OUR STORY
In 2006, the MacDonagh family moved to the 250 year old Hollypark House, near Craughwell in rural Galway, well situated just 10 minutes from the famous Galway Blazers hunt kennels, and equally 10 minutes from the motorway. The yard was in ruin, the stables having burned down in the 1920's, but over the years they have been carefully restored and Hollypark now maintains 18 stables as well as a large shed with the comfortable capacity for 25 horses. There is also a horse walker, round pen, sand school, set of show jumps and a full cross country course over the parkland. The yard is very private but surrounded with lots of open space and quiet roads for a variety of hacking.
The breeding operation at Hollypark aims to produce quality Draught and Sport horses for jumping, eventing and hunting. Running loose with our own herd of thirty mares, is our Registered Irish Draught Stallion Drishane Diamond, who's back breeding includes the famous Clover hill and Diamond Lad, the foundation of many of the best sport horses in Ireland. He has a fantastic temperament and is producing some very promising young horses.
Drishane Diamond
A selection of our Connemara and Draught type young horses grow up across 800 acres of the Burren, an incredible geological landscape, with rocky limestone terrain. Here they learn to be sure footed and be self-preserving as they make their way around the mountains, sheltering in valleys and under cliffs during the winter, grazing the natural forage full of minerals. Horses from the Burren are well practiced to cross country with ease out hunting, as they are always watching the ground and where they are going, having been educated by making their own way up and down the mountains unaided over the first few formative years of their lives. The Burren is renowned as one of the most beautiful places in Ireland to visit. With little interference over millions of years, it is a remarkable place for our horses to run as a herd and they all thrive here.
The rest of our young horses run in herds together across several small holdings around the picturesque coastal town of Kinvara and around Balindereen.
