EQUESTRIAN mother and daughter team, Eithne and Nathalie (Nat) O’Hanrahan, saw a problem in the area they lived in several years ago and they set about fixing it.

The issue was a lack of an arena for riders that may not want to travel and compete at high level events, but still want a facility of a good standard, where they can practice, train and compete for fun.

The pair described their journey to establishing Milltown Stables.

“Mum rode when she was a teen on horses she borrowed from her friends and cousins. She took it up again when I was about four years old. I started getting lessons when I was seven and got my own pony when I was 10,” Nat told The Irish Field.

“We live in Dromiskin, Co Louth, and based our horse and pony with my mum’s friend Fiona McMahon, who had a yard there.

“We continued to be very involved as I grew up. Mum was DC of the Oriel Pony Club and she was competing at Riding Club level in show jumping and eventing.

“In 2008, when I was 18, we competed together on the Dundalk Riding Club team at the AIRC team show jumping finals in the RDS. The team was made up of both of us, riding Dromiskin Meggin and Dromiskin Hari, Fiona McMahon on Lynsey Lady and Tom MacGuinness from Horseware on Horseware Foxy. The team won, it was a fantastic day.

“When I finished school, I went on and studied Chemical Engineering in DCU and got my degree. During the summer, I would work with horses.

“At that time, when I was busy with college, mum kept the horses going and competed around the 90s in eventing. After that, we just continued competing at Riding Club level, with a number of different horses over the years.”

Transition project

Eithne continued the story: “I was always very lucky that my good school friend, Fiona, had room for our horses with hers for many years.

“Then a few fields, about eight and a half acres, came up for sale just outside the village of Dromiskin. I love the village and never thought I would move, but the first day I came down here I thought it was absolutely beautiful and I said ‘okay I would leave the village for this’.

“I’m a maths teacher in Our Lady’s Secondary School in Castleblayney and I gave my transition year class the project of designing a building on the land. So that’s what they did, and very proud of it they are too.

“It was a very long process, looking at planning and looking at what we could do that would be a small viable business.

“Around that time, the all-female Irish dressage team had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, the one they never got to, but all over the country dressage was really on the up; a lot more people were interested in learning it.

“There were a lot of places doing show jumping in the area; we had Ravensdale and Kernans, but there was no 60m x 40m arena near us for hire. One of the Riding Clubs was preparing for the Nationals and they had to travel all the way to Killossery Lodge to find a dressage ring they could practice in. That’s when we came up with the idea of building one here. We knew there was a demand for it.

“Our goal was to provide an equestrian training facility located in Louth, equipped with a championship arena with flood lights, top quality stables and regular dressage training events. Conveniently situated near Dublin and Belfast, Milltown Stables is located just 40 minutes from Dublin and one hour from Belfast, and is situated a mere five minutes off the M1 motorway.”

Future plans

“The plan is to host monthly dressage training events. Led by experienced trainers and professionals, these training events will provide guidance and foster a supportive community of equestrians striving to improve their riding,” Eithne continued.

There was also the attraction of facilitating their own riding. Nat explained: “A few years ago, I decided dressage was the discipline for me, so I bought myself a very nice horse from Barry Griffin and began competing in Riding Club and Dressage Ireland events. He is called Mr Milltown Rua and is progressing nicely.”

Eithne added: “I’ve recently retired my horse, so I was looking for something new and James Kernan recommended Cavan Sales. We went and I bought a five-year-old piebald mare. She has done a bit of everything, hunted, side saddle etc. I was looking for something that could show jump and event at 90cm, a bit of an all-rounder, so hopefully we have found that in her. She’s very sweet, so we are very happy with her.

“We were thrilled to unveil Milltown Stables last August and had an open day, where we invited people to come and see the facilities. We then had a four-week dressage league, which was well attended with about 25 in each class. We had an Under 12s class and they were amazing.

“For the winter, we will just do training, but come the spring we will do the leagues again, so we are looking forward to that. I’m nearing retirement age, so I’ll be able to concentrate on this full-time then.”