There is no better judge of a horse than Tim Carey of Tullaghnasleek Stud near Mullingar.

After all, he has won a host of Dublin and All Ireland Championships.

One memorable season he chalked up 55 titles around the country, so when he declares his newly arrived stallion Another Pleasure as “a fine big upstanding, good looking horse”, you tend to believe him.

Tim and Finola’s family is now the seventh generation of Careys on this 200 acre farm, so there is a depth of knowledge and tradition in his well-considered words.

Long tradition

On the Carey living room mantle stands a stud card from over 140 years ago in 1887 stating “there is a reduced rate for small farmers of £1–£10”, which typifies the service that this solid establishment has rendered down the years.

In more recent times the Careys have stood the likes of Euphemism, Blue cliff, Golden Cliff and New Frontier. As I spoke with Tim last week he enthused that a son of their current thoroughbred Golden Lariat had just run a close second in the Scottish Grand National.

In fact, this sire by Prospector out of a Sadler’s Wells dam has been so successful in National Hunt that he is now “restricted” in terms of sport horse coverings.

Tim sadly has to point out that: “It simply is not profitable these days to purchase a good National Hunt type sire for the non–thoroughbred world.”

Doing the continental

So, not for the first time Tullanaghnasleek has had to go to the European warmblood in order to satisfy the Irish Sport Horse industry needs.

As far back as the late 1980s Tim had bought a well-bred continental stallion from the German National Stud.

“Sadly he did not pass the vet and what would have been one of the first moves in that direction had to be abandoned,” he notes.

But Tim and his family now feel the time is right to try once more. In conjunction with Tony Noble Stallions they have brought the superb jumper Another Pleasure to Tullaghnaslek where he will stand, by AI, at €1,000 with free return.

A son of the hugely successful For Pleasure and out of a Ramiro Z dam, he recorded over 120 international starts up to 1.60m and jumped on 13 Dutch Nations Cup teams.

Back in 1994, Tim Carey studied genetics and AI at Colorado State University and following on from that he set up a state-of-the-art laboratory at Tullaghnasleek. Both of his daughters Claire and Susan have huge experience in stud management and are deeply interested in progressing their home farm’s tradition.