BALMULLO
FARM
6494
Charles City Road, Richmond, VA 23231 Phone: 804-507-0269 e-mail: balmullofarm@gmail.com
Breeding
Connemaras since 1982!
BALMULLO
FARM
DONNA DUCKWORTH,
OWNER AND MANAGER
Breeding
fine Connemara and Connemara-TB crosses since 1982.
We specialize in quality horses and ponies with good conformation,
movement, and type. |
WEB
SITE CONTENTS
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Balmullo
Farm is located on the east side of Richmond, Va., where we have
16 acres divided into four pastures and a system of woodsy jumping
trails. We have been here for almost eight years, having previously
raised Connemaras in Florida since 1982. There we stood the stallion
Concord River Roaringwater Bay (Whitewood Galway Bay X Lynnfields
Proud Hope), a greatly beloved sire with more than 75 offspring,
recently deceased at the age of 32. Now we stand the exceptional
eventing stallion, Foothills Field Marshall ( *Gun Smoke X
Foothills Maybee) who is available via cooled shipped semen.
Foothills
Field Marshall (a.k.a.
"Bruiser") Watch his run at Hagyard 2017 !
He is super talented, both in dressage and jumping, with cross
country his absolute favorite. He was originally trained by Luke
McLaughlin, now assistant trainer at Lyndon Rife Dressage in Dallas,
who showed him to great success. At his first Connemara show at
Pine Top Farm in Georgia he won the high-point dressage award
with a score in the 70's. At the 2012 Region IV show in Florida,
he was the Grand Champion In Hand as well as dressage star. At
his next two shows, USDF recognized Dressage shows, he won every
class he entered and qualified for the Regional Championships
in Georgia where he was 12th out of 27.
Foothills Field Marshall
a.k.a.
Bruiser
When Luke left Florida for Texas, his training was taken over
by Elliott Blackman Timmons, an event rider, who also rode and
trained another Connemara stallion by *Gunsmoke, WH Top Gun,
as well as her own Irish Sport Horses. At Bruiser's first horse
trial, he beat all others in his division by some 20 points and
had clean stadium and cross country rounds. He has qualified five
times for the American Eventing Championships, although he did
not attend in 2015 or 2017. In 2013 he was the reserve champion
in the Beginner Novice division and in 2014 he was 10th in the
Novice division. He is now competing at the Preliminary level
under Elliott's excellent tutelage. He recently completed his
first Three-Day, The 2017 Hagyard Midsouth T3D, in Lexington,
KY, where he finished in the ribbons.
We
are very excited about his offspring. His semen ships very well
and he has gotten all mares in foal with the first shipment. He
is negative for the HWSD gene.
BRUISER
FOALS
Mossie
Elijah
Brouhaha
Jack
Hillside
Emily and foal
Mossie
and Danny
LIFE
AT BALMULLO FARM
We
give lessons year round, mostly to 6-12 year olds, and in the
summer have two weeks of Camp Horseshoe, where 10-20 "future
Olympians" spend their days riding, swimming and doing horsey
crafts. Another fun activity is a visit to the VMFA to do a 'treasure
hunt' of sorts, where they look for answers to questions about
the museum's extensive collection of horse paintings. (When did
George Stubbs live and what did he mostly paint?) During the show
season we go to local Hunter shows one or two times a month where
the girls show mostly in Pre Short Stirrup and Short Stirrup and
often are division champions.
Summer
Fraughnaugh and Balmullo's Liffey Lad:
Lulu Malinoski and Balmullo's Uproar:
We had our 4th
year of Camp Horseshoe this year where we had a total of
some 20 budding young riders learning to ride and care for horses.
And we always
attend our annual Connemara show in Lexington, VA., with four
to six of our riders doing a musical quadrille, usually to great
acclaim. We also love the costume class. One year we went as an
Art Museum, the Balmullo Museum of Fine Arts, which could only
have happened because all the parents were artists of one sort
or another. Each of the girls was dressed as an artist with each
pony painted as one of the artists' works. We had Picasso, Mondrian,
Frieda Khalo, Andy Warhol, and Georgia O'Keefe. It was a huge
success!
BALMULLO
QUADRILLE
COSTUME CLASS:
MORE LIFE
AT BALMULLO FARM
Balmullo's
Summer Solstice, Bruiser's first foal:
Roary
in 2009, doing what he loved to do best:
Summer
Fraughnaugh on Jimbo:
Taylor
on Miss Emma doing their dressage test:
Ashley
on Liffey Lad and Donna on his mother, Miss Emma, took second
in the family class:
ROARY WINS
TOUREEN LADDIE AWARD:
Before packing up
to leave Florida we attended the ACPS annual meeting in Alpharetta,
GA, where Concord River Roaringwater
Bay, Balmullo Farm's long-time resident stallion was awarded
the prestigious Toureen Laddie Award for a stallion that has contributed
to the breed through his offspring. Roary has been a superb sire
of performance ponies and also broodmares. He has produced over
75 foals, and from Balmullo Bay, born in 1985, to Roar's Last
Fancy, not yet a year old, there has not been a bad one. These
75 have produced some 67 sons and daughters, who have, in turn,
produced at least ten in the third generation. These are working
on the fourth generation with two, a colt by Windy Isles out of
Foothills Faithfilly and a filly by WH Top Gun out of Balmullo's
Matilda having already arrived. As Deb Norman's daughter, Allen
Clare, has said, "if you want one to ride, get one by Roary."
All have superb temperaments and are extremely tractable. Plus,
ahem, winsomely beautiful…and talented. We were very pleased
to have Roary so honored before we left his long time home.
History:
Balmullo
Farm was established in 1978 for the purpose of breeding high
quality Connemaras and Connemara crosses for competition in combined
training events, dressage, and the hunter ring. Our motto is "handsome
is as handsome does" so that temperament is of the utmost
importance in creating animals that are personable and tractable.
The first purebred Connemara to come to Balmullo Farm was Rosehill's
Glenconi, aka Speckles, daughter of the famous imported stallion
Marconi. She joined two Thoroughbred mares living at the farm.
The second Connemara was Oakhill's Sweet Ashley. They were both
ridden and competed by young children for years, doing double
duty as brood mares in their spare time. In 1982, a weanling colt from Concord
River Farm in New England, Concord River's Roaringwater Bay (a.k.a.
"Roary"), came to join these mares. Roary's dam was
the American Connemara Pony Society's Broodmare of the Year awardee,
Lynfield's Proud Hope; his sire, also a society awardee, Whitewood
Galway Bay. Approved by the ACPS at his first presentation to
a group of Irish and American inspectors, Roary has turned out
to be the epitome of a kind and gentlemanly Connemara. In 2001,
Roary won the Stallion class at the ACPS Region 4 show in Atlanta.
He has sired over 50 foals out of Balmullo Farm mares, as well
as a number of ponies at Vanessa Morgan's Foothills Farm and Deb
Norman's Glendale Farm. In addition, he both rides and drives
and has competed in a number of local horse trials. He has has
spent many hours on the trail with both beginning and experienced
riders wanting a day in the lovely North Florida countryside.
Roary
is the perfect example of "handsome is as handsome does."
Click here for more photos and
link to Roary's pedigree.
The
stallion, Aladdin, well-known Connemara stallion from Virginia,
also resided for one winter at Balmullo Farm (winter vacation
in Florida!) and produced the beautiful Balmullo's Miss Emma (out
of OakHills Miss Independence) as well as the well known stallion,
Balmullo's
Beacon
(out of Tullymor's April Fool).
Roary
and Emma have proved to be a great 'nick' producing two fillies
and two colts so far.
Balmullo's Gallagher is standing at Erin Terra Farm in Missouri
and Balmullo's Miss Lucy just produced her first foal by Bluebeard
in Virginia. In November 2004 Miss Lucy was crowned Champion of
the first-ever Mountain and Moorland Class at the Devon Horse
Show in Pa., winning out over 35 Welsh, Dartmoor, Shetland and
other Connemaras, and in 2005 became the ACPS's Connemara of the
Year!
Seven
Hills Grey Ghost (Fieldstream Nicholas X Tullymor's Heather Lass)
has also produced a number of foals for Balmullo Farm. He is now
owned by Mike Edwards of Ft. White, Fl, although he comes to visit
alot.
Besides,
Speckles, Ashley and Emma, Balmullo Farm has had a rotating band
of broodmares. Some memorable ones include Tullymor's April Fool,
Grand Champion at the Region 4 Show in 199X, Balmullo's Veronica
(Roary X Tullymor's April Fool), Courtney's April Frolic (Custusha's
Cashel Rock X Aillte Mhuire), Ballywhim Candace (by Dallen McMor),
Twinkle Too, and her daughters by Roary and Fieldstream Riley,
Balmullo's Little Star and Tullymor's Shandora, respectively.
Both Twinkle and Shandora have rather unusual bloodlines very
closely related to bothTully Lad and Toureen Laddie. Shandora
is expecting a Grey Ghost foal, from an oops-a-daisy breeding,
this August.
2002
started a slightly new trend at Balmullo Farm, the international
trend. Our first imported pony came to Florida from Clifden, Ireland
in 2002. This is *Belle Dawn (Cascade Dawn X Lisabelle). "Minnie"
(pictured above and below) has proven to be a real joy,
winning classes and championships at the Reg III and Region IV
shows in 2003 and 2004. Minnie is in foal to Seven Hills Grey
Ghost for an August 2006 foal. Because we have only produced colts
for the last three years, in 2006 two fillies with international
ties were purchased, a filly by Hohnhorst Branni, Ballencrief
Sea Breeze, out of Aladdin's Winter Promise (whose lineage traces
to Strongbow!) and Erin Terra Morning Star, out of the imported
Hohnhorst Madeline by Balmullo's Gallagher. Also two brood mares,
one bred in Canada and one bred in Australia will be coming to
stay for awhile and hopefully reverse the trend on only colts.
And as Roary is now 24, we will be scouring the world for a stallion
to take his place.
Minnie
(below R photo, courtesy of Megan Harris)
Congratulations
to Balmullo's Miss Lucy, winner of the 2005 A.C.P.S. Connemara of the
Year
! This award is presented to a pony that has done something special
to bring positive attention to the breed. Lucy was the all-breed
champion of the Mountain and Mooreland class at Devon in 2004.
Lucy is by C.R. Roaringwater Bay and out of Balmullo's Miss Emma
by Aladdin and is owned by Cindy O'Flaherty of Middleburg, VA.
And 2008, Balmullo’s Azalea,
aka Ooh La La, went to the Pony Finals in Lexington,
Ky. Azalea qualified for the Green Pony Hunter Finals, The
Pony Finals, as well as the Medal Finals with very young rider,
Katherine Woodruff. At the competition she was tenth out
of 73 in the Green Ponies!
Location:
Balmullo
Farm is located just east of Richmond, Virginia, in Enrico County,
about 10 miles from Richmond's airport.
It is easily accessible from I-64 or I-295 and, of course, the
Richmond airport. Visitors are always welcome!
Come
and visit, we will find something for you to do!
