THE combined forces of Gabriel Mullins and his partner Vicky Foster make for quite the operation at the couple’s yard in Claddagh West, Co Galway which is home to about 40 young horses.

Gabriel is an Agricultural Contractor and farmer, while Vicky, who is mother to their almost four-year-old son Cody, handles and breaks the young horses.

“We always had horses, my father worked horses and I’ve always had an interest,” Gabriel explained to The Irish Field. “One day I was working away here on the farm making silage or hay or something and an ad in the Irish Farmers Journal caught my eye.

“It was for a mare for sale by Cruise On out of a Cavalier dam. I bought her from Teresa Moore from Newbliss, Co Monaghan. We named her Claddagh Cruise On and she was the first sport horse I owned.

“Shane Goggins rode her for me and she won the four year olds in Dublin in 2010. She then went on the following year to win five-year-old championships in Dublin and Millstreet in 2011. She went on to be sold to Cian O’Connor and was renamed Castellana. After that I was hooked.

“The next horse I bought was Claddagh Iroko (Iroko x Another Cruise). Once again Shane Goggins rode him as a youngster and they enjoyed many successes, including winning the five-year-old Cavan Classic in 2012. After that Clem McMahon rode him up to Grand Prix level before he was sold to the UK where he competed up to 1.50m internationally with Holly Smith.

“He was still competing up to last year for Britain’s Perdi Digby and as a result of his long and successful career has become one of the highest earning Irish-bred horses ever,” Gabriel said of the chesnut gelding.

“Honeylands Claddagh (Luidam x Lux Z) was another youngster Shane rode for me, he went on to be sold to the States where he competed at 1.50m Grand Prix level.”

Starting to breed

Gabriel then decided to embark on his own breeding programme.

“Following on from that I became interested in breeding my own horses so I bought five fillies from Noel Cawley with that in mind.

“As it turned out, the dams of many of the mares I bought were broken in by Vicky during her years working for Noel, a job she held up to four years ago before moving to Galway full-time. The very long list of horses she produced for Noel over the years includes Dowth Hall, Chacco Bay, Jackie Oh, Overruled and Flexibility, to name but a few. Noel is a real gentleman and we have nothing but respect for him,” he added.

“I spent many years working with Noel’s stock and then I moved down here five years ago when I was pregnant and now I work with Gabriel’s stock,” added Vicky.

“I initially met Vicky many years ago when her father Victor came to buy a draught horse from my father Paddy,” Gabriel tells. “Victor used to help Noel when Vicky was a child and then when she got older Noel began giving her the horses to break. It was Vicky that introduced me to Noel and he has been very good to us over the years, we have had some amazing horses together.”

Talking about their breeding programme, Gabriel said: “We currently have six mares in foal to Zambia and they are well bred themselves. They include Tyson x Ircorain, Tinkas Boy - Lexilady, Cruisingx- Numero Uno and Slaney x Pointillist. We also have a Grade A pony in foal to Zambia with a view to having a good pony for our almost four-year-old son Cody to compete in the future.

The aforementioned Zambia is a nine-year-old stallion by Diamant de Semilly out of Sambia (Alba) who was bred by Alan Robertson and is owned in partnership by the breeder and Gabriel. Last weekend, he won the TRM/SJC Spring Tour Romanov Grand Prix in Barnadown with Brendan Murphy.

“Zambia went to Gabriel Slattery Senior for his stud duties and himself Gabriel Jnr did a great job with him, they said he was a very easy horse to work with.”

Gentle giant

The stallion has been straightforward from the get-go. “Zambia was one of the first horses Vicky and I worked on together. Vicky took him out of a shed here as a three-year-old and brought him home to Offaly where herself and her Dad worked with him and ended up qualifying him for the three-year-olds in Dublin where he finished third.

“She was the first person to sit on Zambia. He has always been a very easy horse to deal with, you would almost forget he is a stallion sometimes his temperament is so calm. Cody can feed him carrots out of his hand and could practically walk underneath him and he’ll be fine.

Brendan Murphy and Gabriel Mullins' nine-year-old Grand Prix-winning stallion Zambia \ Paul Henson Jumpinaction.net

“He went on to Gemma Phelan as a five-year-old who did a great job with him for two years. He then went to Brendan Murphy and he has gone from strength to strength there.

“During the winter when he’s not competing, Zambia lives here. Vicky does a fantastic job with him. I got a bad injury a few years ago in 2017, I got kicked and my knee was completely shattered which meant I was left pretty much unable to handle the horses so I now really just concentrate on the mares and foals.

“I follow the breeding well and I go and see the horses, I’d have them picked out and do my best to buy them. I buy from Alan Robertson and Noel Cawley and a couple of others and then I keep them here. Vicky handles them and breaks them in. We then send them on to a rider who we think would suit them best; Catherine Thornton, Gemma Phelan, Brendan Murphy or Gabriel Slattery.”

Credit

Gabriel is quick to heap the praise on his partner. “Vicky deserves a huge amount of credit for all the work she does and is a major part of any of the successes our horses have. Zambia had only left here two weeks before he won the Spring Tour Grand Prix last weekend, Vicky had him feeling so well.

“I have high hopes for Zambia. I think that the Diamant horses only start to come into form when they are older. We always knew he would be a good horse. I’ve had three or four phone calls every day since he won on Sunday, but I want to hold onto him.

“I’ve no doubt that he will go all the way to the top. He has all the scope in the world, is very careful and is quick off the ground. I want to continue to bring him on slowly. We can take our time because I’m confident in his ability. I think the worst thing you can do is over-face a horse.

“ABC Ballycruise (Cruising x Diamond Lad) is a nine-year-old gelding I own together with Ned Cash. Gemma Phelan rides him for us. He is one of the last Cruising foals, we think a lot of him and are looking forward to his progress this year.

“We also have a promising four-year-old, the home-bred gelding by Glasgow Van’t Merelsnest out of a Cruising mare which is the first horse I bred, as well as a five-year-old filly by Luidam out the same dam as Emerald Mystique.

“Next Episode (Diamant De Semilly x Cobra) is an eight-year-old who I also bought from Alan Robertson as a foal. He was ridden as a four and five-year-old by Raphael Lee and then went on to Catherine Thornton. Vicky has him back in work and he has just done his first show of the year in Duffy’s so we are excited to see him progress.

“There is a lot to look forward to at the moment; we have a lot of nice youngsters, Zambia and Next Episode are progressing well.

“My daughter Michaela, who is 21, is currently in third year studying medicine at NUI Galway and I’m incredibly proud of her. Zambia has bred about 35 foals from early crops; the feedback has been very positive, he stamps consistently. The future is looking bright.”