BORN and raised in New Ross, my father Michael worked hard all his life. No tractor, just a pushbike and pony and cart. Our mother (Norah) died when I was five and he raised us; he’d make butter, bake bread and have dinner for us when we got home from school. He’d bring eggs and potatoes into New Ross to sell. My father dropped dead in the field when he was only 60 and we were all devastated.

He was a very holy man, a lot more than me, although I say a few prayers and thank St Paul and God for my health and things going well with the horses. My two sisters, Alice and May, both got married in England; one of my brothers, John Joe, is in Coventry and my other brother, Philip, is in Kildare. I’d say I’ve the best brothers on the planet; if I were stuck for help they’d be here in no time.

I was the only one interested in horses and bought my first broodmare when I got a few pounds together. Away I went to Goresbridge and saw this lovely chesnut mare. A man named Gill owned her and I bought that Hail Titan mare for £525. I went to the stables afterwards and the Gill man came after me to ask what I planned to do with her. “I’m going to breed from her.”

I covered her with Imperius, she bred five foals, but I lost her and a lovely Imperius colt after a breech foaling. I said, ‘I’d love to buy another Hail Titan’, so got out the stallion book to find the address of Eugene McCartan who owned him. Myself and Philip drove up to Co Mayo, I told Eugene the story and we went to the yard to see Hail Titan, a lovely chesnut horse, about 16.1hh. He had an orchard at the back of his stable that he could go in and out of.

Eugene brought us to Paddy O’Malley’s white house with a lovely farmer’s yard and a Honda motorbike outside the door. When we went to see Paddy’s Hail Titan filly, she tore across the field - could she move? It was unreal, hard to describe! I said “You want to sell her?” And he said “I’ll have to talk to the wife.” We met him the next day and he said he would.

I was after getting the sheep subsidy cheque from the government; I cashed that and we met him and Anthony Gordon in Haydens Hotel in Ballinasloe, where Paddy gave me a £40 lucky penny. If he had given me a coin, I would have been over the moon to have that filly. I covered her (Cushinstown Glory) with my own stallion Diamond Rock, Sky Boy, Cult Hero and Master Imp. She won in Bannow Show from 17 mares and bred until she stopped breathing at 25.

Master Ballinteskin was one of her Master Imp colts, I sold him at Goresbridge as a foal for IR£1,650 to the Hayes family from near Borris and they sold him at Goresbridge as a three-year-old.

1. Proudest breeder moment?

Master Ballinteskin winning a silver medal with Eddie Moloney in 2001. That really made my day and even my whole year. It just gave me the boost that I needed. I’ll never forget when the late Noel Cawley was in Goresbridge one year. Cushinstown Glory had a foal at that sales and Noel came over to me and said ‘Your horse beat mine in Lanaken! Is the mare here?’ And when he saw her, he said she was a typical blood mare.

I bred three horses - Endeavour R (Cavalier Royale), Solsboro Zeus (Dignified van’t Zorgvliet) and Cushinstown Special (Castlefield Conthargos) that won at Balmoral and Dublin in 2023, 2024 and this year. Another horse I bred was the 2008 Future Event Horse winner: Westwinds Fernando (Master Imp) and he went to Germany.

Ashlea Anderson in Scotland has a Dignified stallion - Ashlea’s Black Magic - that I also bred. She is over the moon after Ashlea’s Dignified won the sport horse foal championship at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair last week.

Colette, my daughter, got framed photos of them for the wall and next there’ll be a Breeders’ 10 page framed too. This is like an early Christmas present.

Simon McCarthy bred the 2023 Balmoral Supreme champion hunter - Debbie Harrod’s Endeavour R ridden by Gwen Scott \ Susan Finnerty

2. How many broodmares do you have?

Nine, all in foal, including Cushinstown Rose, a full-sister to Master Ballinteskin. She’s 21, heavy in-foal to Castlefield Kingston and has a beautiful filly foal by him, going to Goresbridge on Saturday.

3. Describe your winter feeding regime?

I have some haylage bales left from last year and hay that I made on June 15th. I put a ring feeder in each field and just drop in a bale. I go into the Co-Op in New Ross and buy a tonne at a time of Grennan’s nuts. I often put bran, stud nuts and balancer into a bucket and steam it overnight to make a lovely mash and the mares love it.

4. “Fools breed foals for wise men to buy.” Agree/disagree?

The way I see it is... I have a foaling alarm and lights in a paddock out the back of the house where the mares foal. I go upstairs every half hour to check the mares at foaling time for maybe weeks at a time and love to do that. Money wouldn’t buy the sight of a new foal trying to play.

5. Cushinstown is yours, are prefixes a good idea?

Absolutely. Definitely. I only started that a few years ago and should have done it sooner. I think it’s so important because wherever your horses go, people know that’s a Cushinstown.

6. Best advice you ever got?

When I was younger, we always listened to the older people. One neighbour was a great judge of horses and he always said, “Be kind to the horses. And never beat them, because a horse will never forget.”

7. Famous horse you’d like to have bred?

King of Diamonds. Those good mares and stallions he bred like Diamond Lad, Flagmount King, Flagmount Diamond and I stood Diamond Rock. Michael Hutchinson, a lovely, lovely fellow, jumped Diamond Rock for me and he had 59 points.

King of Diamonds was in the right yard with the nicest family in the world. Tom, Loftus (O’Neill), Frances and Barbara did a great service for breeders in the southeast and you’d have to go in for that cup of tea!

8. It takes a team, who’s on yours?

Philip my brother and a special mention to my vet Mark Slevin, Aidan O’Brien’s nephew. He’s like Aidan: a humble, lovely young man and proper gentleman. I’ll tell you how good he is; he’d be here a lot of Saturdays and brings The Irish Field and Farmers Journal every time.

All the stallion people I’ve dealt with and mentioned; Maurice Cousins and the Carey family too. They’d always be looking after you.

9. Breeding horses. Would you do it all over again?

I couldn’t live without them; they kept me going and that’s why I’m the way I am today. I was up this morning at half six, made my porridge and went to do the horses in the glorious sunshine. Money couldn’t buy this life.

10. Christmas is coming, name three wise men?

I’d see Max Hauri in his uniform, Seamus Hughes and Ned Kavanagh at shows. Max was an important man for this country, he bought hundreds of horses. He and Seamus brought Cavalier to Ireland, for which Michael Callery, another great friend, is very glad. Another lovely, unassuming man with eight mares by Cavalier.

Ned sold horses to Max and would have been a great judge of a horse as well.