Next up in the Producer Series, I have a chat with Richie O’Hara – again a well-known figure in the Irish Equine Community – although Richie competed growing up, he took some time for college and is actually a qualified pharmacist by profession, but his love of horses overtook this and he now owns and runs the very successful Kilbunny Sports Horses.  

Firstly – tell us who you are and a little bit about what you do and the type of horses you specialize in: 

My name is Richie O’Hara – I run Kilbunny sports horses. We breed and produce sport horses who have mainly competed to a high level or have high-level pedigrees. We have about 15 – 20 brood mares, some our own, others boarding for clients.  

From primarily researching this series of articles and chatting to different individuals in the equine sector, it seems that horses – just like so many other industries are taking a financial hit, money is not as freely available and the cost of living increase seems to be having a detrimental effect – what are your thoughts or insight into this? 

In my opinion, different sectors in the industry are taking hits, but I also think the market is changing – there was a fantastic trade for unbroken horses during covid – people were at home and had time to produce these horses themselves– so the trade for unbroken young horses was high. Personally, I feel the market had gradually shifted as more clients are looking for horses which are broken and riding under saddle along with older horses that have a bit of experience and have been competing previously. People now are aiming at wanting to see what the horse is capable of doing before they buy – so the option to watch them jump/compete is there – they want to see what they are actually buying as well as physically ride the horse and get a feel for it – and this is where these elite sales could excel. Owners/ Sponsors now want to buy horses that are ready to go out and compete rather than waiting a year for them to be broken and produced, as a result there’s a huge shortage of people breaking and starting horses in the early stages of their careers.  

Something I hear a lot of people talk about is the ever rising cost of entry fees on top of the cost of diesel/petrol to get to shows. As a producer of horses, are you noticing this? I would imagine with the number of horses you breed – want to produce or be seen, this affects that? 

Cost has gone up massively. The likes of hay/ Haylage, feed and bedding have all doubled along with the price of fuel increasing. It is what it is, horses need to be fed at the end of the day. Horses that used to cost a certain price to produce have doubled – even just to raise them, let alone anything else.   

Has the type of horse that your clientele are looking for changed at all? 

As mentioned above, there seems to be a big increase in people seeking horses who have a bit of experience under them now. Another thing I notice is a lot more looking for mother/daughter share types. 

How do you feel Ireland compares to the rest of Europe  – in terms of opportunities and facilities/competitions for the horses? 

For me personally – I am very happy with the facilities we have – particularly for the 3-4 year olds I produce – in under an hour, I can have access to 5 or 6 top facilities – Shanakill, Raheen Na Gun, Ballinamona, Wexford Equestrian, Barnadown, Warrington Equestrian to name but just a few. I can school horses in these top facilities to aid their training without the pressures of a show day – I would say that we in Ireland compare very strongly to Europe and the UK, but for the top level competitors – we might be a bit behind. For example –  for the likes of the Cavan Equestrian International shows – they run out of stables every time there is such a demand for taking part at it and I think we could definitely use a few more facilities like Cavan, but obviously facilities like this are extremely costly to build and run, so I’m not sure how feasible that is. 

Is there anything that bodies like Horse Sport Ireland/Show Jumping Ireland or even the Government could be doing to help the equestrians of Ireland in your opinion? 

I think spacing out the Elite sales throughout the year, opposed to two in November. 

Cavan run an elite 3 year old sale in August, that runs very well, but maybe more elite sales for sport horses that are under saddle are needed. In the upcoming weeks Monart are running an elite sale for young horses under saddle and starting off their careers, I think it will be interesting to see how this sale plans out, as these types of sales are very popular in Europe and seem to be running quite frequently throughout the year. I myself have 4 horses head to Monart. Recently at the RDS qualifiers, 104 young horses competed, most of these horses being for sale – so it may be a good idea to have select sales to attract potential clients.  

Finally – if you could change one thing in the Equine Industry – what would it be and why? 

I think it should also be mandatory for horse’s breeders information to appear on the passport – name, mobile number and email, so they are easily contactable. With the amount of horses who go through name changes, breeders are often impossible to trace so by adding this feature – somewhere dominant on the passport, it would be a huge benefit to the breeders.  

If you wish to contact Richie – details as follows:

Phone Number:  086-3533285

Email:  richieohara_1@hotmail.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rohara1

Instagram:  ohararichie36