Step into Ballypatrick Stables and you will question yourself – am I in Europe, Florida or Thurles? It is of course the latter, but Greg Broderick has worked hard to create a luxury equestrian hub at his family home in Co Tipperary.

He is the fifth generation to live on the 60-acre Inch farm, which was traditionally home to beef cows before Greg’s father, Austin, kept hunting and racehorses, and in later years keeping just horses. Views from the balcony in the new build reach across green meadows to the beautiful Inch house and another 65 acres across the road belonging to the Brodericks.

My last visit to Ballypatrick Stables was some four years ago, long before Greg had even broken ground on his impressive indoor arena, but now a brand new 16-stable state-of-the-art build adjoins that indoor.

Broderick has based his business on selling quality horses and attracting wealthy owners, so he saw the need to update facilities and keep up to what the leading riders are doing in Europe and further afield.

“I think we are very far behind in Ireland. I don’t think it’s enough to try and be the best of what’s around, I think you need to be on par with everybody in Europe and that’s what I am trying to base myself off here – to be as good as any yard anywhere in Europe, not just in Ireland,” he told the Dublin Horse Show Magazine.

While on buying trips around the world, he paid particular attention to the nicer yards, the structures and the engineering and had a good idea of what he wanted his custom-purpose yard to look like.

“I wanted to build something very nice and obviously very attractive looking but still very practical and that is what we have gone for here.

"I had a fair idea of what I wanted but between myself and my two sisters (Olga and Cheryl) we planned it ourselves. Olga kind of took over more of the interior and the layout of the office and entertaining area.”

Walking into the facility, the wonderful staircase and exquisite office area immediately greets you. It is not like something you would find in a regular stable yard. Finished with wood panelling, Olga decorated the office space with desks and chairs from her favourite interior shops, and the quirky finishes and floods of lights make it one of the main features of the barn.

An obvious eye for interiors, Olga really enjoyed the process. “Greg was great to work for, he had his ideas but let me do my own things with the interior and I must say you would be really proud now to see the finished product,” she said.

Olga was also in charge of the entertaining area and hit the nail on the head. Designed to overlook the indoor and outdoor grass arenas with a balcony, the gallery is equipped with a flat screen television, kitchen and bar, as well as a bedroom and shower for clients flying in to try horses. They have thought of everything.

The beautiful entertainment area at Ballypatrick Stables

Although he likes the luxury of it, Greg is more concerned about his customers feeling happy in the area.

“You see some of the customers, in particular from North America, where the student comes with their trainer and their parents. Sometimes their parents are happier to sit in the viewing area and watch. Up there they can see everything but yet they have some comfort and if the trainer and the student are trying horses, it works quite well, and that’s what I am aiming for here,” he added.

SHOW-STOPPING

Greg is keen to emphasise that this new facility is not just for clients, but also for his staff, and crucially, his horses. It is obvious the minute you step inside the stable yard, it was built to keep them in the best possible shape.

The staff at Ballypatrick, in particular Greg’s long standing head groom Ashleigh Skillen, had a big say in the layout of the stable yard.

“Ashleigh is here a long time now so I chatted to her a lot about the layout of the wash boxes, where we put the feed rooms, the farrier box, stallion stalls and all that. We put in a vibration plate with a swinging partition to make it practical to put the horses in and out, because sometimes with those vibration plates they don’t love to stand up on them, so we put it into the floor with a smaller partition on either side. The lads manage that side of things so it was important they were happy with how that side was laid out as well,” Greg explained.

“I am certain it has made work life easier for the lads. Everyone wants to go to work in a nice place and the more attention to detail you have, the more everything improves around the yard. You are all the time raising the standard and that’s what we want.”

Greg knew he wanted red brick stables and was keen to have the best quality doors on the market, where the horses could not look over the wood. That was where local man Pearse Ryan of Hill Fabrication stepped in and the doors are now one of Greg’s favourite things about the yard.

He tells the reason for the horses looking out over the red brick. “I’ve seen fancy stable barns with good doors and when they are first designed, they look very well but then when the horses can look out over the doors, at feeding time and during the day when they are bored they can scratch the door with their teeth, and eventually the doors can get tattered-looking.

“At a yard in Belgium I saw the door completely barred up, so the horses could see out through the doors but they couldn’t get their heads over the door, and then they had red brick in front and the horses could look over that. So even if they were scratching they couldn’t mark any timber and every six months, you can power hose the red brick and the doors will look as good as ever so, like I said, practically it looks fresher longer and I think the red brick also looks well – it gives some nice character to the place.”

It was close to 20 degrees when I visited Ballypatrick at the beginning of June, but the high ceiling, as well as windows in the stables, allow for air to circulate, keeping it cool in the summer months. “One thing we made sure of when we were building the barn is that there was a lot of light,” he said. “They are extra big stables with rubber matting and they are open and airy, the horses seem very happy in them.”

The tack room

There was no expense spared in the finishes, and the tack room, featuring a kitchen-like marble island with a hanging lights, an entire bit wall and hand engraved ‘G’ logos into the wooden drawers makes it a complete show-stopper.

Standing on the outside balcony overlooking the farm, you can’t help but think how much joy the Thurles man must take from building his business up from the ground. The well-documented sale of his Olympic mount MHS Going Global and other top horses have gone a long way to helping him built his perfect facility.

The balcony overlooking the indoor arena

FUTURE

Between a booming breeding yard, which is run by Cheryl, students competing at international level and running a sales business, what’s next for Greg Broderick? “I love competing and I want to really push to get myself back up to the top level, but at the same time, I run it as a business and if someone takes a fancy to one of my horses, I will sell it.

“We have a lot going on, a lot of irons in the fire. I have as good a bunch of horses as I’ve ever had now, I am very pleased with them, they are just getting there now. But again, if someone comes in and offers enough money they will all be sold again. That’s just the way it will be.”

Ballypatrick Flamenco (aka Riley) is a perfect model on the day of our shoot, but he is much more that a pretty face.

“The aim would be to produce him to be a Super League Nations Cup horses – I do think he is a real candidate for that. He is a very reliable horse, he jumps a lot of clear rounds and he is very trainable. He is a probably a horse who is going to come into his own in a big grass ring.”

Team Ballypatrick

THE DETAILS

Hand engraved logos in the tack room

The bit wall

Each stable door features a traditional style lamp