The good mare is indeed the beating heart of any horse industry. Only when we have a strong cohort of true performance dams will all be well again with our Irish sport horse. An example of what a difference a good mare makes is the story of the Sheehan family’s Cuffsgrange Millennium.

During one single month last autumn her descendant mares delivered two international gold medals for Ireland – Cuffsgrange Cavalidam at the European Pony Championships and Cuffsgrange Cavadora landing the seven-year-old World Young Horse Championship at Lanaken.

Going global

Ita Hughes Brennan and her son Tom of Mill House stud, Gowran, Co Kilkenny, always put pleasant and meaningful names on horses they bred. Once, when watching the Global Champions Tour on the TV they decided to name a young gelding in their yard Going Global and that was prophetic.

Back in 1998 there was a lot of talk about the coming millennium and as a result a filly they had just bred got the name Millenium.

When bought by Ronan Sheehan of Cuffsgrange, Co Kilkenny, as a four-year-old she acquired her new prefix and went on to be a breeding legend.

Millennium was by the imported Holsteiner Cavalier Royale owned by Ita’s brother John Hughes. She was out of Kells Mill Lady by Diamond Serpent and had the great Thoroughbred Imperious in her background. All of this good blood was to have its influence on what came next.

Looking good

Ronan Sheehan, incidentally a near neighbour to Ita’s birthplace at Cuffsgrange, bought Millennium and jumped her for a while before he and his brother Eamon decided to breed from her. Among her progeny was Looks Sir Luc that was runner – up in the RDS Puissance.

Another of hers Looks Good jumped up to grand prix level in the US. But in 2005 she bred a tidy mare by Billy Twomey’s Luidam called Cavalidam. Measuring in at 148cm she was sold first to Clare Hughes and then to Coolmore Stud to be jumped by Max Watchman. Last August, she and Max won the individual gold medal at the European Pony Championships in Poland.

But back in 2012 Cavalidam had bred the filly Cavadora by Z Wellie. She was also sold to Clare Hughes to be competed by both her son Seamus Hughes Kennedy and by his trainer Ger O’Neill.

Last September she and Seamus took gold in the seven-year-old World Young Horse Championship at Lanaken. Two golds in one month by two daughters of the mare Millenium; what a difference she has made. We need more like her.