Our Irish Draught Horses - Lionwood Irish Draughts

The Irish Draught Mares of Lionwood Stud

Strong dam lines are the foundation of the breeding herd.
Our Irish Draught broodmares are from an old, traditional West of Ireland mare family
who have consistently produced top class progeny of exceptional breed type.

Irish Draught mare and Irish Draught foal
IN MEMORIAM

As a dear friend of ours describes her, "Hermione is perfection itself". This mare is the genuine article...a true-to-type Irish Draught mare with fantastic bone, flawless limbs, athletic movement and that amazing Irish temperament.

photo of Lionwood Waterwitch, Registered Irish Draught mare

Hermione's pedigree is stacked with show jumping blood with a cross to Laughton through Ginger Dick, and two crosses to King of Diamonds, one through her grandsire Glidawn Diamond and another through her great great grandsire Flagmount Boy. Her pedigree also includes a cross to Ben Purple, grandsire of Olympic gold medal eventer Custom Made.

Hermione is a full sister to the R.I.D. stallion Lionwood Kinsale's Lad, and one of only 2 fully approved R.I.D. mares by their talented sire *O'Leary's Irish Diamond R.I.D.. *O'Leary's Irish Diamond is the product of a very successful mare family descending from the Gortlee (426) daughter Black Beauty. This family has produced numerous superb broodmares and 9 RID stallions. *O'Leary's Irish Diamond has competed successfully at the Prix St. George level on the tough Florida dressage circuit and he is a winner in the open jumpers...talk about versatility!

The Irish Draught Sport Horse mare, Diamond Elle, is one example of the successful young jumpers being sired by O'Leary's Irish Diamond. Diamond Elle placed 12th overall in the 5 year-old division of the 2004 International Jumper Futurity's East Coast Finals, and she won two of the 6 year-old qualifiers in 2005 and a 7 year-old qualifier in 2006. Diamond Elle is currently competing and placing in national level grands prix.

Hermione's paternal grandsire, Glidawn Diamond, is also sire of Coolcorron Cool Diamond. Coolcorron Cool Diamond is a champion international showjumper who represented Ireland in World Cup competitions, in addition to being named to the Irish team short-list for the 2004 Olympics.

Irish Draught mare and Irish Draught foal

A lovely quality mare like her dam Bonnie, Hermione is 16hh with 9 1/2 inches of bone. She is maturing into a gorgeous traditional mare, demonstrating the heritage and strength of her family with the foals she has produced to date. In March 2004 she presented us with a stunning purebred filly with the most extravagant movement, Rowan. By our former R.I.D. stallion Hawk, aka Harkaway Lionhawk, Rowan was purchased as a dressage prospect when she was only 4 months of age and is the soulmate of her young owner Keegan Cairns who has big plans for her! Hermione followed up in May 2005 with another lovely filly, Glimmer, by *Huntingfield Proud Tim. Glimmer passed her R.I.D. approval this autumn and has been sold to our friends at Ballymore Stud in Michigan, where she will have a performance career before having foals of her own. Hermione's most recent foal is Grania, a daughter of the lovely old R.I.D. stallion *Grange Augustus. Sadly, Grania is *Grange Augustus' only contribution to the purebred gene pool as "Gus" is now retired from breeding and his only other purebred offspring was gelded. Gus is a stallion of wonderful temperament, type, and movement and we feel very fortunate to be able to carry on his line through Grania.

So far all of Hermione's foals have been natural jumpers - to the extent that it can be a challenge keeping them confined. More importantly they have the superb temperament of their dam and granddam, which makes them a joy to work with.

Hermione is currently taking a hiatus from motherhood to do some dressage and foxhunting.

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