A clear direction and a passion for the business – they’re the hallmarks of Patricia Connon’s Roundthorn sport horse breeding programme.
And interestingly, breeding for the dressage market is another key aim.
According to Patricia, dressage here is an up-and-coming sport.
“Dressage Ireland has a growing membership and a healthy number of horses working at the higher level, cumulating in the ‘Girls in Green’ qualifying for the 2021 Olympics,” she said about the achievement of Kate Dwyer, Heike Holstein, Anna Merveldt and Judy Reynolds in becoming the first Irish dressage team to qualify for an Olympic Games.
She’s also watched the progress of Roundthorn Madios through the show jumping ranks; from jumping at the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horse (WBFSH) young horse championships at Lanaken with Catherine Thornton to Nations Cup level for Andrew Bourns (IRL) and Lauren Tisbo (USA).
RoundThorn Freestyle (Sarkosy x 00 Seven x Samber).
Patricia grew up on her parents’ Co Antrim dairy farm on the eastern shores of Lough Neagh, right beside Belfast International Airport. “I was born and reared on my mother and father’s dairy farm. My two older brothers (Vincent and Gerard) were more interested in commercial dairy and beef herds, my heart lay with horses.”
When it came to breeding cattle, the Connon brothers were ahead of their time through their use of embryo transfer and sexed semen, with the assistance of vet Caroline Berry, for their pedigree Charolais and Holstein herds. “Farming is in your blood, it’s something never to be taken away from us. My brothers are as good as vets in the yard to me and there’s a great atmosphere on the farm.
“Father always had a wee mare and took a foal every year. I did my share of feeding calves and cattle growing up, then went to boarding school at 11 and came home at the weekends.”
As she says herself, Patricia was never really one for following the herd or “going to such-and-such a stallion that was fashionable. I had to satisfy myself that it [stallion choice] was what I wanted.”
Part of this learning curve involved getting on planes to build up relationships with continental breeders.
Youngstock enjoying the grass at RoundThorn Stud.
“In the early years, I made many trips to the Continent and established many lifelong friendship and business acquaintances, particularly Henk and Jeanette from the Nijhof Stud and Jan and Willem Greve from De Watermolen Stud.”
Back home, two other important contacts were William and Jane Collins from Lougherne Stud in Hillsborough, who introduced Patricia to their German contacts, including the Holsteiner Verband, a move described by her as “invaluable.”
Phenomenal foundation
Like most Irish breeders, the initial focus on the farm was in breeding top-quality showjumpers. “My initial success lay with such horses as Carinosa Z (Carthago x Nimmerdor x Jason), Valencia (Mermus R x Dillenburg x Imago II) and the famous Madios (Condios x Clover Hill x Pal Gondomar), later bought and produced by Andrew Bourns to Nations Cup level.”
Unlimited RoundThorn (00 Seven x Samber x Orlandi) and her foal.
Her methodical approach (“I like to be organised!”) includes naming each foal crop with the same letter of the alphabet, with a new letter assigned every year. What “R” foals are due this year?
“Currently my former international show jumping mare, Zinniz (Sjapoo x Calvados x Cantus) is due to foal to Conthargos (Converter x Carthago Z x Larus I) and Atricia (Padinus x Burggraaf x Le Mexico) is due to foal to Candy De Nantuel (Luidam x Diamant de Semilly x Quidam De Revel).
“In addition to producing some of my own mares, I’m very lucky to have some fabulous owners who fly the Roundthorn flag,” she added, listing Samantha Dale’s Hercules (Colestus x Manhattan x Concorde), Martin Wilson’s Minerva (Eldorado Van De Zeshoek x Padinus x Burggraaf), Kathryn Smiley’s Morpheus (Antaeus x Manhattan x Concorde) and Peter O’Toole’s Ardkyle (Spartacus x Manhattan x Concorde), “to name but a few.”
The famous Dutch vet Jan Greve, who stood such famous stallions as Voltaire and Guidam, pointed Patricia in the direction of breeding dressage horses.
“During one of my trips to the Continent, Jan sourced me a very nice tobiano (coloured) dressage-bred mare. Her name was Unlimited (00 Seven x Samber x Orlandi). This was my first step into dressage breeding and quite a step as the pure dressage world in Ireland was quite limited.”
Unlimited has proved to be a phenomenal foundation mare for Patricia. “A more lucky mare you couldn’t hope to be blessed with.” Her progeny include Amour (Sandreo), Freestyle (Sarkosy), Karma (Johnson) and Déjà Vu (Sandreo).
“Déjà Vu is currently working at Inter II level, while Amour and Freestyle competed to Advanced level before joining the broodmare herd. Now we have very promising up and coming three- and four-year-olds in Oreo (Vittorio) and Nice N’Easy (Formidable).
“As with my showjumping mares, I like to have them inspected to gain a premium status. In the early days, the Irish Horse Board did not recognise my dressage lines even though they were international Grand Prix stallions, hence the progeny had to be registered with the KWPN. I also would have travelled my young dressage mares over to the KWPN inspections in England to gain their premiums and acknowledgment of their breeding lines.”
Direct route
“Lisa Dundee, Carnhill Sport Horses, produces all my dressage horses and I can’t praise her highly enough.” Another valued member of her team is Carrickview Stud and Reproduction Centre vet John Haughey.
“John is so attentive and gets everything right.”
Roundthorn horses are sold via the website (www.roundthornsporthorses.com) and social media. Owners are subtly vetted too.
“I’d be quite direct and I won’t waste someone’s time, I’d say ‘No, I don’t think this one will suit.’ It pays off to get horses into the right yard.”
She also has forthright views on aspects of horse breeding, believing that continental breeders rarely sell their best mares.
That frankness also copperfastened her friendship with Jan Greve, once she explained the ‘lucky penny’ tradition to him after a deal.
“I said ‘It’s coins, Jan, the luck passes back to me’. He then said ‘Follow me, Patricia.’”
Having brought her to the stallion yard, he told her to pick one out and he’d send a straw as a luck penny. “There was Voltaire looking out over the door! I just said ‘Thank you very much but I don’t have a good enough mare to put that semen into. Maybe sometime down the line’.
“He laughed and we became great friends. And he found Unlimited for me. I turned him down but got the luck of owning that mare.”
“I just feel really lucky! Luck is what you make it. I have my dogs, my horses, a home laden with pedigree spreadsheets. It’s very refreshing living beside the Lough. Life’s good.”
A clear direction and a passion for the business – they’re the hallmarks of Patricia Connon’s Roundthorn sport horse breeding programme.
And interestingly, breeding for the dressage market is another key aim.
According to Patricia, dressage here is an up-and-coming sport.
“Dressage Ireland has a growing membership and a healthy number of horses working at the higher level, cumulating in the ‘Girls in Green’ qualifying for the 2021 Olympics,” she said about the achievement of Kate Dwyer, Heike Holstein, Anna Merveldt and Judy Reynolds in becoming the first Irish dressage team to qualify for an Olympic Games.
She’s also watched the progress of Roundthorn Madios through the show jumping ranks; from jumping at the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horse (WBFSH) young horse championships at Lanaken with Catherine Thornton to Nations Cup level for Andrew Bourns (IRL) and Lauren Tisbo (USA).
RoundThorn Freestyle (Sarkosy x 00 Seven x Samber).
Patricia grew up on her parents’ Co Antrim dairy farm on the eastern shores of Lough Neagh, right beside Belfast International Airport. “I was born and reared on my mother and father’s dairy farm. My two older brothers (Vincent and Gerard) were more interested in commercial dairy and beef herds, my heart lay with horses.”
When it came to breeding cattle, the Connon brothers were ahead of their time through their use of embryo transfer and sexed semen, with the assistance of vet Caroline Berry, for their pedigree Charolais and Holstein herds. “Farming is in your blood, it’s something never to be taken away from us. My brothers are as good as vets in the yard to me and there’s a great atmosphere on the farm.
“Father always had a wee mare and took a foal every year. I did my share of feeding calves and cattle growing up, then went to boarding school at 11 and came home at the weekends.”
As she says herself, Patricia was never really one for following the herd or “going to such-and-such a stallion that was fashionable. I had to satisfy myself that it [stallion choice] was what I wanted.”
Part of this learning curve involved getting on planes to build up relationships with continental breeders.
Youngstock enjoying the grass at RoundThorn Stud.
“In the early years, I made many trips to the Continent and established many lifelong friendship and business acquaintances, particularly Henk and Jeanette from the Nijhof Stud and Jan and Willem Greve from De Watermolen Stud.”
Back home, two other important contacts were William and Jane Collins from Lougherne Stud in Hillsborough, who introduced Patricia to their German contacts, including the Holsteiner Verband, a move described by her as “invaluable.”
Phenomenal foundation
Like most Irish breeders, the initial focus on the farm was in breeding top-quality showjumpers. “My initial success lay with such horses as Carinosa Z (Carthago x Nimmerdor x Jason), Valencia (Mermus R x Dillenburg x Imago II) and the famous Madios (Condios x Clover Hill x Pal Gondomar), later bought and produced by Andrew Bourns to Nations Cup level.”
Unlimited RoundThorn (00 Seven x Samber x Orlandi) and her foal.
Her methodical approach (“I like to be organised!”) includes naming each foal crop with the same letter of the alphabet, with a new letter assigned every year. What “R” foals are due this year?
“Currently my former international show jumping mare, Zinniz (Sjapoo x Calvados x Cantus) is due to foal to Conthargos (Converter x Carthago Z x Larus I) and Atricia (Padinus x Burggraaf x Le Mexico) is due to foal to Candy De Nantuel (Luidam x Diamant de Semilly x Quidam De Revel).
“In addition to producing some of my own mares, I’m very lucky to have some fabulous owners who fly the Roundthorn flag,” she added, listing Samantha Dale’s Hercules (Colestus x Manhattan x Concorde), Martin Wilson’s Minerva (Eldorado Van De Zeshoek x Padinus x Burggraaf), Kathryn Smiley’s Morpheus (Antaeus x Manhattan x Concorde) and Peter O’Toole’s Ardkyle (Spartacus x Manhattan x Concorde), “to name but a few.”
The famous Dutch vet Jan Greve, who stood such famous stallions as Voltaire and Guidam, pointed Patricia in the direction of breeding dressage horses.
“During one of my trips to the Continent, Jan sourced me a very nice tobiano (coloured) dressage-bred mare. Her name was Unlimited (00 Seven x Samber x Orlandi). This was my first step into dressage breeding and quite a step as the pure dressage world in Ireland was quite limited.”
Unlimited has proved to be a phenomenal foundation mare for Patricia. “A more lucky mare you couldn’t hope to be blessed with.” Her progeny include Amour (Sandreo), Freestyle (Sarkosy), Karma (Johnson) and Déjà Vu (Sandreo).
“Déjà Vu is currently working at Inter II level, while Amour and Freestyle competed to Advanced level before joining the broodmare herd. Now we have very promising up and coming three- and four-year-olds in Oreo (Vittorio) and Nice N’Easy (Formidable).
“As with my showjumping mares, I like to have them inspected to gain a premium status. In the early days, the Irish Horse Board did not recognise my dressage lines even though they were international Grand Prix stallions, hence the progeny had to be registered with the KWPN. I also would have travelled my young dressage mares over to the KWPN inspections in England to gain their premiums and acknowledgment of their breeding lines.”
Direct route
“Lisa Dundee, Carnhill Sport Horses, produces all my dressage horses and I can’t praise her highly enough.” Another valued member of her team is Carrickview Stud and Reproduction Centre vet John Haughey.
“John is so attentive and gets everything right.”
Roundthorn horses are sold via the website (www.roundthornsporthorses.com) and social media. Owners are subtly vetted too.
“I’d be quite direct and I won’t waste someone’s time, I’d say ‘No, I don’t think this one will suit.’ It pays off to get horses into the right yard.”
She also has forthright views on aspects of horse breeding, believing that continental breeders rarely sell their best mares.
That frankness also copperfastened her friendship with Jan Greve, once she explained the ‘lucky penny’ tradition to him after a deal.
“I said ‘It’s coins, Jan, the luck passes back to me’. He then said ‘Follow me, Patricia.’”
Having brought her to the stallion yard, he told her to pick one out and he’d send a straw as a luck penny. “There was Voltaire looking out over the door! I just said ‘Thank you very much but I don’t have a good enough mare to put that semen into. Maybe sometime down the line’.
“He laughed and we became great friends. And he found Unlimited for me. I turned him down but got the luck of owning that mare.”
“I just feel really lucky! Luck is what you make it. I have my dogs, my horses, a home laden with pedigree spreadsheets. It’s very refreshing living beside the Lough. Life’s good.”
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