ON a crisp Friday morning on November 21st, my father, PJ Watson, was laid to rest in Drum Cemetery. I remember asking my mother how my father proposed; she said he just took out the house plans and the rest was history.

My father often spoke about old times and he valued tradition. I remember him telling me about my uncle, Pat Heslin, giving him a wedding present of a cow and calf and, from there, his love of stock and the soil began. Horses were always part of his life and, as child and young man, they were the only form of transport in rural Ireland.

The Connemara Pony was a huge part of his life and his second home was Clifden. He missed few sales and he loved the welcome he received at Foyle’s Hotel from Steven and Lisa, where the fire was on and a full Irish breakfast to be had. He thanked Charlie Haughey for the free public transport and hence he had an excuse to avoid my driving skills!

The success he had in the Connemara world with Rosscon Farm culminated in the journey of his favourite mare, Lockinge Petunia, bred by the late Lady Vesty and Henrietta Knight. Petunia went on to stand Supreme Champion at Balmoral and Ballinalee and was Reserve Supreme Champion at Clifden show. It was a lovely memory to see him walk the streets of Clifden for the parade of Champions.

My dad was, for all that knew him, determined and he set his sights the following year on Horse of the Year show. I will be forever grateful to Jonny and Lesley Stevens for making that happen, as at that point we had no direct HOYS qualifiers in Ireland. He was a proud Roscommon man travelling to Birmingham that year to see Petunia after she had stood National Champion at the British Breed Show.

Indeed, to see his home-bred mare Rosscon Hazy Mist stand Champion at Oughterard Show was another special day. He sold her as a foal and regretted it and, when the opportunity came to buy her back at Clifden sales, Hazy Mist returned to her birthplace.

Pride

He believed in the showcase of stock and it gave him great pride to see his home-bred mare Rosscon Camile, owned by Thomasina O’Reilly, stand Champion Ridden at Dublin, with Rosscon Sunrise the champion ridden stallion on the same day. He always said that to take on the ring, you need to be at 130% and he never believed in the over-showing or over-production of an animal.

He saw his stock top the sales at Goresbridge and Clifden and he always believed in buying the best you could. One of his Goresbridge purchases, the iconic show hunter pony Rosson Copycat, he spotted online before the sale. I remember asking him on the day ‘do you think he moves enough?’, and his answer was an emphatic ‘yes’. Copycat, under Reese Shakespeare and the Jinks Show team, went on to be Supreme champion at Royal International, Windsor and Cheshire.

He always felt that the stallions were the backbone of the breed and you were not doing a breed service by just using the stallion down the road. Fond memories back in the 90s of my parents travelling to Wexford to visit Ballydonagh Bobby and Co Clare to visit Jimmy O’Donoghue’s Windy Day. The first stallion we ever had was Boden Park Finnard, who came from Mark Fitton in Manchester. My parents were on holiday in America that summer and I spoke to dad on the phone; he said see whether we can get him home with a quick flight and the rest was history.

Finnard’s brother, Abbeyleix Fionn, was a great favourite and he felt Padraic Hallinan’s and Kate Daly’s Rogaire na Locha was one of the best-moving stallions he had ever seen and we were lucky to have him in Ireland. At home, the paddocks were graced by sires such as Frederiksminde Hazy Match, Garryhinch Millrace and, recently, Too Much Melody, to name but a few.

In the words of John McGathern: “The best thing about life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and precious life is everything.”

-PJ W