I GREW up in suburban North Carolina, so my horse-breeding origin story begins not with ponies, but with books. An avid reader from an early age, my imagination was fuelled by classics like Enid Bagnold’s National Velvet. A neighbour’s back issues of Chronicle of the Horse magazine expanded my horizons. In the 1970s and early ’80s, the thoroughbred dominated American sport, and I spent hours studying photos of show jumpers like Jet Run, Idle Dice and Touch of Class.
By the time I finally had my own horse and joined Pony Club, eventing was all I cared about. We were lucky to have a thriving scene centred around Southern Pines. When I reached Preliminary (CNC*) level, it was exciting to warm up alongside Bruce Davidson and other USET riders bringing out their young horses. But I decided I was unlikely to make a career as a professional rider, so I took the sensible route and applied to veterinary college.
While in vet school, I began studying event horse pedigrees in earnest, particularly thoroughbred and Irish bloodlines. I started with pedigree analyst Dr Pete Birdsall’s published works. I searched for broodmares carrying the blood of thoroughbred sires Bonne Nuit, Northern Baby and Hand In Glove. Around the same time, I became member #18 of the newly-formed Irish Draught Horse Society of North America.
Fast forward to 2000, when I took an impulsive flight to Houston, Texas, to view a dark bay RID mare I’d seen on a stallion video. Bred by Kevin Culhane in Limerick, Bonnie Belle Supreme was part of the first wave of Irish Draught imports to the US and dam of the first North American-bred Irish Draught foal. When owner Sue Holland agreed to sell her to me, it altered the trajectory of my life. Bonnie and her daughters produced many lovely foals for me, including future stallion Lionwood Kinsale’s Lad.
I moved to Co Westmeath in 2013. I rebuilt my broodmare band and kept busy with breeding clients at Ainninn House. I bought Connemara stallion Glenmore Fear Donn, assumed custodial responsibility for my old friend Lionwood Kinsale’s Lad (Angus), and finally acquired the living manifestation of my thoroughbred pedigree obsession in Templar Spirit (Hand in Glove x Templar Quito by Primitive Rising). Sadly, Angus and Spirit are no longer with us.
In October 2023, I leased Glenmore Fear Donn to Fenston Stud in Scotland and moved east. Currently based in Naas, I work as an equine reproduction vet and breed from my small herd of Irish Draught and TIH mares.
1. Proudest breeder moment?
There’s nothing quite like seeing a stallion you bred, or owned and produced, approved. My first was North American-bred Irish Draught stallion Harkaway Lionhawk, bought as a foal from breeder Maggi Tyler because he was a maternal grandson of the iconic Roma Blue Wind and had extraordinary movement.
I home-produced him for his stallion inspection and early show career, including IDHSNA National Show youngstock, in-hand pure-bred and reserve supreme championships in 2004. I bred his first foal from Lionwood Waterwitch. Hawk now stands in Ireland, where he has made his name as a successful sire with Martin and Mary Murphy.
In 2007, home-bred Lionwood Kinsale’s Lad was also approved. Another IDHSNA youngstock champion, Angus, (by now owned by Ken Haley) went on to a successful dressage and show jumping career in the US, earning gold and silver merits in the Irish Draught studbook before he too made his way to stand in Ireland.
Angus is posthumously closing in on another gold merit, thanks to showing progeny like 2025 HOYS champion heavyweight hunter IJ Countryman. I was delighted when his first Class 1 stallion son, Seamus Duffy’s Kilmovee White Lion, was approved last year. Hopefully, by the time you are reading this, he will have a second approved stallion son.
https://foto.ifj.ie/fotoweb/archives/5006-Irish-Horse-World/Irish%20Horse%20World/Liz2.jpg.info#c=%2Ffotoweb%2Farchives%2F5006-Irish-Horse-World%2F%3Fq%3Dliz%2520freeman
Liz Freeman and Pagestown Poppy at Ossory Show where the mare won the Timothy Sullivan Perpetual Cup (best Irish Draught mare) two years in a row (2024, 2025) \ Niamh Grimes
2. How many broodmares do you have?
Four. I was slow rebuilding my herd in Ireland, but my patience was rewarded when two extraordinary mares came into my life. My current broodmare band consists of these mares and their daughters.
Herd matriarch Liskillen Harmony RID, bred by John Giblin, is 28 this year and retired from breeding. She produced many successful offspring for Aiden Travers, among them HOYS champion cob The Comedian. She bred four Angus foals for me, including Lionwood Bluesman, who is awaiting inspection in Scotland.
My second Draught mare is Liskillen Harmony’s daughter: Pagestown Poppy. A Bonnie Belle Supreme granddaughter, through her sire Lionwood Kinsale’s Lad, Poppy links these two treasured Irish Draught mare families in my breeding programme.
On the sport horse side, I have Caramia Lion (Elsa) and her homebred daughter Lionwood Anam Cara. The last TIH mare bred by Patricia Nicholson, Elsa is a direct matri-lineal descendant of Lion family matriarch Stream Lion. This small family of mares has produced six four and five-star eventers in three generations, including a Badminton winner and a WEG individual bronze, all of them partnered by American Bruce Davidson. Having grown up watching Bruce’s horses compete and long admiring Patricia Nicholson’s breeding programme, this mare is incredibly special to me.
Elsa’s daughter began as a quest to obtain semen from a thoroughbred son of Hand In Glove in the UK. Ultimately, I bought Templar Spirit himself, and Lionwood Anam Cara is the result.
3. What are the greatest differences between the Irish and US breeding scenes?
The US is vast compared to Ireland, which negatively impacts a breeder’s ability to attend shows, interact with fellow breeders, and attract buyers. Everything is more expensive there.
4. Fools breed foals for wise men to buy. Agree or disagree?
It depends. Studying horses and pedigrees is my passion, so I breed for myself first. I suppose my “fool’s dream” is to breed a five-star event horse. I think it’s more likely I might breed the dam or granddam of one.
5. Prefixes - your views?
All pedigrees tell a story. In a world where breeders are forgotten, prefixes connect horses to their origin story.
6. Best advice you ever received?
Never breed from a mare you wouldn’t want a carbon copy of.
7. Social media - positive or negative?
Social media is an invaluable marketing tool for breeders, allowing horses to reach a global audience instantly. Unfortunately, the growing use of AI makes it harder to differentiate genuine expertise from digitally-fabricated content.
8. That famous horse you would love to have bred?
Lordships Graffalo.
9. It takes a team - who is on yours?
Samantha Fitzsimons, Paddy Carroll, Niamh Grimes and Maryclare Travers at Carrafarm have been a fantastic support. I would also include showing buddy Caoilfhionn Rynne, Mike and Deirdre Murphy, who allow me to keep my broodmares on their outfarm, farrier David Gorey, and my friends at Anglesey Lodge for when things go sideways.
10. What is the biggest challenge facing Traditional Irish Horse breeders?
TIH breeders need access to high-performance outcrosses with sufficient blood. Failed racehorses are not the genetic equivalent of purpose-bred for sport thoroughbreds. HSI currently classifies many non-Weatherbys-registered thoroughbreds as foreign, meaning proven Thoroughbred horses specifically bred for show jumping and eventing (eg. the Gem Twist clones) cannot be used in TIH breeding.
This is problematic, because blood percentages are trending downward in the TIH herd and our high-performance mares and stallions are all substantially the same bloodlines. We cannot rely solely on Connemaras to provide high-performance outcrosses. We need both.