I HAVE had horses all my life and really developed a love for Irish Draughts when I started hunting them about 40 years ago or so. I’m from Ellistown in County Kildare and I hunted with the Kildares (KHC Foxhounds) all my life. I used to buy a horse or two to bring on and sell every year. I found the Irish Draught temperament, versatility and how safe they were to cross any country, particularly banks and drains, very nice to ride and produce.

In my day, I was lucky enough to hunt with other packs, such as the Killinicks, South Counties, Laois and Ballymacads, so a horse had to be able to adapt to all types of country.

Over the years I have had a few great hunters, nearly all Draughts and nearly all mares. One of the first show mares I had and a mare that stands out for me was Duchess - an Irish Draught cob, by Uibh Fhaili ’81.

After a couple of seasons hunting and a few local shows with me, I asked the legendary Frances Cash to ride her for me in Dublin, where they placed second in the cob class in the RDS in 1999. The mare was subsequently sold to the UK, where she went on to be third at HOYS.

My only remaining broodmare and retired hunter is Kilpipe Julie (Grange Bouncer x Diamond Rock). She has bred two lovely fillies so far by Moylough Legacy and Moylough Supremacy and is currently back in foal to Legacy.

I’m a member of the Laois Branch of the IDHBA and love to support the shows, particularly our branch show in Stradbally every year.

1. Congratulations on Ellistown Grey Abbey’s supreme championship win at the IDHS (GB) national show. Tell us more about her?

Yes, she has enjoyed fantastic success this summer in the UK and featured in a double-page spread in a recent Horse & Hound issue. I’m extremely proud of her. She is what you call a powerhouse of a mare with presence and a stand that just commands attention and respect.

She is by Fast Silver and out of the prolific mare I owned called Kilbeg Queen. ‘Queenie’ was by Uibh Fhaili ’81 and eight years old when I bought her from a farmer locally who was getting out of horses. I thought she was an outstanding example of the breed; others did too when she was crowned supreme champion herself at the 2011 IDHBA national show in Mullingar.

I bred a number of good foals out of her, but particularly liked ‘Abbey’, who is by Fast Silver and I kept her to continue the line. When she had matured nicely as a four-year-old, I showed her and most notably won the FBD Mare of the Future competition at the IDHBA National Show in Punchestown - so the class does identify future champions.

Abbey produced really nice colt foals for me by sires such as Archie The Great, Lionswood Kinsales Lad and Moylough Legacy. The latter two were champion foals at IDHBA National Shows, but her 2022 Moylough Legacy colt foal, Ellistown Loughie, was a bit extra special.

He was champion foal, so went into the supreme championship against the youngstock and mare champions and, to our amazement, he went supreme of the show - I’ve never seen a foal be supreme champion before or since!

So, not only is Abbey out of a supreme champion mare and has produced a supreme champion foal, she herself is now a national show supreme champion in her own right! Quality breeds quality.

When I decided to let her go, I couldn’t have been happier to see her go to a wonderful owner like Jo Aykroyd in the UK - who had wanted to buy her dam years earlier - and who I am so happy to see her having so much fun and success with.

2. Your favourite mare?

That’s a hard question, because I was very fond of them all. I had a great mare called Nell - one of the first crops of foals by Fast Silver out of a mare called Nell McCaffrey. She was not what you would describe as an affectionate mare, but she gave you her all. She was barely 15.2hh and could cross any country out hunting. She hunted, hunter trialled and hunt chased all over Ireland, including the inter-hunt chase final in the RDS under myself and the late, great Charlie O’Neill (of Abbeyfield Farm).

Nell also did very well in the showring for me when she finished hunting and went on to breed a number of colt foals, themselves successful in the showrings and out hunting. One of them is hunting in the USA.

3. The best qualities of the Irish Draught for you?

Temperament is the most important quality of an Irish Draught to me; then their versatility - there aren’t too many breeds that can tick all the boxes like an Irish Draught can and that amateurs can ride too.

4. Favourite Irish Draught bloodlines?

Uibh Fhaili ’81 - I love to see him in the back breeding especially of broodmares - he was totally under-rated as a sire in my opinion, because his genetics have produced some of our best Irish Draught broodmares.

Star Kingdom was another great sire who has produced super horses.

In modern pedigrees, I really like Moylough Legacy, who is stamping his progeny with great temperaments and conformation and I like Moylough Supremacy too.

5. Best advice you ever got?

Buy quality and breed quality - quality will always win out.

6. Prefixes - your views?

It is very important to be able to trace stock; especially when looking at competitions and results. Let them add to it, but a prefix should not be removable.

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

I’m pretty happy with the ones I’ve bred myself.

8. It takes a team, who’s on yours?

My wife Mary, my daughter Emma and granddaughter Nikki and my good friend and neighbour Una Holohan, who I introduced to Irish Draughts.

We showed lots of horses together and I got Una into her first Irish Draught: Ellistown Roxanne, who she produced to be second and third in the RDS Irish Draught performance classes and now has her own little herd of Irish Draughts.

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

Yes, definitely!

10. An observation on the breed characteristics?

Bone in Irish Draughts needs to be preserved. I would like to see more emphasis on bone quality at the inspections; horses should have between 9 and 10 inches of flat bone. If we let people breed it out, we will not be able to breed it back in.

There are and always were plenty of Irish Draughts with good bone who have great movement and the ability to jump - everything that is desired in modern Irish Draughts.

Breed Irish Draughts as Irish Draughts and not as light sport horses!