It’s been a busy time for the Allen family’s breeding enterprise. “We covered the first mare with Romanov today,” said April Allen, who manages their Ballywalter Farm base down in Ballygarrett.
Romanov, the stallion which her brother Bertram rode on the Irish winning team in the Aga Khan Nations Cup in 2015, as well as recording numerous other Nations Cups and 1.60m top-level results during their career together, is one of the family favourites.
“Romanov did so much for Bertram, he was very good to him. We’re very excited to have him in Ireland. He had a holiday here over the winter, is in super form and will stand in Castlefield with Ger O’Neill.”
And then there’s another superstar: Molly Malone V (Kannan x Cavalier (KWPN)) who delivered another iconic win for Allen at Dublin when the pair won the Grand Prix in front of the Sunday afternoon home crowd in 2014.
Romanov will stand at stud with Ger O'Neill. \ Therese Alhaug/Equilife
“Molly is super, she’s in our breeding programme now. We haven’t had a foal from her yet but we hope to get some Molly embryos this year and did a Chacco-Blue cycle with her on Monday.”
Cardento and Kashmir van Schuttershof are more top stallions lined up to cross with Molly Malone. “I think it was the heart she had. She would have done anything for Bertram,” April remarked about the brilliant grey mare, third with Allen in the 2015 World Cup final in Las Vegas.
Busy times too for April who takes running the Wexford base in her stride. “I would have lived in Hunxe [Bertram’s German base] from when I did my Leaving Cert. Before COVID, I would have done a lot in the yard in Germany. Then we decided we were going to do the breeding operation so we bought quite a big group of horses from Italy together and I moved back to Ireland to look after the breeding operation.”
“I still do a good bit of work for the boys but more so on the phone and from a distance,” she added about her other role of organising brothers Bertram and Harry’s schedules.
Where in the world are the pair now? “Bertram is in Florida, he does three months there. He’s had three Grand Prix wins in three weekends with Pacino Amiro (Pacino x NC Amiro), the sunshine seems to be suiting him!”
“Harry just did three weeks down on the Sunshine Tour and now he’s back in Germany, getting prepared for the second auction, they’re doing the videos for that just this week.”
For Auction
This upcoming auction, which will be held at Sentower Park on May 3rd, is a follow-up to the inaugural event last year, when the six-year-old mare Kiss-Unlimited (Glasgow van het Merelsnest x Corland) was the sales-topper at €235,000.
Ballywalter Farms's Romanov who Bertram Allen rode on the Irish winning team in the Aga Khan Nations Cup in 2015.\ Therese Alhaug/Equilife
Bertram and Harry teamed up with friend and fellow showjumper Maxi Lill for this sport horse auction (www.aloga-auction.com) and its part of the complete ‘farm to arena’ aim of the Ballywalter business.
“For as long as I remember the farm was always Ballywalter and Dad [Bertram senior] would have always ran the point-to-pointers under Ballywalter and we also use Ballywalter Stables for the horse operation.”
Ballywalter Farm itself is located in the seaside village of Ballygarrett. “We’re about 20 minutes outside Gorey, 15 minutes to Barnadown, 1.5 hours to the airport, three hours to Cavan so we’re very central.”
“We’ve 100 acres for the breeding horses here and Ivan our brother has a dairy farm, milking 500 cows,” she added about the all-round family operation.
What made the family
decide to breed horses too?
“It’s always hard to find a good horse so we decided we would do the breeding part too, then that gives us the opportunity to breed the quality horse we like and hopefully find a few superstars in the mix.
“We’re quite fortunate that we’re in the position that we have Harry and Bertram to produce the horses, they’re very competitive. The general idea is to breed good quality, well-broken young horses.”
“We have five mares in Ireland that we breed naturally, then we have six ICSI mares in Italy that we take the embryos from and then a recipient herd for the embryos that are being produced from those mares in Italy.”
“Actually another mare we have down there [Italy] is Wild Thing that Bertram also competed. She was another super mare for Bertram, she had that big heart. It makes it more exciting and nice to be able to give these mares a nice retirement and they get a good life. We’ve a very good relationship with the girls in Italy and they do a great job looking after the mares there.”
Bertram Allen rides Molly Malone at home in Ballywalter Farms in Germany. \ Lena Saugen/EQUIPROMOTION
Best path
“Our first group that we bred ourselves would be three-year-olds now and Diva Della Caccia (Baloubet du Rouet x Quaprice Bois Margot), that Harry had down in Spain, we have had her since she was a yearling. She jumped three weeks clear for Harry and hopefully she’ll be one to aim for the auction.”
The link between the Allens and the renowned irsh equestrian Power family continues from when a young Bertram travelled up to Summerhill to train with Wexford-born show jumper Con. “It’s a super connection for us because we foal the mares between us and Con’s wife Mags Power. When it comes to the weaning stage, we take the foals back then and keep them all in a group together as foals, yearlings, etc.”
“They’ll spend as much time as possible in the fields, out in the paddocks for eight months of the year, depending on the weather, then they come into sheds for the bad part of the winter.
“They’re fed ad lib hay and hard feed, and done inside. We progress to x-raying them as two-year-olds and the ones that won’t make the cut get taken out of the programme at that stage. Then we loose-school them and get them broken and riding as three-year-olds. We have two riders in Ireland – Darren Hopkins and Aoife Dooley – who produce them.
Bertram and April Allen with Hector at their Ballywalter Farms, Germany. \ EQUIPROMOTION/Daniela Greis
“They live out in fields as much as possible and get a good education when they’re broken as three-year-olds. Then hopefully some will be sold at that stage, some will go to Germany, some will go to riders that we work with, depending on the horse. You just find the best path for that horse.”
Standing the stallions is left in the capable hands of the McArdles at Drumhowan Stud and Ger O’Neill’s Castlefield Farm. “We have Cascari (Cassini x Carpaccio) who stands up in Drumhowan with Eamon and Gladys. We do our own embryo work, we have the mares but for us to do the stallions as well, it’s a whole other business!”
Olympics, World Cup finals, Nations Cup teams, Grand Prix circuits – the Allen brothers have done a lot. How could the Ballywalter breeding operation match those achievements, what’s the dream?
“For Molly to breed a superstar or from the breeding horses to get another Molly. Or another Romanov.” too.”
It’s been a busy time for the Allen family’s breeding enterprise. “We covered the first mare with Romanov today,” said April Allen, who manages their Ballywalter Farm base down in Ballygarrett.
Romanov, the stallion which her brother Bertram rode on the Irish winning team in the Aga Khan Nations Cup in 2015, as well as recording numerous other Nations Cups and 1.60m top-level results during their career together, is one of the family favourites.
“Romanov did so much for Bertram, he was very good to him. We’re very excited to have him in Ireland. He had a holiday here over the winter, is in super form and will stand in Castlefield with Ger O’Neill.”
And then there’s another superstar: Molly Malone V (Kannan x Cavalier (KWPN)) who delivered another iconic win for Allen at Dublin when the pair won the Grand Prix in front of the Sunday afternoon home crowd in 2014.
Romanov will stand at stud with Ger O'Neill. \ Therese Alhaug/Equilife
“Molly is super, she’s in our breeding programme now. We haven’t had a foal from her yet but we hope to get some Molly embryos this year and did a Chacco-Blue cycle with her on Monday.”
Cardento and Kashmir van Schuttershof are more top stallions lined up to cross with Molly Malone. “I think it was the heart she had. She would have done anything for Bertram,” April remarked about the brilliant grey mare, third with Allen in the 2015 World Cup final in Las Vegas.
Busy times too for April who takes running the Wexford base in her stride. “I would have lived in Hunxe [Bertram’s German base] from when I did my Leaving Cert. Before COVID, I would have done a lot in the yard in Germany. Then we decided we were going to do the breeding operation so we bought quite a big group of horses from Italy together and I moved back to Ireland to look after the breeding operation.”
“I still do a good bit of work for the boys but more so on the phone and from a distance,” she added about her other role of organising brothers Bertram and Harry’s schedules.
Where in the world are the pair now? “Bertram is in Florida, he does three months there. He’s had three Grand Prix wins in three weekends with Pacino Amiro (Pacino x NC Amiro), the sunshine seems to be suiting him!”
“Harry just did three weeks down on the Sunshine Tour and now he’s back in Germany, getting prepared for the second auction, they’re doing the videos for that just this week.”
For Auction
This upcoming auction, which will be held at Sentower Park on May 3rd, is a follow-up to the inaugural event last year, when the six-year-old mare Kiss-Unlimited (Glasgow van het Merelsnest x Corland) was the sales-topper at €235,000.
Ballywalter Farms's Romanov who Bertram Allen rode on the Irish winning team in the Aga Khan Nations Cup in 2015.\ Therese Alhaug/Equilife
Bertram and Harry teamed up with friend and fellow showjumper Maxi Lill for this sport horse auction (www.aloga-auction.com) and its part of the complete ‘farm to arena’ aim of the Ballywalter business.
“For as long as I remember the farm was always Ballywalter and Dad [Bertram senior] would have always ran the point-to-pointers under Ballywalter and we also use Ballywalter Stables for the horse operation.”
Ballywalter Farm itself is located in the seaside village of Ballygarrett. “We’re about 20 minutes outside Gorey, 15 minutes to Barnadown, 1.5 hours to the airport, three hours to Cavan so we’re very central.”
“We’ve 100 acres for the breeding horses here and Ivan our brother has a dairy farm, milking 500 cows,” she added about the all-round family operation.
What made the family
decide to breed horses too?
“It’s always hard to find a good horse so we decided we would do the breeding part too, then that gives us the opportunity to breed the quality horse we like and hopefully find a few superstars in the mix.
“We’re quite fortunate that we’re in the position that we have Harry and Bertram to produce the horses, they’re very competitive. The general idea is to breed good quality, well-broken young horses.”
“We have five mares in Ireland that we breed naturally, then we have six ICSI mares in Italy that we take the embryos from and then a recipient herd for the embryos that are being produced from those mares in Italy.”
“Actually another mare we have down there [Italy] is Wild Thing that Bertram also competed. She was another super mare for Bertram, she had that big heart. It makes it more exciting and nice to be able to give these mares a nice retirement and they get a good life. We’ve a very good relationship with the girls in Italy and they do a great job looking after the mares there.”
Bertram Allen rides Molly Malone at home in Ballywalter Farms in Germany. \ Lena Saugen/EQUIPROMOTION
Best path
“Our first group that we bred ourselves would be three-year-olds now and Diva Della Caccia (Baloubet du Rouet x Quaprice Bois Margot), that Harry had down in Spain, we have had her since she was a yearling. She jumped three weeks clear for Harry and hopefully she’ll be one to aim for the auction.”
The link between the Allens and the renowned irsh equestrian Power family continues from when a young Bertram travelled up to Summerhill to train with Wexford-born show jumper Con. “It’s a super connection for us because we foal the mares between us and Con’s wife Mags Power. When it comes to the weaning stage, we take the foals back then and keep them all in a group together as foals, yearlings, etc.”
“They’ll spend as much time as possible in the fields, out in the paddocks for eight months of the year, depending on the weather, then they come into sheds for the bad part of the winter.
“They’re fed ad lib hay and hard feed, and done inside. We progress to x-raying them as two-year-olds and the ones that won’t make the cut get taken out of the programme at that stage. Then we loose-school them and get them broken and riding as three-year-olds. We have two riders in Ireland – Darren Hopkins and Aoife Dooley – who produce them.
Bertram and April Allen with Hector at their Ballywalter Farms, Germany. \ EQUIPROMOTION/Daniela Greis
“They live out in fields as much as possible and get a good education when they’re broken as three-year-olds. Then hopefully some will be sold at that stage, some will go to Germany, some will go to riders that we work with, depending on the horse. You just find the best path for that horse.”
Standing the stallions is left in the capable hands of the McArdles at Drumhowan Stud and Ger O’Neill’s Castlefield Farm. “We have Cascari (Cassini x Carpaccio) who stands up in Drumhowan with Eamon and Gladys. We do our own embryo work, we have the mares but for us to do the stallions as well, it’s a whole other business!”
Olympics, World Cup finals, Nations Cup teams, Grand Prix circuits – the Allen brothers have done a lot. How could the Ballywalter breeding operation match those achievements, what’s the dream?
“For Molly to breed a superstar or from the breeding horses to get another Molly. Or another Romanov.” too.”
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