I’M a native of the Mizen peninsula in West Cork, raised on the family farm in Ballydehob and now living close by, in Lisheen, just west of Skibbereen. Some of my earliest memories are of bringing the cows in for milking on horseback.

Since the 1980s, my wife Anne and I breed Irish Draughts together and we both have a deep interest in pedigree lines and breeding. We proudly use the Mizen prefix for all our foals. It gives our stock a sense of place and a very clear identity.

We bought our first mare together, Mizen Kitty, from Bill and Andrew Myers in Killarney. I learned a lot over the decades from traditional breeders, many of whom are now sadly deceased. They had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the different qualities of the various Irish Draught lines, going back through generations of working their horses.

From listening to those experts, many of whom we met and worked with in the Irish Draught Horse Society, I saw the dangers to the continued existence of the herd from the narrowness of popular breeding lines and the overuse of highly-promoted lines, largely excluding other pedigrees.

Our own breeding programme works to maintain and increase the outcross pedigree lines and I am very pleased that Mizen Man has achieved Class 1 status. His lineage goes back a few generations here on the farm.

In 1998, we bred Kilgarvan Moll, our Heather Breeze mare, to Moorpark Boy. I vividly remember packing our children into the back seat and setting off for Wicklow. We luckily got a filly foal that we called The Mizen Mist and, in 2002, we bred her in turn to Gold Link in Kilkenny.

This resulted in Mizen Gold, who became our breeding stallion for many years on the farm. Mizen Gold was a tremendous horse; he had all the qualities I admire in an Irish Draught - strength, substance, movement, quality, a great temperament, and was immediately recognisable as an Irish Draught.

Although Mizen Gold was given Class 2 at inspection, I knew very clearly that he was the essence of a traditional Irish Draught and his progeny confirmed this. Many years later, the 2024 Irish Draught Genetic Diversity Report found that Mizen Gold has one of the rarest pedigree lines in the Irish Draught herd. He is one of the top five most genetically diverse of the 285 Irish Draught breeding stallions with an inbreeding coefficient of 0.05% and a mean kinship within the herd of 0.87%.

We ran Mizen Gold with our own mares up to his death in 2022 and he bred great horses over the years.

I was very fortunate to get Ratooragh Lady, the dam of Mizen Man, in her late teens through my late brother, Derry. She became available after the death of a local traditional breeder, Con Lucey from Ratooragh in nearby Schull. Ratooragh Lady was a fine mare in her own right and when she was offered to me, her outcross pedigree - Cork Arthur and Abbeylara bloodlines - made it an easy decision. I’m very thankful that she subsequently bred Mizen Man and a younger full-sister.

Mizen Man at the 2025 Cavan Horse Sport Ireland stallion inspections \ Aisling Deverell jumpinaction.net

1. Congratulations, you bred Mizen Man, another of the Class 1 Irish Draught stallions at Cavan. Tell us more about him?

Mizen Man is a five-year-old 16.2hh grey stallion by Mizen Gold out of Ratooragh Lady. He is an athletic horse with a kind temperament and a very rare pedigree - he has 0.98% mean kinship to the rest of the herd.

We are delighted to have produced him to this stage, but we don’t run a commercial stud and we have a lot of Mizen Gold mares in our herd, so it’s now time for Mizen Man to find a new home.

I must mention the great work done by Alice and Philip Copithorne in preparing him for the inspections during the past winter. While their horsemanship and dedication is well known, the Copithornes are a pleasure to work with, direct, honest and always helpful.

For the inspection, Alice and her partner Jamie left West Cork at 2am and made the long journey through the night to Cavan, yet they maintained their good humour through the long day and showed Mizen Man very professionally that evening.

2. Proudest breeder moment?

I am very proud that we bred Mizen Gold and made the decision to hold him as our breeding stallion. That decision has paid dividends for us and for the diversity of the herd.

3. Your Draught template?

A strong, compact, free-moving, athletic horse with a short cannon bone, pleasant head and calm temperament is my choice.

4. Your hope for the future of the Irish Draught breed?

That the traditional qualities of the Irish Draught breed continue to be understood, appreciated and maintained. It is easy to breed a lighter horse from an Irish Draught cross, but once it is diluted, it is impossible to reintroduce the bone, substance and temperament of the Irish Draught.

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

I would like to have bred Irish Draught stallions, such as Blue Champion, Crannagh Hero and Heather Breeze, horses that have made a huge contribution to the breed. They are the type I most admire, but there are not enough of them in the herd at present.

6. Prefixes - your thoughts?

A prefix is very important as it identifies the stock, gives breeders pride in their horses and makes it easier to track their progress.

7. It takes a team - who’s on yours?

My wife Anne and I have worked as a team for many years and we are fortunate to share a passion for the same type of horse. Of course, we have great friends and neighbours, who can be called on when needed and are always willing to help.

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

Yes, without a doubt. Now retired, we have more time to enjoy it. We both had very busy jobs dealing with people, so the horses and the farm were always a wonderful escape into a different world.

Our farm is situated along the Atlantic coastline in a truly beautiful area. The climate is mild and the animals are wintered out with access to ad-lib haylage. We give them total freedom to roam the farm and they regularly wander down to the shore to sample the seaweed.

9. Biggest challenges facing breeders?

Keeping the core qualities of the Irish Draught needs to be a priority, especially avoiding breeding too much height. I would also like to see more diverse coat colours. While Mizen Man is grey, his sire Mizen Gold was a rich mahogany bay and has bred quite a few dun-coloured offspring, a strong characteristic of Cork Arthur progeny.

10. The Irish Draughts field companions?

We also breed Droimeann cattle.