My earliest memories of horses growing up were switching seats on the school bus to make sure I got a glimpse of each horse on the school route.

I met my close friend Suzanne Malee in school, her grandfather was our family doctor and her parents owned Carrabeg Stud.

I was lucky as Suzanne had numerous ponies, so there was always something that required exercising.

They stood thoroughbred stallions, such as Triggerero, Ardent Lodger and Primo Pageant, as well as a few Irish Draughts, and it was then my love for the thoroughbred started.

Never stop dreaming

I recall Susan Malee’s [Suzanne’s mother] RDS successes with Corran King, Rakish Paddy, Carrabeg Gold and Carrabeg Apollo, to name but a few.

I had great exposure of what was required to win at that level and even back then, my year revolved around Westport horse show and the RDS. Westport was usually an indicator of what everyone had for the year.

Around 1997, I started to show for local breeder Paddy Maloney. He had a beautiful mare, Collagh Lass, by Triggerero out of a Kingsway Diamond dam. Bred by his neighbours, the McNicholas family and bought by Paddy when she was just a few hours old – I’d many memorable days with Collagh Lass.

We qualified multiple times for the RDS Breeders’ Championship, each time on the first attempt and were always in the ribbons. We never managed to get a big win at the RDS but it never stopped me dreaming about one.

Once I’d completed my degree in mental health nursing, I decided I wanted to work in forensics and completed a masters in forensic mental health at Trinity College Dublin. It was at this point I knew the horses had to be put on hold.

I sold all my horses, only keeping my sister’s pony that I bought for her when she was a child.

Judging

My judging role with the Irish Shows Association kept me in the loop though.

I’ve had some notable call-ups over the years including the FBD All Ireland broodmare championship, the Kildysart All Ireland two-year-old filly championship and this year, I judged the Red Mills two-year-old colt/gelding championship.

I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with Michael Hughes, Dorothy Lazenby and most recently, Jim Harrison, always so welcoming and nothing is ever a big deal.

Missing the hoses

By 2010, I had completed my masters in forensics and then went on to study clinical leadership at the Royal College of Surgeons, so my career was well on its way, but I was missing the horses.

I started looking for a broodmare six years ago, it took much longer than I thought as I was sticking to my own specific criteria.

In 2015 I received a call that Preci Spark Event Horses in the UK were selling some mares. The following morning I flew to the UK and purchased two.

Both broodmares are by the famous thoroughbred stallion Hand In Glove and their dams were bought in Ireland in the early 90s and evented up to three-star.

I had found exactly what I was searching for – performance-bred mares with a high percentage of thoroughbred blood. Each had bred three foals but nothing that was old enough to compete at the time.

Quality horses

My goal is to try and breed sound, quality horses, underpinned by a high percentage of thoroughbred blood. It’s not that this formula is the golden rule, but more of one based on personal preference and an interest in the thoroughbred horse.

To date, the Hand In Glove mares’ offspring have competed and won in every division up to four-star all over Europe, with Tregilder, the eldest, winning the now 4* at Blair Castle in 2018 with Oliver Townend.

In 2016 Dad retired after 30 years of working in New York and Suzanne, my childhood friend, returned home after studying veterinary to become our local vet.

Last year, Dad and I decided to produce one of the two-year-old fillies, Lisbrogan Gold for the RDS, it was Dad’s first time getting involved with the horses.

I remember being pulled in second in the initial line up. We did another two laps before I got the winning nod. A dream come true winning the RDS with a home-bred. Lisbrogan Gold went on to stand the reserve champion filly of the show.

A few weeks later I took one of our foals; a bay filly by the Kylemore resident stallion Tyson, to compete for a place in the Horse Sport Ireland eventing foal championship. We won our qualifier in Tubberbride and went on to win the final in Cavan that October.

Beautiful foals

2019 has been another successful year, with some beautiful foals born in the spring and all the mares are back in foal for 2020. Lisbrogan Gold had her biggest wins in the spring, winning the three-year-old filly class, champion filly and reserve champion young horse at Balmoral.

In all aspect of lifes you have to take the highs with the lows. Lisbrogan Gold arrived in great form at the RDS this year but unfortunately gave herself a knock in the stable and went lame the morning of her class.

Apart from that, I’ve been mostly fortunate since getting back into breeding, especially around sales. Every horse I’ve bred has either been sold to America or Holland, most notably Alan Waldman, based in the Netherlands. Alan bought two fillies from my breeding programme in 2018 and he has produced many top level 1.60m show jumpers, including Big Star who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

I’m really looking forward to the 2020 season. My younger sister Gemma recently returned home from living in New York and we retained a filly foal this year that we think is a bit special and I look forward to Gemma producing her.

Lisbrogan Gold is now in the UK with producer Danielle Heath, when she’s finished with her ridden career Gold will return home and come back out as a broodmare in-hand.

Without doubt the most important aspect of breeding and showing horses is the people I meet and the friends that I’ve made.

Thomas Conlon was in conversation with Susan Finnerty.