‘Really and truly it’s an addiction’

PASSION Killinkere breeder talks of the success of 'Off the Record' in the eventing world

‘Off the Record’ has been taking the eventing world by storm this year. He cantered to the top of the Hippomundo rankings for eventing horses, winning major events along the way, including the prestigious Aachen CSIO4, in Germany. However, before Off The Record shot to fame on the international stage, he was one of countless foals who began life over the last 50 years at the drumlin farm of Peter Brady.

At Cavan Equestrian Centre sales he sold the young horse to a dealer in 2009.

“The horse is now owned by a syndicate, and could be worth up to a million,” says Peter at his kitchen table in the Killinkere bungalow, where he and his wife Noeline reared their four children.

The Celt wonders if Peter’s at all envious of the current owners.

“I’m delighted that it did go so well because if an ordinary person got him, he might be worth €2,000 now. It takes a lot of money to get him there.

“It’s like going into a bookies,” he says of rearing and training horses. “Put down the money – the only thing is, it’s quicker you get rid of your money in a bookies than with a horse.

“People think – what did you get for him? I got damn all for him!”

It’s not easy to predict which foal will develop into a top sports horse. Peter notes the right trainer and rider are vital in a horse fulfilling its potential. In William Coleman, Off the Record is in the hands of one of the world’s best.

“Some people buy them and just put them out, maybe just jog around the road with them – it’s no good to the breeder. You are better off selling to a good established horseman.”

Off The Record had initially been selected as part of the American team at this year’s Olympics, but Peter’s excitement at the news turned to frustration when the 12 year old wasn’t given a run out.

“The horses that were in the Olympics came back to Germany and he beat them all,” enthuses Peter.

Ostensibly Peter rears horses for his livelihood, but he can’t imagine life without them. His father, also Peter, always kept horses on the Brady homefarm.

“It would have been a lot of thoroughbreds crossed with Irish draughts that time. Now it’s a different ball game – it’s all warm bloods, Dutch bloods, all this craic,” he says.

“When I was about 15 I bought my first horse from Ballyhaise college for £190, a lot of money at that time,” he says of the late 1960s.

Wary of depending on horses alone, Peter has combined his passion with rearing other livestock, sucklers and sheep.

“One will subsidise the other. You have to have something on the side because you couldn’t expect the horse to pay for anything. It’d pay for nothing.”

Horses obviously give him a greater thrill than rearing his other livestock.

A different life

“Most cows are like each other, sheep’s the same, but a horse, when you look at a horse you see something different in every horse. If I saw a horse today I’d know him in five years time. Yes. It doesn’t go away from you. People don’t realise that, they think: ‘Aw sure it’s only an oul horse’. It’s not! It’s a different life altogether, a horse. Really and truly, it is an addiction.”

Peter sounds half reluctant when saying he’s always had an interest in eventing,.

“The interest I had was to breed one I could make a few pound off - see could I make something off it in the line of farming because cattle weren’t always that great; horses were never that good – ‘If you want to lose money get into horses,’ that’s what they all tell you. And it’s not too wrong. There’s years you’d make nothing, you could lose money in horses, it’s not a guaranteed income. More a hobby than anything else.

“And it’s a class of disease too you know. It’s an addiction, and you have to love them. If you don’t love them forget about it. If you are afraid of them, keep away they’d kill you.”

Peter’s not exaggerating. Although he was never afraid of horses his addiction almost cost him his life.

About two years ago he went down to the stables to put halters - head-collars - on three horses, aged about a year and a half

“I got two of them, and the third one, I haltered him, I put my head down to catch the rein, and I don’t remember any more.

“He opened my head up with his front foot.”

Peter flicks his hand: “He was quick – just got me,” he says half admiringly. “Front paw, just there, the whole way down,” he says indicating the right hand side of his crown.

Noeline was the one who first came upon when he came around and rang for help.

She chips in of the ordeal: “He didn’t know where he was. He asked me what day it was so I knew something was wrong, when I went down he was lying in the passageway, blood was spewing out of him.”

Peter adds: “I was there for two hours. I must have come to, lost a lot of blood. I was in hospital for a good while. I got a lot of stitches to the head and three bleeds to the brain.”

He’s fine now, but he gently chides himself: “It was my own mistake,” noting you should have someone with you when haltering a horse. “Not that I done one the other day the same - on my own,” he says laughing at the warning gone unheeded.

Despite being in the horse breeding business for half a century and counting, Peter’s happy to continue along at his own pace. Trainer Alan Keogan get them ready for sales.

“He trains them then, breaks them in, lunge them, and jump them and does videos of them, the whole lot.”

Peter’s expecting his handful of mares to produce four or five foals next year. He gives each new foal the prefix, Drumagoland, the name of their townland, just off the N3. That prefix is attached to another of his former horses “very closely related” to Off The Record, who is also doing well in the States.

“Drumagoland Chip I think will go on, there’s a few more I’m watching to move – they’re young you see.

“It takes time, they don’t come ripe until they’re eight or nine-years-old anyway.”

Over the course of our hour long chat Peter’s passion for horses is obvious. He loves to see them develop.

Get them to love you

“It’s unreal the way you can train them, and get them to love you too. You can talk to them no problem, and they’ll know you, they’ll know what you’re thinking and everything. Horses are something you have to love, and they’ll respect you - it’s one thing about a horse, it’s something you have to have.

“I don’t think everyone’s for horses. I know people who’ve gone into horses spending big money on stallions and everything and they have to leave the horse with someone else. They tell you what they get – but they are out a lot of money. It’s not for everyone.

“It’s an expensive job,” he says of horse breeding, “it’s a very expensive hobby, you could end up losing a lot of money – there’s years I lost a lot of money.”

Whether profitable or not, Peter’s happy to keep feeding his healthy addiction.