Laura Walshe is from both a farming and an equestrian background. She is one of six daughters of John and Barbara from Hacketstown. Their family farm is made up of beef, sheep and horses.

“In the last number of years, we can see the horses taking up more time on the farm, which is inevitable given the fact that we are all so involved in them,” says Laura.

“We currently have Simmental and Limousine cows. We changed our bull last year from a Limousine to a Simmental, to breed better heifers as replacement stock. We breed crossbred Texel and Charollais sheep on the farm and lambing usually happens in early March.”

Laura’s sister Sharon and her dad also have a small flock of purebred Charollais sheep under the prefix of Eagle View. Sharon shows them as a hobby. She won the ram lamb class at the Tullow show last week and the ram went on to win reserve champion.

Even though there are no boys in the mix, three out of six girls have gone down the agricultural route.

“Pamela, Sharon and I have all studied food and agribusiness management, a Bachelor of agricultural science degree, in UCD. Sharon is now working in Kerry Foods and Pamela works in Bank of Ireland, but both have stayed close to the farming, with their houses based on the farm at home.

“Tracy works a lot with the horses at home while also producing horses for the Goresbridge horse sales. Nicola and Lisa both look after the family health, with Lisa being a dentist and Nicola a nurse. We all chip in at the weekends to give Dad a break, and it’s all hands on deck during the lambing and calving season.”

The Walshes have a huge interest in the breeding.

“We bred five foals this year using the stallions OBOS Quality, Amaritto D’Arco and Lux Z. These will be kept on the farm and produced by ourselves to progress in either show jumping or eventing. We were lucky enough to breed Mark Q who is successfully show jumping on the grand prix circuit in America with Kevin Babington. We are breeding from his full sister Jump the Q at the moment and are hoping to get another one like him, but it’s not easy.”

Laura bought her own mare, Boulabehas Little Shadow, in March and qualified for this year’s RDS event in the Connemara performance class.

“This class gets a lot of coverage as they are trying to promote the breed. I also entered the 158cm intermediate working hunter class. She had clear rounds in both competitions and came fourth in both, which I was delighted with. Shadow is a five-year-old mare by Springfield Shadow and is 15hh. We breed a Connemara foal every year so I would love to do the Connemara performance class next year on one of our home-bred ponies.”

Laura is going into her final year in UCD.

“I’ve been on professional work placement since January and I started an internship in Musgrave foods, Co Cork, at the beginning of February. I am working in product development. It’s been a brilliant experience, working with product developers and technologists and dealing with customers.

“The company really invested in us and gave us a lot of time, with a great induction plan and training. They have given us a lot of responsibility and opportunities to go out and see suppliers, basically giving us the wider experience of the industry.”

“Working in Musgrave foods has given me a really good idea and insight to what the food industry is like and it’s definitely an area I could see myself working in when I graduate as it would allow me to keep doing horses along with it.”

– Ruth Fennell