I GREW up on a dairy farm near Scarva, Co Down where my father always had horses. He had a couple of mares that he bred from and that’s where the interest would have come from for myself and my sisters, Margaret and Ruth.

My husband Eric and I live on a dairy farm outside Banbridge, where we also breed horses and Eric has been a master of the local hunt.

Banbridge had a famous horse fair where Penwood Forge Mill, Paddy McMahon’s European championship horse, was bought by a well-known local dealer named Willie John Sinton. Willie John was very friendly with my father and would have sent young horses to our farm for my sister to break when we were younger.

1. Congratulations on another great European championships result for Black Ice (Vechta - Brookhall Lady, by Touchdown). Tell us more about him.

Well, I got married almost 30 years ago and I always wanted a broodmare. A friend of ours - David Nelson, who is also from Banbridge - had some young horses and I went to see them. I like the Touchdown bloodline and David had a nice three-year-old Touchdown filly that I bought.

She was a very compact mare, just a beautiful-looking horse. I put her in foal as a four-year-old, just to see what type of mother she would be. She was perfect and raised her foals really nicely, which is a big help. Black Ice has the same easy-going temperament. She just stamped that personality on her foals.

Black Ice is by Vechta, as I like the Voltaire bloodline too and any time I showed him as a foal, at Castlewellan and other local shows, he always had the red rosette. He was just lovely and spunky and showed himself off well in the show ring.

We sold him as a foal to my friend Caroline McCaldin (nee Dennison), whose father Wilson Dennison is a very good point-to-point trainer and she is now following in his footsteps as a trainer too.

Caroline told me the story about how the horse got his name; she had an air freshener hanging in her car called Black Ice and so she put that down on his paperwork!

Black Ice went to Dublin as a five-year-old in the young event horse class, where he was ridden by Neil Morrison and that’s where Chris Ryan saw him first.

He went to the present owner and, later on, Jérôme Robiné was asked to ride Black Ice and he’s got excellent results with the horse since. I think Chris was involved in pointing the owner in the right direction to have Jérôme as the rider.

He [Jérôme] speaks excellent English and if he’s going to shows will keep in touch with results via WhatsApp.

2. Proudest breeder moment?

Watching Black Ice compete at Blenheim Palace and Badminton this year. It was very emotional after a sad start to the year, as we lost Brookhall Lady aged 24 in March. She bred up to three years ago.

3. Do you have any more of Black Ice’s family?

There’s her last foal - a three-year-old Tyson half-brother to Black Ice - and I also have his six-year-old half-sister, by Cevin Z. Both are out of Brookhall Lady, or Julie, as we called her.

Sinetta, that Cevin Z six-year-old mare, is already competing at two-star long level and she’s away to compete this weekend at Ballindenisk with Steven Smith. I’m looking too for a nice broodmare to continue breeding from.

Vechta stood at Drumhowan Stud with Gladys McArdle and I chose him for his Voltaire bloodline. The stallion died a year after Black Ice was born, so I covered Brookhall Lady with Billy Congo, a son of Vechta, and I also have that five-year-old. He’s a chesnut with a lot of potential or as a show horse too.

4. Favourite bloodlines?

Voltaire and Touchdown. That’s why I bought Black Ice’s dam, because of her sire: Touchdown. He went back to Galoubet A, so they would be my favourite bloodlines.

5. Best advice you ever got?

My father always said, “Horses are for keeps, not for a hobby”. So, in other words, you have to dig in with the bad years as well as the good.

6. Prefixes – your views?

I don’t have one! We do have one we use for our Aberdeen Angus herd, but I’m not so keen to have one for the horses.

Of course, it identifies the breeding of people’s horses, but personally, I prefer to give the owner free choice when it comes to naming their horses.

7. That famous horse or pony you’d love to have bred?

I was always a fan of Milton and John Whitaker. He was just a beautiful horse and with plenty of personality, which I love to see in horses, so he’s the one.

8. It takes a team, who’s on yours?

My husband. I couldn’t do the horse breeding without him. He loves the horse breeding as much as I do and he has been wonderful. And my family members as well.

9. Breeding/owning horses - would you do it all over again?

Of course. There’s lots of ups and downs, usually more ups than the downs and I just loved my broodmare. She made great, happy times and watching all the foals growing up and frolicking around in the fields... it’s hard to beat, isn’t it? When you see that, it makes it all worthwhile.

10. That treasured holiday?

I do love travelling and the favourite holiday would be a trip to Kenya that Eric and I took, including going on a safari. That was a really special time.