MY late grandfather Ned Kavanagh bred traditional Irish Sport Horses, a tradition carried on by my uncle Jim Kavanagh of Templeudigan, Co Wexford. On my mother’s side, my grandfather is Jim Mernagh of Clohass, Enniscorthy, who spent most of his career preparing horses for sales and producing top-quality thoroughbreds. He’s now involved in Connemara ponies, with my younger brother Ben and I.

My great-aunt Anne Mernagh of Templescoby, Enniscorthy, has owned and bred successful point-to-point horses over the years.

I attended Meánscoil Gharman and FCJ in Bunclody and competed for both in inter-schools show jumping competitions.

A former Wexford Pony Club member, I’ve been involved in ponies since the age of three and have hunted with the Bree and Wexford Foxhounds from the age of seven.

1. Congratulations, a unique brother-and-sister combination on the Irish team for the WBFSH Young Breeders’ championships?

Both myself and Ben have been involved with the Horse Sport Ireland/Teagasc Young Breeders’ programme for the past three years and we’re both delighted to have been selected to represent Ireland at the upcoming world championships in Denmark from July 3rd-7th.

2. Would you recommend the programme to other young breeders?

This is a programme that I could not recommend highly enough, as it is a fantastic insight into the breeding business and how to judge a horse’s conformation. They hold workshops and training days throughout the country and are always looking for new participants. It’s the mastermind of Wendy Conlon, who is very welcoming, encouraging and a wealth of knowledge.

3. Tell us how your Connemara enterprise started?

I purchased my first Connemara - Allegro, affectionately known as Ally - at the Clifden sales with the proceeds of my Communion money! Returned to Clifden with the profits and, this time, the Confirmation money in hand and bought two ponies. Both were three-year-old geldings: Swanview Cream Of Dexter (Dexter Leam Pondi), bred by Tommy Duffy in Galway, and Blue Meelick Island Lad (Glencarrig Oscar), bred by Joseph Crowley in Mayo.

Both ponies were really successful for me. Dexter and I jumped up to 1.20m and he is now ridden by my cousins, bringing on the next generation of riders. Blue was later sold to Sweden and is now jumping big tracks. Dex and Blue gave me the bug, as they say!

From then on, I continually invested any profits into more stock and built up my numbers over the years.

4. How many Connemaras do you have now?

I can’t exactly say how many I currently have, in fear of my mother Hilda finding out!

5. Best market for your ponies?

I’ve built up a great customer base with ponies sold to the UK, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France, to name a few. My philosophy is to produce a well-mannered, trainable Connemara that will ensure a happy customer, who will return and happily recommend our ponies to others.

6. And you’ve now started to breed your own Connemaras too?

I’ve always been interested in breeding and, in recent years, have acquired some mares, both Connemara and Irish Sport Horses. My most recent was a Class 1 mare, by Currachmore Cashel, bought at the April sale in Clifden. She has recently been covered by my brother Ben’s 15.3hh, dun Connemara stallion Abbeyfield Comet.

I’m really excited about this cross as she is very typical of her breeding and will hopefully produce an over-height Connie with colour. Exactly what the foreign market is always looking for.

I’m also looking forward to using his other three stallions in time, all of which acquired Class 1 status this spring at the CBPS colt inspections.

7. Why breed ponies? Why not buy youngstock instead?

I suppose the biggest draw to breeding for me is to help support Ben’s Connemara stallions. Up until now, we would have bought youngstock mostly and produced them from there, but we now keep Connemara and sport horse mares in the hopes of breeding some of our own youngstock.

8. Prefix?

At the minute, any of the youngstock and sales horses and ponies go under Eden Manor Stables. We’ll probably market the stallion and the breeding side of the business under Larch Grove Stud, a fitting name as all of our stallions stand at my grandfather Jim Mernagh’s yard.

That yard went under that name for many years when he was breeding thoroughbreds and we would love to keep it active.

9. It takes a team - who’s on yours?

I’m part of an extended family team. Of course, my parents Tom and Hilda have always been incredibly supportive and encouraging. Ben is like a sidekick and is always pushing me to be better at what I do. He’s a great help when it comes to the producing side of things, particularly with the breakers.

Grandad Jim is a great source of knowledge from his many years in the industry, working at and running stud farms.

Jim, my uncle, has been fantastic and has definitely been a great help with getting into the breeding side of things. For my 15th birthday, he gave me a half-share in a home-bred traditional ISH mare (Nigrasine x Laughtons Flight), which gave me a great start to my breeding journey.

10. Future plans?

I’ve just finished my first year of college, studying Agricultural Science in SETU in Waterford and have a great interest in the course. During the summer holidays, I plan to break all of our three and four-year-old Irish Sport Horses and Connemaras with the hopes of finding most of them new homes by the time college comes back around in September.

I hope to finish my degree and, as for the future, I’m sure it’s going to be more and more equine for me. I’m very excited about the future of my breeding and producing enterprise and hopefully, it’s onwards and upwards from here.