HELEN O’Regan of KK Sport Horses has dreamt of owning an international level show jumper since she was a child watching the Dublin Horse Show on television in the 1970s.

After some 40 years of involvement in horses, her dream is well on its way these days to becoming a reality.

Helen and her team have a very clear picture of the type of environment they want and strive to create which puts the welfare of the horse at the forefront of everything they do.

“I have a lifelong passion for horses, which I suppose came from watching the top-level riders compete. My mother tells me I was watching the RDS on the TV when I was two years old,” Helen explained.

“I grew up here in Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny. I was lucky, my father bought me a pony and I went hunting and joined the local North Kilkenny branch of the Pony Club. That’s where it all started and the interest never left me. I went on to compete as an adult, just at an amateur level, riding club and show jumping and things like that up to about five years ago.

“In the early 2000s, I had a horse on livery in Carol Gee’s yard and while there, I met a Finnish girl named Jenni Lamminen. I was expecting my son Christian at that stage and when I moved the horse home to my yard in Ballyraggart, Jenni came with me and began riding for me.

“That was when I began to make the move from owning leisure horses to the more professional end really. We began buying and producing event horses mainly, that was where Jenni’s interest lay. One of the first horses we bought together was a four-year-old from Marion Hughes. That was the 2002 gelding Rockfield Grant Juan (Don Juan de la Bouverie - Cavalier Royale).

“When he was seven, we sold him at the Monart Sales to a Canadian buyer. Shandiss Wewiora then went on to compete with him and their many successes together include competing at Rolex Kentucky in 2013 and being short-listed for the London Olympics.

“At that time we had about 10 horses in work, mostly eventers, which Jenni produced from 2005 to 2015. We did that together for about 10 years and we produced several horses that went to quite a high level.

“But time moves on and Jenni had her own family and wanted to do her own thing. Thankfully she didn’t go too far away and we remain life-long friends.

“Marion Hughes has always been a great help to me. Over the years we have bought some horses from her and she has always been very generous; sharing her knowledge and training and helping us shape the kind of yard we wanted to have.

"I knew Maria (Vozone) from my time spent at Marion’s, she was working there at the time.

“I think what makes us unique here at KK Sport Horses is that we are basically myself and two or three other owners that have come together with the same objectives; to buy and produce a few talented horses to the best of our ability, to really enjoy the process, as well as the results and to always keep the welfare of the horse as paramount.

“We are not people that plan to have 20 horses each and a large breeding programme; we have come together with a few quality horses and want to be involved in watching them progress.

Maria Vozone on HHS Disney, winners of the Five-Year Old Cavan Crystal Hotel Championship at Cavan Indoor Championship \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net

“Apart from my own, I have a few horses together with John Hoyne, and there are a couple of those we are excited about. In particular we both have high hopes for the Dutch-bred gelding City LVM (Cicero Z - Contefine). He has been going really well with Brendan Murphy in the saddle.

“We bought him in June and since then he won the 1.40m Grand Prix in Tipperary last month, was second in the 1.40m Grand Prix in Barnadown in August, took fifth in Maryville 1.40m Grand Prix and finished fourth in the 1.50m Grand Prix in Balmoral.

“We also have HHS Disney together, who last week won the Cavan Crystal Hotel five-year-old championship so that was fantastic.

“RHS Blue (Cheers Cassini - Cruising Micky Finn) is another we have high hopes for; she won two rounds of the 1.35m Munster Grand Prix Series this summer.

“I was always fascinated by show jumping, and in the past few months we have really started to see some great results so that’s really rewarding. We seem to have gone on to the next level.

“Over the past few six or seven years I have developed the yard, putting in a new Equestrian Surfaces arena and lunging ring and adding more stables; we now have 16 boxes.”

Moving in the right direction

KK Sport Horses has plenty of talent. “Maria coming on board as a rider and Brendan (Murphy) joining us three months ago is a huge boost. We really try to have a place which concentrates on doing the best we possibly can for each horse. I suppose I think of it as a boutique-type training yard. I was delighted when Maria came on as yard manager last year, she has some other horses in for other owners, and then Brendan joining us brought in another calibre of rider.

“Brendan is still developing his own yard at home in Arklow alongside working with us. The strength of the yard, as I see it, is we have the time to have an individual plan for each horse. Each horse is afforded the time it needs to develop. We have 13 individual turn-out paddocks and every horse gets out everyday for at least five or six hours.

“We have the expertise from Marion advising us; she and Maria work really well together. I’ve always believed that if we manage the horses to the best of our ability, and always put their welfare first, we will get the maximum from them. Having like-minded people like Maria and Brendan on board with the same principles as I have is just fantastic.

“We always say we have the two Hs in the house: ‘Horses and Hurling’. They are our passions. Myself and my husband Adrian (Connick) and our son Christian are very involved in the yard. It’s very much family-run.

“The boys are really into their hurling, but they are always very active around the yard. Christian has a similar interest to myself in buying. He recently bought a foal by Quality Time out of a Lux Z mare which Jenni (Lamminen) bred to produce so he will be very involved in that.

Quality stock

“We (myself and John Hoyne) are continuing to build up our stock, we are constantly on the lookout for new horses. We are going to Tralee tomorrow to look at a three-year-old and next week have a four-year-old to view, so we are looking out for them.

“Looking forward, we hope to travel to Belgium and Holland in the early spring to do some shows and we are excited to see what lies ahead for us,” concluded Helen.