BASED two miles from Claregalway, Badgerhill Farm is more known for producing young horses but Mermus R Diamonds was bred here. I used to buy three-year-olds to sell as ridden four and five-year-olds, like Electric Cruise. Owned with Brian Cassidy Snr, he was bought as a three-year-old in Goresbridge and went to the 2012 London Olympic Games with Joseph Murphy.

Badgerhill Cruise was another Goresbridge three-year-old buy. She won the Horse Board championship with Clem McMahon and went on to jump in the World Breeders final in Lanaken. Injury forced her into retirement as a seven-year-old but we felt she would have gone all the way.

1. Proudest moment as a breeder?

Definitely would have to be Mermus R Diamonds finishing in the top 10 at Pau this year. She’s only 10 and it was her and rider Richard Coney’s first five-star event. I was proud of her even going there, but to finish on her dressage score in a quality field was magic stuff. That’s what you dream of.

2. Which would you prefer to breed, a 1.60m show jumper or 5* event horse?

It doesn’t matter, either is a top horse in their sport. Breeding is a long haul hobby or business, whatever way you look at it. I grew up surrounded by show jumping, there’s no EI one-day events in the west of Ireland but once I started following her progress and seeing how tough top-level eventing is… show jumping or eventer, I don’t mind.

3. Favourite broodmare?

That has to be Pendle Watercolour. As soon as I saw her, I bought her from two great characters; Billy and Breda Horan. ‘Penny’ qualified for the Dublin three-year-old loose jumping and course designer Tommy Brennan tried buying her there that year. She jumped there as a four-year-old, in foal to O.B.O.S Quality, with Brian ‘Cass’ Cassidy. That first foal - Badgerhill Quality - was back in Dublin five years later with Mark Duffy.

Penny died last year which always seems to happen, the mare or stallion is gone as soon as the good ones start to come along. She bred 18 foals, two died but every one of the others went on and did great jobs for the people who bought them.

I still have Mermus R Diamonds four-year-old full-sister, she looks very promising and a Peter Pan half-sister, so at least we have some of her line. If these two have a fraction of Penny’s courage, they’ll be good.

Richard Coney and the Gary Higgins-bred Mermus R Diamonds finished ninth at Pau 2020 \ Equigram Photography

4. What stage do you prefer to sell stock at?

I love keeping the foals and never sold any until four-year-olds at least. Vere Phillips has bought a lot of young horses off us, he deserves an award for all he has done for the Irish Sport Horse industry. We’ve sold to Steve Hadley, Michael Whitaker, Linda Courtney and Bob Sweeney is another good customer.

5. ‘It takes a team’ – who’s on yours?

I’m very lucky here in Claregalway to be surrounded by the likes of Mark Duffy, Sean Glynn, Justin Burke and the best vet in the country, Philip McManus. Karen Fox does a great job starting horses off.

Talking of teams, another highlight is watching the international career of Polish rider, Shamac Konopacki. I’m delighted to see him doing so well as he was a mighty worker and horseman when he worked here and rode horses for me.

6. Best advice?

I got two bits of good advice from the one man; my great friend Frank Burke from Loughrea, a great man to produce young horses. “An Irish-bred horse should be given time to mature and develop,” he said. Mermus R Diamonds is one to prove this. She has come good at the age of 10 and, God willing, she’ll have many a good day to come.

When I was show jumping at Ralph Conroy’s in Tynagh one day, Frank said to me; “Trust your eye, get a good momentum and trust your eye.” I don’t think I ever counted a related distance after that. He said: “There’s no related distances out hunting, is there?” And I said: “I guess not”!

7. Favourite stallion/mare line?

Cruising was probably the luckiest horse for me. I loved anything to do with Clover Hill mares or geldings. Penny’s mother was out of a Clover Hill mare and that was the biggest draw for me, even though I always like Colourfield progeny.

I remember coming out of a Salthill nightclub, (nothing new there for me!), loading an Arctic Que mare and heading down to Philip Heenan, hoping to cover her with Clover Hill. I was the first there on Sunday morning at 5:30am. While I got bored waiting for Philip, I took a hurl and ball out of the van for a puck around. Next thing, Philip was behind me like a shadow; “Are you any good at the hurling, young lad?” he asked me. “Not as good as Jimmy Doyle or Pat Fox, but I could hold my own in average company.”

That was it. From once I mentioned those great Tipperary hurlers, we had a great chat about hurling. Next he asked me what stallion I was hoping for. “The one and only Clover Hill, please.” He said: “Your mare won’t suit him,” but when he saw my face, “Then again, she might”.

The result was a beautiful grey gelding that I brought over as a four-year-old to England where I was working. I hunted him with the Pytchley Hunt and sold him to Clare O’Brien in Bedfordshire, who has bought many hunters off me since. She hunted him for 16 years in a row with the Pytchley and the proceeds of that sale helped buy my first JCB.

8, What do you think are the greatest challenges facing sport horse breeders?

It’s a hard slog sometimes. If you’re lucky, you sell the odd good one and buyers start coming to you.

There’s bad years when you lose mares and foals, then what looks great on paper turns out to be near-useless. The older generation breeder was used to that though and were in it for the long haul, but we’re losing those farmer-breeders. That’s a shame as grass roots keeps the business afloat, be it breeding, show jumping, hunting.

9. You’ve won the Euromillions jackpot. Which stallion/mare would you buy?

I’d be tempted to buy Mermus R Diamonds back as a broodmare. If I was to buy a stallion, I’d be very much guided by the advice of Galway Bay Stud’s Justin Burke. His knowledge of pedigrees and which crosses work in horse breeding is unreal. Coming from a farming background, he also has a great eye for stock.

10. Best memory in the saddle?

Amateur show jumping and Corrib Riding Club took over when I retired from hurling. Horses were a super hobby because that’s what they were for me, getting me away from the civil engineering ‘day job’.

There were two best days really. I’d been second in the Irish Farmers Journal amateurs championship a few times on my great horse, WCE Irish, better known as Fitzy. A full Irish Draught, I bought him as a five-year-old from Martin and Lisa O’Dea from Co. Clare. I finally won that championship in 2008. I was thrilled and remember the late Quentin Doran-O’Reilly, the Farmers Journal sport horse editor, saying to me: “You deserve that after being second for the last two years.”

I went to the Towerlands show in Essex for five years in a row and remember thinking on my first visit, when Laura Renwick won the first three classes, “Oh Christ, I will never jump these, they are so big.” And that’s what prompted me to buy Fitzy. As I thought to myself if I ever have a chance of winning a class here, I need a right horse.

At the 2009 amateur inter-nations cup show, where Noel Healy rode Penny’s first foal Badgerhill Quality, I won a class on Friday afternoon and the last class on Saturday evening. After winning that class, the lads were saying to me: “If you stay off the beer tonight Higgins and go well in one of tomorrow’s classes, you might win the leading rider award.”

Now, I was after winning two classes and there was fat chance of me staying off the beer! Next morning at 9.10am, I was third out of 148 into the ring to jump in the Power and Speed. When the class finished at 12.30pm, the lads woke me up, where I was asleep on the hay bales in the stable yard, to come and collect my third red rosette of the weekend. We all collected the leading rider award before driving the lorry to Holyhead for the boat home.