ONE CONSTANT in this series is how characters, stories and bloodlines often crisscross. For example, Ballintogher Dollibird, the chesnut mare Trish Dodd pointed out in their field in Foxford, had a look of familiarity about her and when her passport was duly checked, Clover Hill did indeed appear in the pedigree of the Guidam mare.

This was through her second dam Collola Girl, bred on the Aughrim battlefield – Collolla marked the main clash between the Jacobite and Williamite infantry during the bloodiest battle in Irish history in 1691 – by Leslie Wakefield.

A typical farmer-breeder, his Hereford cattle and sheep are raised alongside sport horses and Connemaras on farmland that was once a battlefield and are known by their Aughrim and Urrachree prefixes.

The Wakefield family has lived here for generations and Leslie and his wife Jennifer often find themselves fielding enquiries about both ancestors and Aughrim horses. “There’s a lot more interest now in the local history, particularly from America, with people contacting us about relations that came from here,” he said.

“We’d go through phases when people would get in touch looking for their roots. David Wakefield and Mary Jane Wade eloped from Aughrim and emigrated to Pennsylvania.They had a large family and it’s their descendants that are now coming back. They’re very much appreciative of their Irish history. They have the Wakefield Association over there, gatherings and newsletters,” added Jennifer, who effortlessly juggles helping out, both on the farm and with their six grandchildren.

Like countless other Irish farmer-breeders, growing up surrounded by horses was second nature to Leslie. Ernest, his father, trained and worked horses on the farm and bought Corbally Con, one of the last of the Carna Bobbys, from his breeder Tommy Keane in Mullagh.

A popular stallion with local Connemara breeders, he produced the prolific show jumping stallion Builders Delight, owned by John Curran. Selected for the Irish team at the European pony show jumping championships, Builders Delight was aptly described as a ‘mini Milton’ by Charlie Edwards at the Anglo European Studbook stallion selections.

Val Noone’s Clifden prizewinner Crusheen Connie and Faded Pansy, that produced Pascal Crawford’s multiple working hunter champion Ardfry Cedar, are two of Corbally Con’s broodmare daughters. Utilised as both a four-legged Landrover by Leslie for herding around the farm and by local mare owners as an obliging teaser, ‘Con’ more than earned his keep over 27 years with the family.

THE DUBLIN WINNER

One of Leslie’s earliest tasks was bringing mares to the local stallion, including the Connors brothers in Kilconnell, who stood the legendary Renwood. At the time, it was his stable companion, a “15hh heavy stallion that bred grand cobs when crossed with a little working mare we had” that was the main draw. However, a Renwood mare, that literally strayed up the road to the Wakefield farmyard, was to produce the best Aughrim line.

“She was bred in Garafine by Sean Morrissey, who sold her on and then we bought her after that. She was a grand mare, only 15hh, by Renwood out of an Irish Draught mare. We broke her and then bred from her.”

Ted and Tim Carey’s Blue Cliff was one of the stallions on her calling card and she also bred a number of foals by another blueblood at the time: Middle Temple. Transport to the studs in the 1960s was often courtesy of ‘a David Brown tractor!”

“Middle Temple was a grand looking horse, a real quality horse,” he continued. “Then the Larkins [father and son Jack and Jimmy] had the American-bred Frenchwood, another lovely stallion. Jack used to have a bottle of holy water to shake on the mare after she was covered.”

Whether by divine blessing or genetics, covering the Renwood mare with Middle Temple produced Aughrim Dawn. She bred a trio by Clover Hill but how did the Wakefields, one of the first customers for the young stallion, hear about him?

“It was actually Tony Dean from Cloughjordan, he’d come down here and buy horses. My father would go around and show him where there were some for sale and he was telling us about Philip Heenan and how he had this stallion, Clover Hill. That’s how we happened to go. Philip was very agreeable, he’d bring the stallions out and show them to you. But that was in the first years, he wouldn’t be getting a quarter of the amount of mares that he later got,” said Leslie, describing the tranquil pace at Ringroe before the Clover Hill stampede began.

Aughrim Judie was the first of Aughrim Dawn’s foals by Clover Hill. Jumped to Grade A by Kevin Maloney, she produced Diamond Lad twin colt foals for her owner Michael Glennon in her broodmare years. She was followed in quick succession by her full-brothers Aughrim Hill and Aughrim Storm, with the latter winning a young riders class at Millstreet for Carl Hanley.

Aughrim Hill was bought from Joe Campbell in Kiltormer by Eddie Scott and with Richard Smyth in the saddle went on to win the 1989 Grade E championship at Dublin for his Omagh owner before being sold to Italy. Breeding a Dublin performance winner is the goal of many breeders but now, just as it was 30 years ago, this most modest of men takes any reflected glory in his stride. “It was good,” is all he said, with a smile.

A tip-off by Philip led to Leslie buying the Kaiser mare, Nell with her Clover Hill filly foal at foot, from the O’Mearas in Cloughjordan. She produced a number of offspring by Ballinvella, including the Army horse Drombeg, jumped by the current Army Equitation School’s commanding officer Lt. Col. Tom Freyne.

Leslie (left) and Robert Wakefield with Puissance Princess, one of their three sport horse mares and in foal to the thoroughbred stallion Steppe Dancer (Photo: Susan Finnerty)

FAIR FRIENDSHIPS

Leslie has been a familiar sight for decades standing on the Fair Green selling foals and that was how the young Drombeg was bought by Jim Glass. “It was the same year [1983] that we had the first Clover Hill colt out of the Middle Temple mare [Aughrim Hill] and Jim thought the Ballinvella colt was the more stylish of the pair.”

It was the start of a long friendship with Jim and wife Sally. Both they and their niece Valerie Glass enjoyed great showring success back then with Ballinvella and Leabeg offspring bought from their new Galway source. The couple, plus another Northern friend Sammy Smyth, stay with the Wakefields for their annual Ballinasloe Fair excursion and amongst the large Wexford contingent that often stayed nearby in the past for the Fair with Jennifer’s family, the Wileys, was the late Ned Byrne, the breeder of Ryan’s Son.

Another Wexford visitor was the late Jack Deacon from Blackwater, whose Slaney prefix was renowned. “My sister Elizabeth is married to Bill Stephenson and Bill is a nephew of Jack. But we’d have known the Deacons back before that because there’s a double connection as my mother’s sister, who was also Elizabeth, was married to Norman Deacon, Jack’s brother,” explained Jennifer. “They came up to Ballinasloe religiously for the Fair. Jack had a great eye for a horse and was very witty.”

“When he’d sell horses, he’d ring up and ask did we know of any blood horses for sale. That’s what he always called them: ‘blood horses’. Jack was a great character,” added Leslie.

It was back when breeders had would-be buyers knocking on their doors looking for foals to buy and at a time in the 1980s when foals regularly changed hands on the Fair Green for between IR£3,000-5,000. “It should be nearly treble those prices for foals now,” said Leslie, pointing out how prices haven’t kept pace with inflation.

Galway county is still the largest producer of sport horse foals in Ireland, however, as we go through a list of local breeders, it’s clear that most have scaled back or bowed out.

“You wouldn’t see foals much around here anymore, but then scarcity might make them expensive again."

"The expenses have gotten so high, both for breeders and then for the people who buy them as foals and keep them to three-year-olds.”

Will we see farmer-breeders increasingly replaced by hobby and commercial breeders? “I’d say so, that’s the way it will go eventually,” stated Leslie, who has cut back from a peak of 15 to three mares.

One advantage is their son Robert, who farms alongside his father, is determined to carry on with horses. “I’ll always keep a few for breeding, both sport horses and Connemaras,” said the Rural Enterprise and Agri Business degree graduate. He previously owned Aughrim Phoebe, from the very last crop of Clover Hills foaled in 1998, before selling her on to Martin Donnellan and now has the chesnut character Mousey to hack around on.

The keen rugby player lines out for the Ballinasloe team which leads to an awkward clash during winter weekends. “I’d often think of going hunting with Paul Lynch but rugby is on the same day! I’m a flanker but the last few weeks, I’m playing centre.” Dealing with requests for videos of stock for sale and handling social media is also in his job portfolio.

The family currently have sport horse mares by Puissance, Huntingfield Rebel and Friary Clover, plus three Connemara mares. Following on from the palomino Urrachree Crest and the Connemara pair of Corbally Con and Kingstown Chucky, their current stallion is the dun Rocket Rowley, by Burren Rocket. “Connemaras were a great price for a time, they made thousands in the boom. Now they make hundreds,” is his philosophical take on the current market.

Aughrim Knight was their sport horse stallion. Bred by Pat Leamy, he and another colt foal were bought in Ennis Mart, with the Midnight King colt kept on a stallion. A half-brother to John Hayes’s 2003 Laidlaw Cup champion Master Playboy, both were out of the Carnival Night-Jab mare Knoppogue Lady.

AGE BRACKET

Why keep him on? “We had a good few sports mares and there was an opening there with a lot of local mares at the time,” he replied. Youngsters were often sent to Liam O’Neill, Michael Murray and Tom Slattery for sales and inspection preparation. “It was Liam who got him ready for the inspections.”

Classified as S1, the stallion covered an average of 15 mares each year. “You’d get a higher fee if he was fully approved, breeders were more inclined to use fully approved stallions then,” remarked Leslie. “Kevin Satchwell from Castlerea was another great customer, both bringing mares to him and buying his foals.”

From that average of 15 mares each year, Aughrim Knight produced several good show jumpers for the Satchwell family, including the Grade A horse Diamond Knight Black Boy. He is also the sire of the three-star event horse Fleece Clover, one of a half-dozen bred locally by Michael Heffernan out of his Carrabawn View-Clontoo Lad mare, Craughwell Girl.

Sold to India, the horse later competed at the 2014 Asian Games, held in Incheon and last winter, with Major Amit Sinsinwar on board, won the CCI* eventing championships at Jaipur.

Another Aughrim Knight export is Greenfort Carnival, previously named Attyrory Acres and bred by Leslie’s son-in-law Michael Cruise, married to eldest daughter Julie. “Emma McNamara rang to see if we had any more by Aughrim Knight, she bought two foals from Michael and one turned out to be a great eventer [Greenfort Carnival] that she sold on to America.”

Emma is another good customer, having since bought both of the most recent foals out of Puissance Princess, by Royale Cruise and Steppe Dancer. The Puissance mare was covered again last year by Steppe Dancer, the thoroughbred stallion owned by the ‘Renwood Connors’ nephew Martin Shaughnessy.

Leslie has used continental sires in the past, now it is primarily traditional lines. “It would be hard to buy one of those top warmblood mares to start off with. Then again, you hear of the prices at the special and elite sales for warmblood lines but there’s still a lot of money put into them to get them there,” is his pragmatic view on his decision.

“Horses fit in with the farm. There are REPS payments for Connemaras and Irish Draughts which you get if you’re a member of the breed societies but keeping them just for payments wouldn’t be any addition to the profit end of it.”

“Foals were a great money-spinner at that time, you only had them a few months,” remarked Jennifer. All their children; Julie, Susan and Laura, plus Robert were involved with showing their mares and foals on Country Fair Day at Ballinasloe and a row of Foal of the Fair trophies line the sideboard.

“You’d always sell them afterwards, as soon as you went over the Fair Green with a rosette on them there was a buyer for them,” recalled Robert, who, according to the 2017 report on the Contribution of Sport Horse Breeding to the Economy, is one of a mere 3.51% of sport horse breeders in the 20-30 year age bracket.

Another mare that produced a number of prizewinners and commercial stock was the Aristocracy mare, Aughrim Mary. “I’d brought Aughrim Judie to Goresbridge as a young horse, didn’t sell her but I bought an Aristocracy filly foal instead!”

As there was no room in the trailer for the foal, Leslie set off another day to collect her but first there was a detour to Ardmulchan to collect a special present.

WILLING ACCOMPLICE

“We were turning off in Kinnegad to go to Navan and the neighbour that was with me says, ‘Are we crossing the border now?’ He thought we were going into the North, there was no Brexit or hard border then!

"We got to Mrs Dean and she brought us around to show us her horses. She was a lovely lady, she used to come down to Ballinasloe Fair with the ISPCA caravan.”

Sugar, the new family pony, had a travelling companion when the Aristocracy filly foal was next to be picked up in Clonbullogue. “The girls were listening out the whole night for the pony to arrive and the next thing they could hear he’d arrived and they were waiting for him at the front door. There’s a photo of Susan sitting up on Sugar in front of the Raeburn range in the kitchen from that night!” recalled Jennifer.

Crossed with Clover Hill, Aughrim Mary produced two full-sisters. Typical of their breeder’s generosity, Leslie gave me the choice of that pair, plus another Clover Hill-Hail Titan yearling, when I was looking for a Clover Hill filly as a potential broodmare. Helping to narrow down the choice, before the irreplaceable character Pendle Rose moved two miles away, was local vet Declan Flanagan.

Aughrim Dew, Collolla Girl’s Vividari dam, was another previous purchase. All of her four foals were by Clover Hill; Collola Girl produced quite a a family for Eyleen Nugent, her later owner, including Rich Fellers’ Grand Prix horse Shannondale Dot Com. More Power was sold to Graziano Mancinelli and then two she bred for me: Pendle Hill, that jumped in Dublin the same year as her three-parts brother Aughrim Hill and ended up in Oman after Steve Hadley spotted her and the last of the line, Pendle Mill, sold to the late Ned Byrne.

“He [Philip] made it worthwhile for many breeders,” remarked Jen. “Even though we had our own stallion, we’d still bring mares up to Philip. He did an awful lot of good for the farmer and small breeder, he was so reasonable,” said Leslie, who along with Jim Glass, attended the dispersal sale in 2003.

“It was an awful cold day with snow and sleet with a small enough crowd, probably just the people interested in buying the stallions. It was the end of an era.”

Having the Wakefield family living nearby is the answer to an often-asked question of how I knew Philip Heenan as Leslie often had a willing accomplice for the numerous trips to Ringroe. They were the Camelot years, of maximum profits and ready buyers before inevitably everything changed and moved on.

Including a west of Ireland farmer-breeder in the series was a must and Leslie Wakefield was a natural choice. Some 60 years of breeding horses through the best and lean years on one of the most historic sites in Ireland, his story is history at your doorstep.