EAMON and Gladys McArdle are to add four new stallions to the roster of sires standing at Drumhowan Stud in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan for the 2016 season.

Among them will be the Holsteiner stallion Colandro, sire of Shane Sweetnam’s new horse Buckle Up.

The Cork rider and Buckle Up won $35,000 Suncast 1.50m Championship at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida.

The 14-year-old Colandro is a son of the WBFSH world number one eventing sire Contendro I and has already sired international show jumpers Bolandro (seventh in the Rome Foro Italics Grand Prix Table A 2015), along with Chopard 19, Bobby, Binja, Chapter and more.

Colandro is also sire to event horses Bernadette Utopia (Padraig McCarthy), placed fourth in the Camphire CCI* last July 2015 and second at Aldon CIC** in October 2015, as well as Dutch Man Retto (Christopher Burton), second at Le Lion d’Angers CCI* young horse class in October 2014.

Colandro, the reserve champion at the 2004 Holsteiner stallion approvals, joins a host of performance-bred, thoroughbred, Irish Draught and Irish Sport Horse stallions at the Castleblayney stud.

For more breeding news, watch out for Stallions 2016, your guide to the sires available in Ireland this year, coming soon in The Irish Field.