In the arena
School horses
The arena string. They teach rising trot to people who have never sat on anything, then teach the same person to jump two years later. Patience is the job description.
Lessons →
Ireland’s largest palomino herd
Thirty golden horses.
Gold coats, white manes, chosen for temperament before anything else. They teach beginners on a Saturday morning, carry three-year-olds on a lead rein, and photograph like nothing else in the country.
- 30+
- palominos in the herd
- 45
- stables at Woodside Road
- 3,000
- acres out the back gate
What a palomino actually is
Gold is a colour,
not a breed.
Connemara, Irish Draught, cob — the colour sits across breeds, which is why no two of ours are built the same.
A palomino is any horse whose chestnut coat has been diluted to gold, with a mane and tail somewhere between cream and white. It is a description of a colour, in the way that grey is. Underneath it, ours are all sorts.
It does not breed true. The colour comes from a single dilution gene that only passes on about half the time, so putting two palominos together gives you roughly one gold foal in two. That is the whole reason thirty of them standing in one yard is unusual. You do not order a herd like this. You collect it, one horse at a time, over years.
And colour is the second thing we look at. A beautiful horse that will not stand still while a nervous adult hunts for the stirrup is no use to anybody here. Temperament first, every time — which is the part visitors notice and the part the reviews keep mentioning.
Needs pro shoot
In the field
The largest palomino herd in Ireland lives on this hill.
Forty-five stables at the top of Woodside Road, fifteen minutes above the M50, and a gate at the back of the yard that opens onto three thousand acres of forest.
How the herd is used
What thirty horses do with a week.
Every horse here works. None of them is decoration, and none of them is doing a job it is not suited to.
Needs pro shootOn the lead rein
The small ones
The ponies carry three-year-olds at Pony Play and every walkout rider who has never ridden before. Walk only, on a lead rein, always — whatever your experience.
Pony Play →
Needs pro shootOn lease
Somebody’s own horse
Some are out on lease to riders who would rather have one horse than a different one each week. They share the yard, the walker and the paddocks with the liveries.
Livery & leasing →“The horses are so well trained and behaved. A proper family-run yard, not a tourist factory.”
Before you ride
How a horse is picked for you.
The booking form asks for a height, a weight and how much you have ridden. It is not paperwork. It is how the right horse is standing tacked up and waiting when you walk into the yard.
01
Height
Leg length picks the horse, not age. A tall twelve-year-old and a small adult are often given the same one.
02
Weight
Maximum rider weight 95 kg (15 stone), for the horses’ welfare. It is a welfare limit, not a judgement, and we would rather say it here than at the mounting block.
03
Confidence
Nervous is normal and very common. Say so on the form and you are given the horse that stands like furniture while you find the second stirrup.
Not sure what to put down? Ring the yard on +353 87 223 7981 and say it out loud instead.
Film, photography & advertising
Thirty horses that photograph like nothing else in Ireland.
Gold coats and white manes photograph like nothing else in Ireland, and the herd is used to crews, lights and repetition. Location shooting on 3,000 acres, or travel to yours.
The horseNeeds pro shoot
The location
The numbersNeeds pro shootHandlers included
Our own people travel with the horses. They are the ones the horse actually listens to.
Forty minutes out
Woodside Road, Sandyford — off the M50 at exit 13, about forty minutes from the city centre.
Location or travel
Forest, mountain, arena and yard across 3,000 acres. Or we box them and come to yours.
Used to a crew
Lights, tracking shots and the same walk twenty times over. Repetition is what unsettles most horses.
On request
Half or full day · day rate, with handlers · year round
AdvertisingFilm & TVEditorial
Leasing
Or take one for the season.
Both of these are quoted after a visit rather than booked online. Come and walk the yard first.
A lease is a horse of your own for an agreed stretch of time, without the sale. You ride it, you get to know it, and at the end of the arrangement it comes back to us. It suits a child who has outgrown a weekly lesson and is not ready to own, and an adult who would rather ride the same horse every Saturday than meet a new one.
What sits inside a lease — how often you ride, who covers the farrier and the vet, whether the horse stays here or moves — is agreed horse by horse and written down before anything starts. Ponies as well as horses, and yes, some of them are gold.
Ask about a lease — we reply within one working day.
The yardNeeds pro shootLivery & leasing
Forty-five stables, daily turnout, a horse walker and five feed types.
Full & halfHorses and poniesLeasing available
On request
full and half livery
CommercialNeeds pro shootHorses for film & photography
Thirty palominos, handlers included, forty minutes from the city centre.
AdvertisingFilm & TVEditorial
On request
day rate, with handlers
Come and see them
The best way to meet a horse
is from the saddle.
An hour on the mountain, led the whole way, walk only. No experience needed — most people on a walkout have never ridden before.