The Brennan family in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny is synonymous with breeding international sport horses. Their Mill House Stud has produced many great showjumpers, including last year’s Aga Khan winner MHS Going Global.
The Brennan breeding success began on the family farm in Kilkenny where Tom and Ita Brennan instilled a passion for horses in their eight children Alice, John, Tom Jnr, Paul, Mary, Michael, Tim and Margaret. Sadly, Ita passed away in April of this year, leaving Tom Jnr, Michael and Tim to run Mill House Stud and uphold the family’s tradition of breeding quality sport horses.
Predeceased by her husband, Ita was a breeder of some renown and in the months before her death received two Horse Sport Ireland awards for breeding the Irish show jumping team horse of the year MHS Going Global and the leading Irish horse at the Lanaken WBFSH world championships MHS Washington. She also picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Showjumpers Club.
Ita learned the vital importance of the quality of the broodmare to any breeding enterprise from her father Tom Hughes, who was judge of the broodmare class at the Dublin Horse Show for many years. Her brother Seamus as breeder, working with his other brother Andy as rider, were some of the country’s leading producers of young showjumpers for several decades. Seamus’ daughter Marion Hughes competed on the international show jumping circuit for years and now devotes her time to producing young horses bred at her Hughes Horse Stud.
A keen rider and competitor in her youth, Ita married Tom Brennan, who was also of farming stock and who bred the odd horse but who took more of an interest in National Hunt. For a few years, they bred both showjumpers and racehorses, but their children’s desire to ride and compete on ponies meant show jumping eventually won out.
The family became heavily involved in the Kilkenny Pony Club and Ita set about finding ponies to match their ambitions. She succeeded in unearthing a string of good ponies that regularly got the kids into the ribbons at the Dublin Horse Show and other similar events. Ita’s breeding career began in earnest when she received a filly as a wedding present from her father. The filly, by Water Serpent out of a Battleburn dam, became the matriarch of a superb equine show jumping dynasty.
When crossed with top stallions like Nordlys, King of Diamonds, Imperius and Cavalier Royale, this breeding line produced quality horses like Royal Charmer, a multiple Grand Prix winner for Switzerland’s Marcus Fuchs; Two Mills Showtime, the UK Showjumper of the Year under Robert McGuire; Lora Pianna Have A Go, an Italian team horse for Flippo Moyerson, Splendido, ridden on the Irish team by Harry Marshall; and the Hickstead Derby-placed Rolo Tomasi, under Peter Smyth.
The same line produced Marion Hughes’ first Grand Prix mare and last year’s five-year-old Irish Sports Horse Studbook champion mare MHS Attraction.
Having been outbid on Kilcoltrim, who jumped so well on Irish teams with John Ledingham, as a gelding, Ita traced his origins to a broodmare line of Jim Whitty from Borris in Co. Carlow and from him bought a few relations to add to the quality of her own broodmare herd. That Bahrain line, when crossed with stallions such as King of Diamonds, Cavalier Royale and Quidam Junior, produced top jumpers like Royal Athlete, the Swiss champion jumper and European junior and young rider individual medallist under Marcus Hauri. It also produced the Tipperary-based showjumper Greg Broderick’s Ballypatrick Flight, which was placed at the World Young Horse Jumper Championships in Lanaken, multiple international winner last year MHS Automatic, and the hero of last year’s Aga Khan Cup win and current Irish showjumper of the year, MHS Going Global.
Other well-known showjumpers from Ita’s breeding lines include MHS Washington, which was second in the Lanaken seven-year-old world championships last year and now jumping on the Global Champions Tour with Laura Renwick; Ballypatrick Mystique, Lanaken bronze medal winner as a seven-year-old for Greg Broderick; MHS Primetime, seven-year-old champion at the Dublin Horse Show for Eddie Moloney; Irish Breeders Classic champion Bens Lux Lady for Harry Marshall; and Shane Breen’s early Grand Prix horse Sculptured.
“She was an extraordinary woman and it won’t be easy to follow in her footsteps,” Tom Brennan Jnr says of his late mother.
“Everything we know about breeding we’ve learned from her. We breed about 15 foals a year which are usually sold on. We were proud to breed Going Global, who was sold as a five-year-old to Lee Kruger’s Caledonia Stables and is ridden by Greg Broderick, MHS Washington, who was sold to Laura Renwick as a three-year-old, and MHS Attraction, who we sold to Richard Burns and was the leading Irish five-year-old last year. She has already produced four foals.
“We have high hopes also for the four-year-old MHS Fernhill who will be expected to compete strongly at the Dublin Horse Show in July.”
It will be a proud moment for the Brennan clan when MHS Going Global represents Ireland at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Going Global and Greg Broderick have been outstanding contributors for Ireland in Nations Cups and have been consistent clear round jumpers at 5-star level. Last year, the pair claimed their biggest Grand Prix win to date when taking the $50,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix at HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, California.
“It’s always hugely satisfying when our horses are successful and are delivering on the promise that they showed here at Mill House Stud. We are proud and delighted to see Going Global going to the Olympics. No doubt, Ita Brennan will be smiling down on him and Greg when they take to the arena,” adds Tom.
Located on the family farm which was divided between Tom Jnr and Paul following Tom Snr’s death a number of years ago, Mill House Stud consists of housing, an all-weather arena and an embryo transfer laboratory which is overseen by Tim, who is a vet by profession.
“We use the best genetics we can get to increase our chances of producing the best stock. While we are not afraid to look abroad for the best genetics, we try to use Irish genetics as much as possible. Tim has been running this side of the business for the past 14 years, with input from another of our brothers, John, who is also a qualified vet.”
While breeding horses has become his main enterprise in the last five years, Tom Jnr – who is married to Sinead and has four children between the ages of 16 and seven (Ruth, Jack, James and Conor) – remains a farmer at heart.
“Like most people involved in the horse industry, my background is in farming. I was a beef producer before going into breeding full-time. Indeed, my father was a very good judge of cattle. I still keep the land in good nick and have 100 Texel cross Cheviot ewes. I’d like to get back into farming on a full-time basis in the future, but for now the horse breeding takes priority,” he concludes.
Mill House Stud
Upper Grange,
Gowran,
Co. Kilkenny
Telephone: 087 6777396
Web: www.mhsireland.com
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 7, September 2016
