KATE Jarvey is the ideal owner. She rides, grew up with horses and has spent decades learning about the art of breeding and producing competition horses.

She is enthusiastic and animated when she speaks of her horses, both past and present, and at age 66 she shows no sign of slowing down.

Based at Monymusk Stud in Co Cork, Kate spent Wednesday hunting with the Duhallow Hunt, of which she is joint-master, aboard her mare The Princess Haya.

“I grew up in Boston, my father had a horse farm in Cape Cod and we spent many wonderful years there with the horses and our friends, including the Kennedys. I have many fond memories of the fun adventures we had,” Jarvey told The Irish Field.

“I was an event rider myself and have always had a love of hunting. It was through this that I first came to England to compete and then, as a natural progression, to Ireland and that was when a life-long passion for the Irish-bred horse began.

“I have spent the happiest days of my life on the back of an Irish horse and am very fortunate that I have had the time to really think about what it takes to breed the ideal event horse.

"I would never claim to have cracked it, but over the years I have learned from my mistakes... and there have been many of them!”

Young horse classes

Jarvey is certain of the type of horse she prefers to breed and she is not the biggest fan of running her horses in young horse classes. “I know what I want,” she said positively. “I set out to breed an athletic horse that has a good attitude and is rideable and has the potential to be an event horse.

“I would still say that the thoroughbred is my favourite horse but with the rigours of the sport these days, you need the warmblood or the traditional breed cross to get the athleticism.

“These days people can’t wait to produce horses, but the Irish horse needs longer to mature. You can’t rush that. I spend a lot of time discussing this with the two people who ride my horses, Sian Coleman and Austin O’Connor. We believe that a horse will tell you when they are ready to progress and we listen to them.

“I understand that people are under pressure sometimes, but I would be very interested to see the statistics for horses that win classes as five and six-year-olds and whether they are still competing at 14 or 15. I’m not sure that young horse classes are good for the sport.

“Don’t get me wrong I enjoy watching those classes as much as anyone, and for some horses they work, but I do think that a lot of the time horses may not be ready for that kind of pressure.”

Amazing adventures

“I’m very lucky that I have two fantastically talented riders in Austin and Sian. They are both so talented and sympathetic to what I want from my horses. I couldn’t ask for better. We’ve had horses with Austin for over 20 years and we have had amazing adventures together. He has taken us to places all over the world, places we thought we could only dream of.

“I’ll never forget when he came to me and said we were going to compete at the CCI4* (now CCI5*) in Kentucky with Ringwood Mississippi in 2013. It was amazing! The pair then went on to compete in Badminton.

Austin O'Connor and Ringwood Mississippi on the cross-country at Badminton in 2014 \ Nigel Goddard

“Austin and another of our horses, Balham Houdini, travelled once again to Kentucky (2015) where they finished with a double clear round. Those are just a couple of the highlights from the many, many fabulous days we have had at competitions with Austin. We always have so much fun, it’s brilliant.

“Lily of the West is a mare Austin competed successfully for us and she went on to be one of my foundation mares. Our other broodmare is Blind Decision.

“We bred Colorado Blue, the horse that Austin is hoping to bring to the Tokyo Olympic Games. We sold him to The Salty Syndicate – he is by Jaguar Mail out of Rock Me Baby (by Rock Kind).”

The dream

“One we are very excited about at the moment is the four-year-old home-bred Blue Kentucky Girl, by Newmarket Venture. She is showing lots of potential so I’m dying to see her progress. We currently have seven three-year-olds that Tom Quigley has just broken in. He is a super top-class professional and does a fantastic job. Now we will start to make decisions about where they will go on to.

“On the whole, I tend to sell the geldings. It’s the mares that are like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me. The opportunity they present to produce that fantastic foal; the chance for that magic moment the morning you first see a newborn foal and know that this is the one you have been waiting for, that’s the dream.

“Roger Kiely is the headman here at home. We use a very specific programme. If we have a large group of three-year-olds, as is the case this year, then we won’t have any two-year-olds but will have quite a few yearlings and foals, that way we can spend time on each horse and aren’t overwhelmed with numbers.

“When they are ready, we decide which path suits best. For example, Austin is a cross-country genius and if we have something that needs a strong schooling in that area, then I’d send it to him. I like to keep the ‘special girls’ close to me here in Ireland so they would probably go to Sian but it really is done on a horse-by-horse basis.

“Sian currently has Lady Baton Rouge and Hush A Bye Baby, both of whom are going really well for her. We also have a nine-year-old Casall stallion, Ringwood Cassero, with show jumper Shane Carey in Sweden and they have just moved up to 1.40m so that’s just another aspect that adds to the fun and excitement for the year ahead.”