THEY say timing is everything and being in the right place at the right time is a constant feature in the story of Suma Stud.

Founded in 1978 by Susan (Susie) Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Marily Power, the stud celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Forty years of preserving near-extinct Irish Draught bloodlines in the nick of time and being ahead of their time by pioneering the use of warmblood stallions. And then there is a lifetime’s invaluable knowledge handed down to the next generation of breeders, stud owners and riders.

Even the recent win by Suma’s Zorro in the Longines Global Champions Tour speed class in Cannes with her Egyptian part-owner Sameh El Dahan, coincided with the start of this series to celebrate Ireland’s golden horsewomen.

In fact, the Ard VDL Douglas mare’s bloodlines span Suma Stud’s entire history. Bred by Susie, the 14-year-old is described as “a combination of planning and pure fairytale” and traces right back to their foundation mare Royal Penny.

An orphan foal, she was spotted beside her dead dam by some racegoers returning from the Curragh. As Susie’s uncle, George Malcomson, had just lost a thoroughbred foal that morning, they brought home the orphan filly, said to be the result of an illicit liaison between a Baroda Stud yearling colt and her Cannonball dam.

Royal Penny became one of the top show jumping ponies of her era and was near-unbeatable in the showring too. The RDS winner was sold to the UK, although fortunately, was bought back to start her breeding career as a 16-year-old. A prolific breeder, each of her foals looked like a virtual clone of its sire and every one of them jumped, including Foxes Frolic.

Before this international horse, Susie was already an accomplished rider. As a youngster, she made and rode ponies to sell on for her parents Randal (Lanny) and Eileen (Dan) Malcomson, a well-known Connemara judge.

She and her brother John were much sought-after “catch” riders, often producing ponies for the well-known Connemara breeder, Miss Frances Lee Norman.

THE SCHOOL CROCODILE

Susie’s dyslexia meant ponies, not classrooms, were her priority. Although one fictitious dentist appointment backfired after she borrowed a pony from farrier John Boyne to go hunting, dressed in her full school uniform. All went well until the hunt passed by a teacher marching along with a line of schoolchildren – her classmates.

The overheight Connemara Sally Ann brought Susie to Burghley. Winning an Open event in the 1960s meant qualification back then for the famous three-day-event, where the 15hh mare breezed around cross-country clear but missed a flag. Getting match-fit for the toughest cross-country course in the world consisted of going up and down the hills of Connemara where her parents had a summer cottage.

Sally Ann’s legendary boldness saw her enter RDS folklore when having finished her round in the main arena, then surrounded by a solid hedge, the mare jumped it and landed inside the spectator’s box.

Susie grabbed the overhanging awning as the pony skipped through the benches, changing legs and then disappeared out the back door. “It’s alright Missus, she’s still swinging!” Louis Massarella, the UK chef d’equipe shouted at Dan.

Foxes Frolic outgrew his diminutive dam, finishing up at 16.1hh. By the blueblood Blue Cliff, he became the talking horse of his day and the pair notched up numerous wins, including the Gold Cup at Balmoral. Coincidentally, some 40 years later, this class was won by his relation Suma’s Zorro.

Susie even made the Irish team at Rome but having just Foxes Frolic, who could have been sold for the price of a large farm back then, at international level often meant loaning him to Ned Cash junior.

ZORRO’S DYNASTY

Another from the Royal Penny line is the Pride of Shaunlara daughter Presently, “Who I hunted in completely safety and put to our thoroughbred stallion Horos and that cross produced Vixen’s Frolic, the dam of Zorro, who is by the top sire Douglas,” explained Marily.

Hunting, Pony Club and show jumping, “I was never more than an amateur, but one particular win on my favourite horse stands out as I beat Ann Backhouse and another international in a Foxhunter class” were part of Marily’s life growing up in England. Polo was another favourite, (her brother Robert played for Yale), before her parents, Eldon and American-born Dorothy (Dede) moved to Ireland in 1967, when they bought Ashfield Stud in Co Meath.

Marily went to Australia during this move, returning three years later via Vietnam where she picked up the distinctive name of Mekong Delta for her Chou Chin Chow colt. “He was to be our first supreme champion in the RDS in 1978, a couple of months after my father died.”

Ashfield had a “handful of thoroughbred mares with moderate records and our biggest success was to breed Mount Eaton, the first two-year-old winner at the old Phoenix Park that year.”

The great Pride of Shaunlara with Susie Lanigan O'Keeffe in the saddle

THE CRUSADE BEGINS

Trying to find a suitable stallion for her 15/16th thoroughbred mare Donna Isla, that had competed at Area International Trial level with Marily, would inadvertently begin their crusade to preserve the Irish Draught. “I didn’t like the Irish Draught stallions I saw, so I used Frances Lee Norman’s lovely bay stallion Clonkeehan Nimbus. We got two smashers like that but I wanted to find a better Draught.

“At the same time Susie, whom I had met on my return here, was finding novice jumping very boring and was wondering where all the nice horses had gone. So we joined up to go and see where the good ones were and bought a couple.”

This was back in the 1970s when tractors continued to replace Draught mares on Irish farms at lightning speed and they found themselves receiving daily phonecalls, “with someone wanting to sell us a mare, off to the factory otherwise.”

Unlike the short-lived ‘builder’s money’ boom in Irish Draughts during the Celtic Tiger era, there wasn’t wads of cash available to bankroll their finds either. “The bank owned Pride of Shaunlara for ages,” says Marily frankly.

Bred in Dunkerrin, Co Offaly by John Hoolan, Pride of Shaunlara was by Milestone out of Boston Burglar, (both stallions stood in nearby Toomevara with Jim O’Meara) with his Prefairy damsire providing his 25% share of thoroughbred blood.

His Suma (SUsan + MArily = Suma) Stud owners have often declared that Pride of Shaunlara changed their lives. “If we had not found him, we would never have been so involved with Irish Draughts or developed our stud the way it has,” said the couple, revered within the Irish Draught community for their commitment to the breed.

PRIDE WENT OUT OF CORK

“We had met Billy Cotter and his family who were instrumental in us buying Pride of Shaunlara and as we knew we could not buy him, we bought a yearling son who became Enniskeane Pride,” said Marily, explaining how they eventually acquired the stallion that had moved to Co Cork, where he was owned by Dan Downey.

“But the day after we did that, Pride was exhibited in the stallion parade at Millstreet. His headcollar broke and he got loose which was very exciting! But we immediately went back to Dan and asked him to name his price. Which he did.”

Having paid the princely sum of £2,000 for him, Pride travelled to Co Meath in the autumn of 1977 in what they describe as a “12-hour epic journey with two wives, a son and a daughter. One ‘wife’ was his many times consort, Enniskeane Countess with a very young late colt foal at foot squashed in beside mother. This was an old lorry, before herringbone fashion, two faced forward and two to the rear. The stallion was the last loaded and, as the Cork men always said, the Pride went out of Cork.”

There is a beautiful photograph taken of Pride of Shaunlara, sauntering on springs past the steps of Ashfield House, with his intelligent head, topped off with catlike ears, turned inquisitively to the camera. It took just five days to break him in, however his ‘desensitised’ mouth from his covering years meant that Susie, on board, has wisely given him a loose rein.

“Yes, that’s my favourite photo of him,” agreed Marily about the iconic photo.

“We took him to the only indoor school in the county which was Mrs Kjaers in Rathmolyon to a schooling session with some of the junior Army officers, arranged by Ronnie McMahon. Susie, the Tara Harriers joint-master, had been hunting that day and had a painful knee, so young Gerry Mullins rode Pride! We will always remember his red face as Pride was kind but very strong. He was eight then and had been unbroken until we got him.”

“Susie managed to control him enough to jump a few double clears on him but as spring came, it was obviously going to be too much to guarantee everyone’s safety. We sent Dan Downey his first red ribbon and he died not long after.”

Sent to Tom Hutchinson, who rode for Joe McGrath, the stallion sailed over six-foot fences – Paul Darragh offered to buy him on the spot having seen him jump – but then a Foot & Mouth outbreak saw shows and Pride of Shaunlara’s competition career grind to a halt.

“Meath was not the ideal place to stand an Irish Draught, as thoroughbreds abound and people were also not sure whether two women could really do the stallion men’s job, so mares were a mixed bag,” recalls Marily, who found that once callers saw their new Irish Draught arrival in the flesh, they were won over by his quality and sheer presence.

PROUDEST MOMENTS

In a bid to showcase their new addition’s offspring until his Meath-born numbers built up, the couple bought two of Pride of Shaunlara’s last crop in Cork. Gloun Rover went to the UK as a stallion after being placed fourth in the Dublin yearling class and the other was Knockavaher Pride.

She later became the dam of Blue Henry, a very popular stallion on both sides of the Irish Sea and his outstanding movement, a trait also passed on by his son Crannagh Hero, served him well in dressage.

Other showring ambassadors included The Thatcherite, Folklore, Disco, Whippy and Poll Tax, all household names within the Draught showing world and pedigrees.

“Our proudest moment was probably winning what had been the Greenvale class in Millstreet with The Thatcherite and second with Folklore, both of whom had Glenagyle Rebel foals at foot. All home-bred. I’m afraid I cried!” confessed a proud Marily.

Another by Pride of Shaunlara was Rathdrinagh, later renamed Coral Sea and the winner of an Area International Trial with Camille Crowe. She had produced a foal as a four-year-old before her competition career although when bought back “in her dotage, we could never get her in foal again. Her own brother was bought at the RDS as a foal and went to Canada as Garryowen of Suma.”

ON A MISSION

Having seen some beautiful mares by Blue Peter, one of two stallions on the verge of being lost to the breed, the Suma Stud owners were determined to buy the ageing stallion. Based in Killala with Paddy Munnelly, he was used as a versatile workhorse around the farm and Susie and Marily eventually bought the Kylemore son when he was 20, having guaranteed that the horse would have a home for life.

“We stood him at a high fee to try to only get the tops. He got 15 out of 16 mares in foal, five colts and 10 fillies. Two colts were potential stallions, Blue Rajah was fully approved, and his gorgeous son Touch of the Blues, bred by our friends, John and Sharyn Alexander, and the aforesaid Blue Henry.” The latter rare son also features in the damline of Will Simpson’s former World Cup campaigner Ado Annie.

Another memorable photo in the Suma photo album is of the smart-moving Blue Peter being driven by Marily’s mother Dede, then chairperson of the Irish Driving Society. He agreed to being ridden in straight lines from A to B, but “circles were just for idiots to do!”

Glenside, who stood with the Larkin brothers in Killimor, was another old stallion whose bloodline was salvaged. “He never settled with us, so after one season we put him down. He had the best walk we’ve ever seen in a Draught and passed it on to his son Glenagyle Rebel, and grandson Huntingfield Rebel,” remarked Marily. “Both the latter were home-bred and outcrosses, so the two lines were saved, and Uibh Fhaili played his part too.”

WARMBLOOD INFUSION

Seeing that the writing was on the wall for show jumping breeding, Susie and Marily took the step of switching to continental bloodlines.

“Going to the VDL and Nijhof studs in Holland was an education. Fabulous movement and power. They pulled out all the stops to show us their stallions and then to trust us with a young one of their own which was VDL Arkansas,” recalled Marily about their first investment, who arrived in Ireland in January 2000.

“Clem McMahon was chosen as the rider and did a super job, winning the four-year-olds at the RDS and Cavan. Arkansas also won the Cavan Classic at five. We always thought he would make a good broodmare sire and this is being proved now.

“Others to spend time with us were VDL Ricochet, who sired Sarah Ennis’s good horse Stellor Rebound and VDL Pessoa who subsequently was ridden in the American Equestrian Games. We were also responsible for Ard VDL Douglas coming to Ireland to our great friends Richard and Heather Wright at Ardmulchan, as we had begged the VDL stud to let us have a Darco stallion and what a success he has been.

"At that stage, all the Irish breeder wanted was a BIG horse, now they expect much more but Douglas was never found wanting and he was, of course, Zorro’s dad,” added Marily.

Sameh El Dahan and Sumas Zorro winning the $3 million CP International at the CSIO Spurce Meadows Masters

“GEORGE”

When local farmer Noel Norris, whose family had always kept Irish Draughts, brought an electrician friend of his to see the foals, the late Fintan Brannigan set his eye on a lovely filly foal. He eventually bought Tara Sky and her resultant colt foal by Flagmount Diamond – Crosstown Dancer – was named George, in honour of Gladys Nesbitt’s father who stood his sire.

Fintan and his teenage son Stephen started off ‘George’ before he returned to Suma Stud as a three-year-old colt to begin his stud career.

“At the time a young lad Damien McDermott was breaking and riding our horses and he brought on the stallion extremely well. He gave us some marvellous days out as he was poetry in motion and ‘George’ qualified to go to Lanaken, where he reached the final as a five-year-old.”

Unlike the uphill battle his stable companions initially had, Crosstown Dancer’s athleticism and showring results – George remains the most beribboned Irish Draught stallion in Dublin history – attracted a large amount of thoroughbred and three-quarter-bred mares.

“We all adored him but moved him on when it became obvious we were going to have to relocate our stud when the house was going up for sale.”

When the decision was taken to wind down the stud, there was another choice to make. “Despite his prefix, Huntingfield Rebel was bred by us, as were his sire [Glenagyle Rebel] and dam [Whippy]. He was our beloved final stallion and Ivor and Olive Broderick were the only ones we would have entrusted him to and how right we were!

"They have been good friends and gave him a super happy home. Luke [the Broderick’s son] adored him. ‘Rob’ covered over 300 mares one year at the height of the Draught popularity,” said Marily, reminiscing about their 1999 Dublin champion.

THE SALE

Known for its high standards of stable management and production, Suma Stud was a mecca for working students in its heyday. Just some of the many former graduates include Kylemore Stud’s Olive Broderick, event rider Louise Codd, dressage rider Ivan Kelly, Connolly’s Red Mills representative Nia O’Malley and producer Catriona Shanley.

“And then there was Anneli from Sweden who took away a local man and married him. They were a hardworking, dedicated bunch. One nice thing that we really appreciated was that many of them came back to prepare and present our horses at our dispersal sale in 2004,” Marily gratefully noted.

The auction, arranged with Tattersalls, took place before Ashfield House was put up for sale. Incidentally, it was also where the first two Irish Draught Horse Society national shows were started by the couple, along with the assistance of the Meath branch. “We had great help from Sally Begg who was a pioneer in computers in that era and we produced the ultimate show catalogue with full breeding and no late entries!

“We planned it [sale] carefully and wrote information with photos about all the stallions concerned,” continued Marily. “We mixed up the age groups and instead put families together. Everything was sold with a complete veterinary cert either, for soundness or pregnancy and the foals stayed with us until weaning. We had an opening bid of €1,000, then they were on the market.

“Nothing over 10 was included as we preferred to find homes for them directly and managed to keep a few to see us out. These included Distant Music who scanned empty but actually had a foal in the spring! Her first foal was the international mare Sumas Sound of Music, so we were lucky there. Also a full Irish Draught, Its An Ology, by Pride whom we had bought as a foal.

"She bred some smashing foals, including Suma’s Taloubet, who is now with Sven Hadley and has been winning leagues all around the country and the UK. He’s off to Hickstead this week and we’re proud of him, being 50% Irish Draught.”

And the sale also proved lucky for her other part-owner Joanne Sloan-Allen whose filly foal purchase turned out to be Suma’s Zorro.

KILKENNY HOME

Graignamanagh, where they moved over a dozen years ago, is now well and truly home to the couple, who deservedly received an Outstanding Contribution to Irish Sport Horse Breeding at the 2015 Horse Sport Ireland awards. “We absolutely love the area and the people are great.”

A “handful of horses” are still retained and there are some promising youngsters competing for others. “We get great enjoyment and vicarious pleasure from their results!” they say.

Although the now-ubiquitous Facebook page is Suma Stud’s main calling card, many of their tales are archived on their website (www.suma-stud.com). Tales and anecdotes that were often 40 years in the making but how the Irish Draught and sport horse world has reaped the benefit of Susie Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Marily Power’s lifetime work.