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.
This mare is the genuine article...a true-to-type Irish Draught mare with fantastic bone, flawless limbs, powerful athletic movement, and great work ethic all tied together with that amazing Irish temperament.
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. In addition, Hermione's pedigree features linebreeding to Glen Star and Mountain Heather through genetic 3/4 brothers Ben Purple and Mountain View.
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. O'Leary's Irish Diamond has also had two half-bred daughters graded into the main marebook of the Oldenburg Society of North America with star awards.
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.
A lovely quality mare like her dam Bonnie, Hermione is 16hh with 9 1/2 inches of bone. She has matured into a gorgeous traditional mare, demonstrating the heritage and strength of her family. She has produced 3 R.I.D. daughters and we feel very fortunate that they have all found homes with breeders concerned about conserving the traditional type Irish Draught horse. Hermione presented us with her first foal in 2004, a stunning purebred filly with the most extravagant movement. By our former R.I.D. stallion Hawk, aka Harkaway Lionhawk, Rowan was originally purchased at the age of 4 months as a dressage prospect by the Cairns family of Wisconsin. Rowan passed her R.I.D. inspection in 2008 and is currently producing purebred foals for Bellwether Irish Draughts in Illinois. Hermione followed up in May 2005 with another lovely filly, Glimmer, by *Huntingfield Proud Tim. Glimmer passed her R.I.D. inspection in 2007 after being sold to our friends at Ballymore Stud in Michigan, where she is now having purebred 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 breeding herd as "Gus" is now retired from breeding. Gus is a stallion of wonderful temperament and type and we are glad we were able to assist in providing a way for him to make a genetic contribution to the purebred Irish Draught herd. Grania was sold to our friends at Irish Ridge Farm in Missouri. She achieved her R.I.D. approval as a 2 year old in 2009. So far all of Hermione's foals have been natural athletes. Even more importantly they have the superb temperament and work ethic of their dam and granddam, making them a joy to work with.
Hermione is currently taking a hiatus from motherhood to do some dressage and foxhunting.
2010 NEWS: Hermione foaled a lovely colt by Harkaway Lionhawk on 30 April!
At just 16 hands and 9 1/2 inches of bone, Holly exhibits many qualities of the "native" type Irish horse. From her primitive pangare coloring and heavy protective mane and tail replete with an Exmoor pony-like "snow chute", to her substantial flat bone, short legs, broad deep barrel, and "hooded" eye (a feature shared by her sister Hermione), Holly is an example of the old fashioned sort of Irish Draught mare bred to work hard and thrive on little. Seeing this massive mare move soon banishes any thoughts of "old style", however. Holly's movement is springy and free flowing despite the heavy frame and short Irish Draught legs that are typical of the breed. She aptly demonstrates the fact that a good Irish Draught is surprisingly light over the ground for its size. Holly's cadenced movement, her beautiful limbs, her big kind eye, long Irish Draught ears, and harmonious topline provide the elements of refinement that define the word "quality" when used in reference to the Irish Draught horse.
Other than a sprinkling of Milestone in the fifth generation, Holly's pedigree is a complete outcross, with none of the King of Diamonds, Pride of Shaunlara, Errigal or Clover Hill bloodlines that have come to dominate the breed. As one of the few outcross Irish Draught mares in North America, she is a valuable asset to the Irish Draught gene pool. Among her outcross bloodlines, Holly's pedigree features linebreeding to Laughton through Irish Draught sires Ginger Dick and Lahinch. The Laughton bloodline is known for its jumping ability. Many successful international jumpers and eventers descend from this bloodline.
Holly's sire Happy Ending was one of the first RID stallions to be imported into North America. Happy Ending showjumped in England and the USA. He is the only RID stallion ever to achieve the title of "Elite" in the UK's National Stallion Testing Association's performance testing scheme (and one of only 21 stallions of any breed to have achieved that designation since the program's inception). Happy Ending's dam Trinity was also dam of an Advanced dressage Horse (Happy Ending's full brother Storming Home) as well as the popular RID stallion Blue Rajah. Happy Ending's sire Snowford Stoker was a breed champion in England as well as a dressage horse and show jumper. Happy Ending's paternal grandsire Colman was the sire and damsire of many other successful performance horses including Mary King's CCI**** eventer Apache Sauce. Colman is patriarch of the last remaining branch of the Tara sireline. Tara is probably best known as the damsire of legendary Irish showjumper sire Clover Hill. Tara was also damsire of Sea Crest, who himself was sire of another legend in Irish horse breeding, international showjumper and prolific showjumping and eventing sire, Cruising.
Holly is our miracle mare. Her dam, Bonnie, developed a 720 degree large colon torsion at 100 days gestation during her pregnancy to Happy Ending. Given a 10% chance to survive colic surgery, she not only pulled through the surgery and post-operative period, but amazingly, maintained her pregnancy. Unfortunately her bad luck wasn't over. Due to the extended amount of time spent under anesthesia to correct the torsion, Bonnie subsequently developed placentitis (an ascending bacterial infection of the placenta). She spent the last 60 days of her pregnancy on a cocktail of antibiotics and other drugs in an all out effort to save the foal. And so we were relieved and overjoyed when during the early hours of 13 May 2002, a tiny but vigorous dark brown filly foal was born...our Holly!
Holly thrived and grew into a beautiful foal. She soon earned the nickname "Mini Me" due to her striking resemblance to her lovely dam Bonnie. As weaning time approached, we reluctantly agreed to part with her to our dear friend Sue Holland, from whom we purchased her dam. We consider Sue part of the family so we knew she'd be safe and loved. Holly had many adventures with Sue, first living in NY with her sister Belle, then moving to Texas where she achieved her RID approval and was trained to drive single and double by Tom O'Carroll, and finally, moving with Sue to NC when Sue's barn and house at Hollymead had been completed.
In 2007, Holly produced her first foal for Sue, a lovely dark bay/brown colt called Hollymead Huntsman by Huntingfield Proud Tim. Hunter was sold as a foal to Potomac Hunt Club member Lauren P. in Maryland, who purchased him as her future hunt horse. In 2008, Holly was bred to our former RID stallion, Harkaway Lionhawk. That same year, Sue unexpectedly offered her back to us in order to make room for Belle's daughter Arwen to come home to live with her mother at Hollymead. And so we welcomed Holly back home to Iowa in October 2008. Holly produced her second foal, a gorgeous black/grey colt by Harkaway Lionhawk, in May 2009. Lionwood Revelry, nicknamed "Ben" by my son Will, was wonderful in every way but alas it seems that we were only allowed to borrow him for a little while. He left a hole in our hearts when we lost him to a tragic accident in February of 2010. Holly is being bred to the lovely young RID stallion Heathercombe Calico for a 2011 purebred foal. This pedigree will be of interest to the outcross enthusiast, with a number of rare lines in the mix including linebreeding to Colman, Achill, and Lahinch. We expect this foal to be a typey, older style Irish Draught with better than average movement, as both Holly and Calico are lovely movers themselves. This foal will also have a 50% chance of inheriting the rare gene for dun coat color from Calico.
HOME | NEWS | BONNIE BELLE SUPREME | FAMILY TREE | BREEDING PHILOSOPHY | IRISH DRAUGHT AND FOXHUNTING GALLERIES | ARTICLES ABOUT THE IRISH DRAUGHT HORSE AND RARE BREED CONSERVATION © 2001-2010 - Lionwood Irish Draught Horses/Flying Harp Farm
After weaning Ben, Holly resumed her ridden career. She was introduced to hounds and hunting with the Moingona Hunt, and carried my husband and sons on many late summer and fall trail rides. After she is confirmed in foal this spring, I plan to begin her formal dressage education. This year's goal is to ride in one or more dressage clinics with Canadian FEI dressage competitor Liz Steacie.
Holly and Liz before a cub hunt with Moingona Hunt in Iowa