlines and lack of TIH stallions available. That’s one of the reasons the TIHA has been running their Performance Mare Scheme for the last number of years to encourage some of the better performance mares to cover traditionally, in the belief that they will produce the stallions of the future.

Also, this year for the first time, encouraging financially the owners of performance outcross mares to cover with an outcross stallion to try and introduce some new lines. It’s also the reason I decided to stand my own stallion Simply Clear as, while he is not a complete outcross, he does carry some different genetics.

Breeding in general can be very difficult, a lot of work and luck goes into producing a correct foal and then hope to get a financial return on what you’ve invested. Only for their love of breeding, many breeders would have ceased. There’s no better reward than seeing a mare and her foal heading out in the field for the first time.

3. Proudest moment as a breeder?

The first mare I owned was Rebel View or Rebel, as she was known at home. She had a number of very good foals for me, one of them being Corgary Cailin. I always remember the night that Corgary Cailin had her first foal, Corgary Captain, with Rebel watching from the stable next door and the next day, when they were let out into the field together, it was something special.

4. How many mares do you have now?

I currently have six mares; four TIH mares, a Sea Crest Draught mare and a thoroughbred. As well as the father’s three ISH mares, I have one daughter of my foundation mare Rebel View by CC Captain Cruise, and Clover Brigade, Barnaboy Freeman and Imperial Tiger mares.

My favourite is probably Corgary Misty, the Sea Crest mare, as I have her 18 years.

5. Describe your regime for keeping mares/youngstock?

Winter is always a very busy time, as all stock are taken off the land for the winter. We have number of large woodchip arenas, which have a shed at one end for shelter where most of the stock spend the winter. These arenas are cleaned out daily.

Some of the youngstock are in a large loose shed and are let out regularly for exercise in a woodchip arena, weather permitting. There’s plenty of smiles around when they’re let out into the fields for the summertime.

TIHA members Samantha Fitzsimons, Kevin and Liam Lynskey with Louise Heavin, Mayor of Athlone, at the 2023 performance championships held at Mullingar EC \ Susan Finnerty

6. Any famous horse would you like to have bred?

I always liked Captain Clover, his progeny were instantly recognisable. I used him several times on my Rich Rebel mare producing some lovely foals.

Their temperaments were excellent with a real willingness to please and their technique over a fence were second to none. He stood in Irishtown with Gabriel Slattery, who stood his sons, CC Captain Cruise and Castlelawn Captain Junior.

7. Best advice you ever got?

We all get very fond of horses, particularly those that have been in the yard for some time. The best advice I got was, “Don’t marry them”.

At the time, I thought it was a strange thing to say, but how true it is; it can be very easy to hold onto horses and then the numbers grow until you go counting one day and think how have I got that many. It can be very hard sometimes to let them go.

8. It takes a team, who’s on yours?

It is a family effort with my wife, Martina, without whom it would not be possible, and father, Denis, a real driving force. We could not do it without the support of several friends, such as my cousin, David Gormley, who is always willing to lend a hand if needed; Padraic Kelly and his team do a super job breaking the youngstock, and our farrier, John Hynes, who is always just a phone call away and willing to give a hand out.

For the past two years, our stallion Simply Clear stood with Sean Lydon of Watervalley Stud, where he got excellent care and we were provided with a great service.

The TIHA is a real team effort, where everybody is just a phone call or email away, with somebody always willing to take on whatever task has to be done. There is a real positivity and can-do attitude about the group, which I think is to be admired, as is the willingness of a group of people to give their time for something they believe in.

9. Favourite app/website/reading material?

I always find myself online using some of the great databases for researching pedigrees, such as IHR Online, Sporthorse Data, Hippomundo, Horse & Breeder, which is particularly useful for researching the older Irish damlines, and Horse Telex.

I’ve always had a fascination with pedigrees and enjoy researching them. One of the first series of equine books that I had the pleasure of reading was Nicholas O’Hare’s books on the Irish horse; they were a series that you could stay going back to again and again and always find something new.

10.What do you do in any spare time outside of horses?

I love to read. Give me any kind of a novel, in particular, historic fiction and non-fiction and I will read it. I do draw the line at romantic novels though!