Give us a brief outline of your breeding programme.

At Slieve Bloom Stud we are breeding 12 warmblood broodmares each season, purely for dressage purposes. All of our mares were selected on their bloodlines, movement and temperament were imported from Germany and The Netherlands. All are direct descendants from stallions in the top 10 World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses.

What foals are you expecting in 2023?

This year we are expecting foals from our own stallions, all of which, like the broodmares, were selected on their bloodlines, movement and temperament and were imported from Germany and The Netherlands. They are also direct descendants from stallions in the top 10 WBFSH. We also have two stallions which we bred ourselves - Just Dance sired by Totilas to a Sandro Hit x De Niro mare, and Hot Soul sired by Sir Donnerhall to an Ampere x Florestan mare.

What are your stallion choices for this year?

This year we are using our own stallions: Apollo - Ampere x Weltmeyer x Levants x Donnerhall; Just Dance - Totilas x Sandro Hit x De Niro; San Roman - San Amour x Relevant x Florestan; Hot Soul - Sir Donnerhall x Ampere x Florestan; L’Amorino - Glamourdale x United x Jazz; De Laurean - De Niro x Lauries Crusador x World Cup.

These stallions best complement our broodmares. While we have 19 stallions, a lot of them are similar bloodlines to our mares. Sometimes we will use foreign stallions like World Champion Revolution. We have several offspring from him.

How do you make your stallion choices?

We make our choices based on the movement, bloodline, temperament and body shape of our mares, and also if the mare has a weakness we will look to improve this through stallion choice. I think it is important to look at your mares objectively and choose a stallion that will complement her. It is very important to consider temperament for a dressage-bred foal.