Mayo breeder features on Horse Country documentary

WELL-KNOWN Mayo horse breeder Liam Lynskey will feature in a six-part documentary, Horse Country, being aired on RTÉ One, beginning this evening (Tuesday) at 7 p.m.

Liam, who operates the Derryronane Stud in Swinford, has been horse mad all his life.

He owns the successful roads paving business, Liam Lynskey Pavings, and away from this his big passion is breeding from his top class Connemara and Irish Draught stallions.

The documentary follows the story last summer when Liam's Connemara pony made the challenging journey to the Dublin Horse Show finals, with both thrilling and humbling results.

The Irish Sport Horse world has rich and deep roots in Ireland even though it gets less attention than thoroughbred racing.

Encompassing the strands of show jumping, eventing and dressage as well as other recreational activities, this sport and industry is an important part of the social and recreational life of rural Ireland.

Horse Country tells the stories of the people and their horses who make up that world, set in the Covid summer of 2021 when many sport horse events were cancelled, and those that did take place were attended only by the competitors and their close connections.

It follows the stories of success, failure, frustration and exhilaration. They are threaded through different programmes with many coming together at the Dublin Horse Horse Show at the RDS in the final episode.

What each story thread has in common is the passion and love that Irish people have for their horses.

Horse Country is sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland, the governing body for equestrian sport in Ireland, in association with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, as well as Sport Ireland.