I WAS born and reared on a dairy farm in Ballinglen, just outside Gorey in north County Wexford. I was fairly fond of where I lived, because I am only two fields from my home place now.

I bought my first horse when I was 18 at Goresbridge Horse Sales: a chesnut filly foal who became my first broodmare, Ballinglen Girl.

From there, it sort of snowballed over the years; I used to breed a foal most years, keep a daughter or two, and breed a foal out of them. I would sell foals, and I bought a couple of foals every year.

One of my best years so far was probably five years ago, I bought two colt foals. One was off a very good friend of mine, Frank Redmond; we used to hunt together. I bought the foal at about 10 days old; that was in 2021 and, with Covid, a lot of things were shut down.

Later on in the year, though, we went to the All-Ireland Traditional Foal Championship, held that year in Roscommon, and he won it.

The other foal I had bought that year was actually from another friend, Lisa Comiskey. That foal went on to be Shane McKenna’s Watchhouse High Voltage, who has been the back-to-back winner of the Red Mills Champion of Champions, so that was, I suppose, a successful year’s haul.

Every foal has its place and we have been lucky enough to have been part of some of their journeys.

1. Congratulations - you bred Ballinglen Back Again, the Chris Ryan-owned supreme champion at the TIHA performance championship. Tell us about him?

Ballinglen Back Again was bred here and sold as a foal in Goresbridge, where Jason Furlong bought him on behalf of Chris Ryan. He’s by Grandpas Rebel out of Ballycreen Illyria, who was by Kings Master. He was shown lightly as a foal with his mother, winning the colt foal class in Gorey Show. His mother was bred by David Cosby and goes back to Orbis and Mythical Sprite.

2. Proudest breeder moment?

For me, my proudest breeder moment would be watching Ballinglen Alainn, a third-generation home-bred, realise €18,000 at the Go For Gold sale. He was actually bought as a foal by Chris Ryan as well.

He was by one of my resident stallions, the 2011 Croker Cup champion Financial Reward and out of a Rebel Mountain x Master Imp mare.

The Master Imp mare in turn was out of an Ozymandias mare, owned by a very good friend of mine called Pat Kelly from Frankfort. It was a very pleasing moment as a breeder to watch a horse, whose mother and grandmother I had bred, go onto the big stage and make such a big price for a very good supporter of mine over the years.

Donal with the late Rebel Mountain, one of several thoroughbred and Irish Draught stallions to have stood at his Ballinglen Stud \ Susan Finnerty

3. Breeding traditional - a niche market/labour of love/matter of pride?

Breeding traditionally-bred horses is a matter of pride; the product is a combination of all that is great within Irish breeding.

We’re a market leader in the thoroughbred industry, the Irish Draught is a world-renowned breed, and the Connemara pony is famous the world over.

A combination of the three provides a horse of great temperament, great ability and equally very, very sound and I believe it is something that needs to be celebrated more on the national and international stages.

4. Biggest challenge(s) facing horse breeders?

The biggest challenge facing horse breeders at the minute is undoubtedly the rising costs of producing a foal. The registration and vets’ fees are crippling small breeders and, unfortunately, it is going to lead to more and more breeders choosing to go out to buy their foal rather than breeding something of good quality.

5. Ballinglen is yours, thoughts on prefixes?

I strongly agree with using prefixes. I think it’s important that once a horse is named, the breeder has the ability to trace them and track their progress once they are sold.

I don’t agree that, in some countries, the buyer or current owner of the horse has the ability to change the horse’s name without seeking approval from the breeder.

Within the thoroughbred industry, once the horse races under a name, that’s his name for life and I believe it should be the same with foal registration.

Once you name your foal, attaching your prefix or not as the case may be, that name should not be able to be changed, unless approval is sought and obtained from the breeder.

6. Internet - good or bad servant?

Very good; I would be a big believer in using all the tools available to you to sell a horse. The internet has opened up the horse trade, so you can advertise your horse worldwide - not just nationally or locally.

The time is now that you can send videos and very good pictures and the quality of technology is there and it should be harnessed and used when trying to market a horse.

7. That famous horse you’d like to have bred?

I’d love to have bred Ryan’s Son; his story is a little bit local to me, with his father Ozymandias having stood not five miles up the road. His success in the show jumping arenas in England and abroad was a great source of hope in a time when breeding horses in Ireland was seen as something everyone did, but no one that we knew of had reached that level of success.

It was a great white hope for local breeding at the time.

8. It takes a team - who’s on yours?

My team consists mostly of family: my wife Breda, my son Jimmy, and my daughters Caoimhe and Katie, help me out with the day-to-day running of the mares, foals and stallions. My brother Michael and my nephew Paddy also give a hand whenever they are needed.

I’m very lucky to have great neighbours, Marea O’Donoghue is a great help to me in getting horses ready, plaiting and producing them. It’s a small team, but we work relatively efficiently, and I am very lucky to have them.

9. Breeding horses, would you do it all over again?

Absolutely, I love what I do, and I wouldn’t ever want to stop breeding horses for as long as I am able.

10. If you weren’t breeding horses, how would you spend your time?

It’s a bit of a busman’s holiday, but I would probably breed more cattle!