I WAS born, reared and still live on a farm outside Belleek, Co Fermanagh, with my wife Jane. We have two sons in their 30s, David and Ethan, who both started out in lead rein classes and we had great years attending shows with them. They both progressed to the Fermanagh Harriers Pony Club, and David showed successfully with his 148cm ridden pony Dance ’til Dawn.

I worked as a mechanic, but I’m now semi-retired.

My interest in horses and ponies began with my father bringing us to Ballyshannon show in the ‘60s, where all the top show jumping riders competed: Iris Kellett, Tommy Wade, Seamus Hayes, to name just a few.

It was not until I met Jane in 1985 that we started to produce ponies, starting with a 128cm pony Major Yates who we sold to Dick Hughes in Derry. He went to Grade A and competed in Dublin with several different riders.

We started breeding with Dance ‘til Dawn, when David was out of age with her, and she bred Ardville Timeless Dreams (by the Connemara stallion, Field of Dreams), who represented Belgium in the 2017 European pony eventing championships.

Whilst on holiday in Cork in 1999, I went to the sales and bought a beautiful Welsh Section B colt foal, Muskerry Blue Danube, bred by Jane Quinlan of the Muskerry Stud. The following year, I bought another Section B colt foal, Muskerry Cascade, directly from Jane Quinlan.

We had great success showing both of these colts. We showed Blue Dawn as a two-year-old colt in the All Welsh show in Balmoral, where he won his youngstock class, Section B championship, the overall Welsh championship, and finished the day winning overall Supreme of show.

We then sold him to England, where he competed very successfully with Samantha Roberts, winning at most of the top shows. We also bought a Section B mare, Linksbury Cinderella, from Brendan Laffin, and she was a very successful broodmare for us.

We now have eight broodmares, a mixture of pure and part-bred Connemaras and one sport horse by VDL Arkansas, and we usually sell our stock as unbroken three-year-olds.

1. Congratulations, we’ve seen several ponies you’ve bred doing well in the Dublin equitation qualifiers, tell us about them.

We were privileged to have four home-bred Ardville ponies in the RDS qualifier in Cavan, with three in the junior section; the full-sisters Ardville Chrystal Clear and Ardville Red Robin (Muskerry Cascade - Ardville Glen Belle), both ridden by nine-year-old Lauren Woods, and Ardville Mattie K (Lettermuckoo Hazys - Ardville Cassie Bawn), ridden by Ellen McLoughlin. Ardville Chrystal Clear also won the RDS six/seven year old qualifier in the Meadows last year and finished sixth in Dublin.

In the senior section, Ardville Whispering Hope (Clintender), out of our VDL Arkansas mare and ridden by Charlotte Goor was the winner out of 68 ponies and horses.

All four ponies were bought from us by J P Rogan and Cathy Cooper, who produced them beautifully under saddle, ridden by their daughter Ellie and they found fantastic competition homes for them all.

There are many other Ardville ponies out there competing in Sweden, Italy and England, as well as Ireland.

2. Proudest breeder moment?

Undoubtedly, seeing Ardville Timeless Dreams representing his country in eventing. We bought his sire Field of Dreams, by Ganty Blazer, from Gabriel Murphy in Ballinrobe. We later brought Ganty Blazer and stood him here until he died aged 27.

His breeding is in many of our mares today, both pure and part-bred Connemaras.

3. Your template for a sport pony?

Ideally a Connemara crossed with warmblood or thoroughbred and they must have a good step, canter, jump and temperament.

4. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing pony breeders?

Certainly the rising cost of everything.

5. Ardville is yours, your thoughts on prefixes?

Prefixes are very important for breeders to identify and follow the animals they have bred, but sadly, some people seem to remove them, which shouldn’t be allowed.

6. Internet – good or bad servant?

Good servant! The internet is a necessity nowadays, as it provides so much information for breeding and marketing.

7. If you could have bred any horse/pony?

Pacino (Diamant de Semilly) is the horse I would love to have bred, he was so light on the ground with a good athletic jump, which he passed on to his offspring. Sadly, [he] died much too young and is a huge loss to Irish breeders.

8. It takes a team. Who’s on yours?

We are a small team, just myself and my wife Jane, who started with Iris Kellet, after leaving school and has worked with horses since then, in teaching, riding and judging.

We also get great help from Derek and Erin from Stracomer Stables in Bundoran, who stand two top performance Connemara stallions.

9. Breeding ponies – would you do it all over again?

We certainly would. We have met many wonderful people along the way and look forward each year to our crop of foals. It’s just a way of life for us now here in Belleek.

10. Who was the most influential person whom you have met on your journey with horses?

Has to be the late Frank McGarry. His knowledge, expertise and judgement of a horse were outstanding. He had the vision to build one of the first indoor riding centres in Ireland, and he was popular and always helpful to everybody he met. We spent many wonderful Sundays at McGarry’s with ponies in the 1980s and 1990s.