TOM Hearne is the ‘T’ in TR Sporthorses. Alongside Ryan O’Neill (the ‘R’), they set up the business in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan over seven years ago and together they have produced a heap of young horses which have gone on to enjoy successful competition careers.

Speaking about the horses in his life and his career to date, Hearne told The Irish Field: “It all began with my father, Tom. We always had horses at home in Waterford. He has bred, produced and competed many talented horses over the years, and to this day will break in and long-rein youngsters before sending them to us to produce further.

“My dad taught me a huge amount and I definitely get my passion and ability to recognise a good horse from him. He is a very good judge of a young horse.

“I competed in ponies as a child but as soon as I was old enough I became involved in the breaking and producing of young horses with my dad. Following on from working at home and learning from my dad, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to work for James and Shirley Kernan in their yard in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh.

“I gained invaluable experience there, and to this day run our yard in a similar way to the way they ran theirs.

“I was there during the Out of Touch era when James was competing the son of Touchdown. We had a massive amount of young horses in work and we produced and competed them together. I learned a lot from James and Shirley, they taught me a lot and allowed me to build on all I had learned from my dad.”

Partnership

Before long came a chance to set up a business of his own. “I’ve been friends with Ryan for a long time. He worked for Mary McShane and we were both getting a lot of offers to ride and produce horses from different horses so it became inevitable that we would set up on our own.

“We rented a yard in Broomfield, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan about seven years ago and fortunately we’ve been lucky enough to have superb owners and supporters over the years. We have a great girl, Zoe Connolly, who rides with us part-time, she is very good with the youngsters.

“My dad has always given us horses. We have loyal owners like James and Joanna Curran, Margaret and Tracey Gallagher and Finola Heslin who have trusted us with their horses over the years.

“It has been going really well the past couple of years. We are very busy and have a long waiting list of horses to get into us. We do competition horses and produce young ones. We are a selling yard mainly and have become very successful over the years. We do buy some horses in. We primarily source them privately but do, on occasion, buy at the sales. Most of our horses are Irish-bred.”

Quality horses

Tom has had some nice horses pass through his hands. He explains: “I completed a mare named Any Questions (Oklund X Damiro) for Margeret and Tracey Gallagher very successfully up to 1.40m. I then went on to ride her daughter Next Question (VDL Orestus x Damiro) until she was five years old. I rode her in Dublin this year where she finished eighth in the final. She was then sold to Shane Breen and Greg Broderick.

“Since then she has gone on to Lanaken where she was ridden by Niamh McEvoy. We are very proud of her. She looks to be a real superstar.

“We also produced L’Esprit Hero Z (Lexicon x For Pleasure) as a five-year-old for Gerry Marron. He is currently with Dermott Lennon, he won the Grand Prix at the Irish Breeders’ Classic this year, and won a good 1.50m international class in France last week.

“Another one we would have started is Gerry Marron’s Kinmar Quality Hero (OBOS Quality x Moujik De Sohan). We produced him as a four and five-year-old and he then went on to finish second in the six-year-olds in Dublin with Damien Griffin.

“One of the best horses I produced would be Bintang II (Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve x Orlando) who went on to do great things with Britain’s Laura Renwick. They won numerous 1.60m classes and had several Nations Cup appearances. I bought him when he was four and sold him to Laura when he was five.

“I remember when I went to try him. He was a big imposing horse. I jumped four tiny fences on him and I made up my mind that I had to buy him. He was an easy horse to work with, I always knew he would be a superstar.

Breeding operation

“My dad breeds a lot of horses every year. He has a couple of broodmares, and would buy some foals also. He keeps them until they are three, starts their work and then sends them onto us.

“His foundation mare, Covehill, is by Cavalier Royale. She bred 11 or 12 foals over the years and they have all gone on to do nice things. Her daughter Cove Park (by OBOS Quality) is competing at 1.35m, ready to do 1.40m with Lisa Doogan. Her first foal, Cove Water, went on to be a four-star eventer in the UK.

“I rode most of her progeny as four- and five-year-olds and then they would have been sold on to different levels, some to amateurs, and some to professionals.

“TR Sporthorses has recently begun our own breeding programme. We have a couple of nice ones by good stallions. They are looking promising but are still too young to do very much yet.

“We bought a very good mare by Indorado out of an Ahorn dam a few years ago. Unfortunately she picked up a little injury so that’s how we ended up going down the breeding route with her.

“She has had five lovely foals for us by good stallions like Diamant de Semilly, Tangelo and Big Star. At the moment she has a fantastic foal filly by the exciting stallion Balou de Reventon. We plan to keep and produce her. I think she is something special.

“Looking forward to next year we have a four-year-old by OBOS Quality which we are very excited about. He is a big horse. He has only done two shows but he looks to be a special one at the minute.

“We are also very lucky to have two great farriers here, Des Flavin and James Tuite, who do a great job with the horses and we’re lucky to have them.”