HORSES of a lifetime qualify for that title in many ways for owners and connections. For Lisa Rosbotham, Valent was initially not at all what she expected when Dermott Lennon tipped off the Co Down family in 2006 about a Dutch-bred youngster for sale.

In their Breeders’ 10 feature, back in 2020, Lisa described picking up their sight unseen buy: “We loved Valent since he arrived as a four-year-old, although it wasn’t until we went to collect him from Birmingham that I realised we had bought a stallion! I’d never even sat on a stallion before, never mind owning one, but he was so quiet to work with, gelding him never entered our heads.

“I’m very grateful we never had to make that call, as he’s bred us horses we could only dream of buying.”

The Irish Sport Horse studbook and Oliver Townend are two others grateful for the family’s decision.

From less than a hundred progeny, Valent produced Townend’s five-star winner Cooley Rosalent. Then there’s Jewelent, competed at four-star level by the father-and-daughter team of Philip and Olivia Dutton, and Govalent, on the Swedish team with Sofia Sjoberg at last autumn’s European eventing championships.

Govalent was the second European championships horse produced by Valent, as Jewelent, originally produced by Clare Abbott and from his sire’s very first crop of foals, finished best of the Irish team (14th) at the 2021 European championships in Avenches.

That followed two top-12 places at the WBFSH young eventing horse championships at Le Lion d’Angers with Abbott (eighth in 2019, 12th in 2020).

Add in that these three full-siblings - Jewelent, Cooley Rosalent and Govalent - were all bred by Lisa’s late father JW (Woods) Rosbotham, and you can see how Valent’s horse of a lifetime credentials stack up.

Plus, Valent is the sire of several campaigners on the show jumping circuit, including Lisa’s national Grand Prix horse Clovalent, bred by Mary McCann.

Mary’s Hartwell Stud was Valent’s base during breeding season after he retired in 2011 and he was highly rated by her. “He’s one of the nicest stallions we ever had in this yard. I loved him, I love the stock even more.”

Back to when Valent was bought sight unseen. “I never even saw a video of him until I picked him up that day. Were there even camera-phones in those days? I don’t think so!

“He was just amazing. Just so balanced. The first time I got on him, he didn’t feel like a four-year-old really, he just cantered along lovely and could probably be a dressage horse as well.”

Nations Cup debut

“I couldn’t jump him in the young horse classes until he was seven. In 2009, they still had a seven-year-old class, in which foreign horses were allowed to jump, so that was the first year he went to Dublin and he was third in the final.

“In 2010,” Lisa continued, “I won the Ulster Region 1.35m Grand Prix final at Cavan and the prize was a horse trailer.”

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Lisa and Woods Rosbotham pictured with their trailer prize after Valent won the Ulster Region Grand Prix League \Lisa Rosbotham

Valent often travelled aboard Dermott Lennon’s lorry during his international career. Dermott, the 2002 world show jumping champion, campaigned several of the Rosbotham horses, including Hallmark Elite and, of course, Liscalgot, part-owned by Woods.

“Back in those days, when I was riding Hank [Valent’s stable name], I would have been at Dermott’s yard probably twice a month. He would have been training me and then Dermott actually took Hank to Aachen when he was an eight-year-old for experience. That was the same year that Ireland won the Nations Cup and Hallmark Elite was on the team. Dermott also jumped him in Dublin, Falsterbo, Gijon and a few other shows.”

And then there was Drammen in Norway, where Lisa jumped Valent in the 2011 Nations Cup there, alongside Dermott (Hallmark Elite), Nicola Fitzgibbon (Puissance) and Niall Talbot (Nicos de la Cense).

“It was brilliant, I couldn’t believe it that I was walking a Nations Cup course with Dermott.”

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Olivia Roulston and Miss Valent at Balmoral in 2019 \ Anne Hughes

Valent retired from competition after winning the Dublin young rider class with Olivia Roulston, later dividing his year between Hartwell and the Rosbotham’s orchard. “The orchard was at the front of the house and Daddy was able to see him there every day. He just enjoyed it there.

“The smart ones did kind of catch on to Valent,” Lisa remarked about their stallion’s remarkable strike rate as a sire. “Mostly he went down to Mary’s to get on the dummy for AI, but then I jumped him as well, so he was only down at Hartwell really at the start of the year.”

Mary McCann is forthright in her opinion. “From my point of view, Valent is the most underused, dual-purpose stallion in Ireland and we didn’t use him enough.”

Lightning strikes twice

Back in 2010, when Dermott and Hallmark Elite were on the Irish team at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, Lisa and Woods flew there to support them. And go walkabout in the Horse Park.

“We walked the WEG cross-country and didn’t even dream we would have two home-breds competing there 14 years later,” Lisa then told The Irish Field after Cooley Rosalent’s five-star win there in 2024.

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Clare Abbott riding Jewelent for Ireland at the Badminton Lake \ Badminton Horse Trials

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Britain’s Oliver Townend and the 10-year-old Irish-bred mare Cooley Rosalent, pictured during the cross-country phase, won the five-star Kentucky Three-Day Event in the USA \ Michelle Dunn Photo

The home-bred pair are the Le Lion d’Angers graduates: Jewelent and Cooley Rosalent, making a unique Kentucky double to have the full-brother (Jewelent) and sister (Rosalent) compete in the four-star and win the five-star.

“We were delighted to have two siblings competing at Kentucky and it was extra special, as we also bred the dam, Bellaney Jewel, who had a super racing career in Great Britain,” said Lisa.

A case could easily be made too for Bellaney Jewel to rate as a horse of a lifetime. Bred by Woods, she won seven races including the Scottish Borders National at Carlisle and at Aintree and Hexham, before breeding top event horses when crossed with their in-house stallion, Valent.

Bellaney Jewel is by Knockhouse Stud’s Roselier, a leading National Hunt sire of his era, due to the success of Carvill’s Hill, Ebony Jane and The Grey Monk.

Another National Hunt sire household name is Bellaney Jewel’s damsire The Parson, sire of Danoli, Trapper John and Large Action.

The Rosbothams decided to cross Bellaney Jewel with Valent in 2011, in the hope of breeding an event horse. “So, in 2012, we welcomed Jewelent.

“The racing people thought we were mad using a half-bred on a successful racing mare, but Jewelent was such a lovely stamp of a foal that we used Valent for the second time and, in 2014, Rosalent was born.

“She won the young event horse class in Balmoral as a four-year-old with Colin Halliday, the same year as she won the RDS young event horse qualifier at Tullylish and went on to become reserve champion in Dublin.”

The grey mare also won a silver medal at Le Lion d’Angers and later became Oliver Townend’s fourth Kentucky CCI5*-L winner.

“We all watched the Kentucky cross-country up at Daddy’s house to see Rosalent and Jewelent. It was unbelievable when she and Oliver won the five-star. Oliver actually rang after he got home to congratulate Daddy on breeding her and said it was one of the best he’d ever ridden. So that was nice of him to do that. Oliver has been really good as well in keeping in touch and he brought the breeders’ trophy from Kentucky too, I actually have it here.”

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Woods Rosbotham is pictured with his daughters Barbra Allen (left) and Lisa (centre), RUAS president John Henning OBE and Diane Gibson, Balmoral Performance Championship Chief Steward at a special presentation in 2024 \ Susan Finnerty

Special presentation

Balmoral Show is a firm family favourite. “We’re from Lisburn originally, so Balmoral is now our local show. It’s still one of my favourite shows in Ireland, and the main arena is just fabulous to ride in.

“We went to Balmoral from a young age. It was the highlight of the year for us back then: the main arena with the big President’s Box and the grandstands, the King’s Hall, the atmosphere, all the farmers about. Dad was a farmer and was in the demolition business.

“Mandy, my sister, won three classes in a row on Midnight Mover and then I won it after her as well. Mandy and Midnight Mover won everything: Balmoral, Dublin, the Spring Show, everything.

“My brother Philip was on junior teams with Tom Duggan and Linda Courtney and all three of us represented Ireland at junior level. I finished sixth at the Europeans with Benwee many years ago and Mandy did the Europeans in Ennis.

“We loved jumping in that main arena in the old Belfast venue and Balmoral was one of my first international competitions too.

“I jumped Valent in the old King’s Hall Showgrounds and during the Premier League in 2011. I did Louth County that year, that was my first Premier Grand Prix and I loved that show too.”

Fittingly, Balmoral was the setting in 2024 for a special presentation to Woods, shortly after Cooley Rosalent’s Kentucky win, to mark her achievement.

“This presentation to Dad was a great honour, we were delighted to get that in recognition of breeding the Kentucky five-star winner. Dad also bred the dam, Bellaney Jewel, who was successful in her own right as a racing mare and I rode and produced Valent. So, it’s a real family story.

“I had no idea it was going ahead, it was so nice,” Lisa recalled about the presentation in the main arena, where just the day before, Suma’s Zorro was officially retired.

It later turned out to be a tough year for the Rosbotham family, with parents Janice and Woods passing away in November 2024 and June of last year respectively.

Then, Valent was put down shortly before Christmas.

“He just lost all his condition. Valent was getting fed like a racehorse because it was always hard to keep weight on him, but he went into heart failure basically, so I got the vet out.”

Apart from Valent frozen semen stocks, there’s another generation in store at Keonan Stables. “I got three embryos by Diarado and Hard Rock Z from Bellavalent, Rosalent’s full-sister, and another Valent mare.”

The bloodlines of Valent, yet another horse of a lifetime, continue.

  • Next week: Suma’s Zorro.

    • Did you know

  • Valent was bred in Holland by G.J.W Sikes.
  • He got his stable name - Hank - from the Dutchman that Valent was sourced from.
  • By the Jalisco B grandson Hors La Loi II, Valent was out of Sarnike, by the Hanoverian sire Lux Z. Which means that he and United Touch S have the same damsire.
  • Sarnike also bred Valent’s full-sister: Wirma, placed four times at 1.60m level for Brianne Goutal-Marteau (USA).
  • His pedigree features Hugo Simon’s stallion Jasper (going back to Fair Trial xx) and Voltaire too. The late Austrian rider also rode Hors La Loi II.
  • Upon bringing Valent home from England, Lisa had a request for brother Philip. “The first day we brought him home, I didn’t want to get straight on this new stallion, so I had Philip ride him first and to make sure it was safe for me to get on. Of course, Valent was.”
  • Valent’s appearance at the Horse Sport Ireland stallion inspections at Cavan Equestrian Centre was a day to remember - for several reasons - for Lisa. “That day, I actually locked the keys of my jeep in the boot. I nearly didn’t even get to ride him that day because all my tack, hat, boots, everything was in the jeep. I nearly arranged for Mervyn Clarke to ride him instead and then I just broke the back window. It was worth it!”
  • Valent was approved in 2011.
  • In December 2024, he was upgraded to a five-star eventing sire on account of his successful progeny’s results.
  • Oliver Townend’s four Kentucky CCI5*-L winners are all Irish Sport Horses. They include the back-to-back (2018, 2019) winner: Cooley Master Class (Ramiro B - The Swallow, by Master Imp. Breeder: John Hagan) and three years before Cooley Rosalent’s 2024 win, Ballaghmor Class (Courage II - Kilderry Place. Breeder: Noel Hickey) in 2021 added another five-star win to the Limerick-bred’s CV.

    • By the numbers

    €263,432 – Cooley Rosalent’s prize money won to date.

    €130,315 – won by Valent progeny during 2024.

    90 – Valent progeny recorded on Horse Sport Ireland’s CapallOir database.

    70.79% – Cooley Rosalent’s TB blood percentage.

    Seventh – place for Valent in Hippomundo’s 2025 eventing sires’ rankings.

    Five – Cooley Rosalent’s place in the 2024 World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses eventing horses’ rankings.

    Four – Valent ranked in fourth place amongst eventing sires in Hippomundo’s 2024 results.

    Third – Cooley Rosalent’s place in the 2024 Hippomundo event horse rankings after her big Kentucky win.

    Two – times that Cooley Rosalent has appeared in Hippomundo’s top-10 event horse rankings: in seventh place (2023) and third the following year.

    One – home-bred success story of a five-star winner by a resident stallion.