Willie Leahy, while Field Master of the Galway Blazers / Noel Mullins photo
Ireland and the horse world lost one of their best-known horsemen, Willie Leahy. He provided outstanding field hunters for visitors to Galway, served as Field Master of the Galway Blazers, was the first to offer pony trekking tours to Ireland, and developed the Connemara Trail. Willie was an uncle to Tony Leahy, MFH, past president of the Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America.
His home was Aille Cross in Loughrea, County Galway. In the nearly seventy years I have known Willie, he remained true to the Traditional Irish Horse, Connemara Pony, and the countryside where he was most content. He started from modest means on a small family farm with one horse, leaving school early, but his boundless imagination and vision saw Willie develop one of the largest equestrian enterprises in Ireland, with farms in Loughrea and Connemara.
He became the foremost ambassador around the world for the Traditional Irish Hunter and Connemara pony. He had a magnetism that attracted people, fun to be with, a trademark cowboy hat, a traditional Irish charm that was sincere, and a generosity and a warm welcome that will be forever remembered. With his loving wife Moira, their house was always open to friends and clients worldwide. They hosted rock stars, royalty, heads of multinationals, medics, clergy, politicians, prime ministers, children of presidents of foreign countries, but Willie never name-dropped. All were treated with respect, a cup of tea, a glass of something, and encouraged to make themselves at home. Although Willie did not drink, he had a heavy hand when pouring a glass of whiskey! As his good friend Pat O’Neill said in the words of Rudyard Kipling, “To have dined with Kings and still retained the common touch is the sign of a great man.” He was a spiritual man and a supporter of his local church and many charities, making his Dartfield Horse Museum available for fundraising to benefit many causes.
Willie and Moira reared a talented family: Declan, Justin (who runs the Willamette Trail in Oregon, USA), William, Dorothy, and Marguerite, all great horsemen and women who all have Willie’s love of the land, as has his grandchildren. He will be sadly missed, especially by his family and also by his many friends, customers, neighbours, staff, and helpers who he treated as family.
Tributes
Tributes to Willie poured in from all over the world as he had made such a lasting impression on people on every continent who had followed his lead after the Blazers, hunted his horses, or joined him on his Connemara Trail. ‘Willie was an ambassador for Ireland, a gifted horseman, one of those people you come across once in a lifetime.’ ‘A lovely gentleman.’ ‘A kind and wonderful man.’ ‘A legend.’ ‘An amazing person, so kind to adults and children alike who kept a supply of lollipops that he slipped quietly to children when nobody was looking.’ ‘He changed my life from lessons on horsemanship, business, love, and life, and he gave me such amazing advice.’ ‘He touched the lives of so many people.’ ‘A man of men.’ ‘So knowledgeable and yet humble, a true gentleman, a great horseman, and a charmer.’ ‘The Connemara Trail was a life-changing moment.’ ‘He was really the King of Connemara.’ ‘He was the most authentic, kind, and sweetest man I ever met.’ ‘He made my trip to Ireland truly unforgettable and I was looking forward to coming back to ride with Willie again, but sadly that will not happen.’ ‘A true gentleman and a great storyteller.’
But he had a weakness. He could be late on occasions and sometimes for hunts. The one exception was Sunday Mass which he never missed in Aille Church. I remember getting a hunter from him for the East Galways when Michael Dempsey was hunting the pack. The hunt had already moved off when Willie pulled his truck up in the middle of Eyrecourt Village, late again. He lowered the ramp and let a horse off, then jumped back into the cab with no time to hand him over as he was rushing to the Ormond Hunt. I had to run after the horse to catch him, then get mounted to join up with the hunt.
Another time in Connemara, a German visitor was looking at his watch, wanting to know what time Willie was starting the trail ride. Willie had said 10:00 am, and at 11:00 am, Willie was still shoeing horses. The German gentleman pointed out the time, to which Willie said, “Now you came on a holiday to Connemara to relax and get away from stress, am I right? So relax, I will show you how to shoe a horse, and we will leave when we are ready!”
Willie Leahy leads the Co. Galway field at a meet from his home farm, Aille Cross, in Loughrea. / Noel Mullins photo
Galway Blazers
For many, Willie was the Galway Blazers Hunt. Willie enjoyed foxhunting at the highest level, particularly when Paddy Pickersgill, Brian Fanshaw, and Michael Dempsey were hunting hounds. He served on the Blazers committee for over fifty years and was exceedingly generous to the hunt, making his various farms and his children’s farms available for lawn meets, and his farm at Dartfield available for usually two point-to-points a year. He was known all over the horse world as Field Master of the Galway Blazers, a producer of hunters and hirelings, and one of the largest breeders of Connemara Ponies in the world. One customer in the USA was so pleased with a succession of horses he had purchased from Willie that he had a large sign in his equestrian centre that read, “In the market for a hunter, contact Willie Leahy, Aille Cross, Galway.”
On Business
Few probably are even aware that Willie was also a finalist in the Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for his Connemara Trail business, a world-class operation that Willie started and ran for over fifty years. The award process included a trip to Harvard University in Boston where Willie said he learned a lot, particularly mixing with the other finalists and the heads of faculties. But he concluded, “I could not do their job, and certainly they could not do mine!”
His business interests ranged from Dartfield Horse Park & Museum, the Connemara Trail, Aille Cross Winter Trail, hirelings to the Galway Blazers and adjacent packs, Connemara Pony breeding and sales, and a large herd of sheep and cattle. But Willie was a modest person and admitted when I made a documentary film with cameraman Ken O’Mahoney at the Grallagh Hunt in 2020 that it had been a labour of love. Horses, as we know, can make you or break you, he said, but in his situation, he admitted with a wry smile that he has done all right!
He mentored his children and grandchildren on life and running a business and had profound sayings like, ‘When people are coming down the road, you go up the road.’ ‘When people are buying, you sell, but when people are selling, you buy.’ ‘Never panic sell; everything comes back into fashion eventually.’
He did not agree with the current fashion for debit and credit cards making spending too easy. He believed that every purchase price was negotiable if you had a bundle of cash in your hand.
Getting Started
It all started in the 1950s when he bought a horse for £10 that he sold later at Loughrea Fair for £55. His philosophy was when he sold one horse, he bought two more. His next purchase was a chestnut Irish Draught named Dan and a grey pony named Aille Cross. At a flapper race in Eyrecourt, the pony won both the pony and the horse races as well as the main showjumping competition. Willie sold the pony to Mick Cash for £250. He next bought a very difficult horse but got the better of him under the plough and sold him to Ned Cash for £135. That stock has increased over seventy years to a large herd of Connemara Ponies and many horses. He liked to compete on his horses in showjumping, and he admitted that he tried many times to beat Tommy Wade and Dundrum without success. Still, he did beat the international showjumper Ballingarry at the Portumna Show.
I remember him competing in the Champion High Stone Wall competition at Loughrea Show. If you could not see him, you certainly could hear him encouraging his horse over it. He had a short but successful career point-to-pointing, winning the Blazers Members Race on Binhigh, bought from his brother-in-law Patsy Corcoran, against a horse especially shipped over from England by Claude Fore. Willie won at a nice touch of 25 to 1. Claude gave him his horse the following week, and Willie won on him also. He also won the last race over the banks course in East Galway.
Hunter Hirelings
Willie had a gift for matching a horse with a rider, and through his positive encouragement got many riders to achieve much more than they thought they were capable of. He built up a huge hunter hireling business, supplying horses to visitors from the US and Europe to the Blazers, East Galway, the Birmingham & North Galway, the Ormond, and more recently the Grallagh Harriers.
One remarkable hunter was Willie’s second purchase named Dan. He was a chestnut Traditional Irish Draught horse―a real utility horse doing all the farm work and hunted by people from all over the world. I hunted him a few times myself, and although he galloped with his head down, he would never stop at a wall. Of course, riders had no say once they pointed him at an obstacle.
As Willie had no horse transport in the early days of the 1950s―before he bought a Volkswagen Beetle car and an old single horse trailer―all the hunters left his farm in Aille Cross in the early morning, hacked by road to meets sometimes up to five to twenty miles away. He had a few stalwart helpers like his friend Pat O’Neill and myself, amongst others.
We would take three horses each, riding the one in the middle and ponying one on each side. There were late nights hacking home, but there was less traffic on the road, and you would look forward to the lights of the odd car. Our reward was a hunt if one of the people hiring a horse got tired early in the afternoon, which was usually the case if people were hunting for the week. The late nights caught up with them!
The formula was simple. Christy Hynes washed and plaited the horses, Frank Burke schooled them, and Willie collected the money! As the operation grew and finances improved, especially with sales, Willie, heading the Blazers’ followers three days a week as Field Master, acquired a couple of trucks for transport. Willie sold horses all over the world and often followed up with hunting trips to the USA where he had many happy owners. In some cases, he delivered the horses himself and made sure they settled in well.
Willie treasured old values. I was thinking about that recently, particularly the concept of the ‘Meiteail.’ That’s the old Gaelic word for coming together, working for each other, or a collective effort, which was evident in Willie’s business model. He employed some people but had as many more volunteers who wanted to be with Willie because it was fun. They learned about all aspects of horsemanship, the history of the horse, and old farming methods and cures. Hundreds of young people over the years spent every spare hour in Willie’s stables, including many from the town of Loughrea like myself. We were encouraged to try our hands at everything, and many later went on to be jockeys, trainers, showjumpers, equine lecturers, and even journalists! Willie never saw anybody stuck for a horse or a pony, and if you had your own and had no transport, he would load your pony on his truck to a hunt or a show. This spirit of community and coming together was evident again this week when many of those young lads, now men, who spent time in Willie’s stables volunteered to dig Willie’s grave. He would be so proud of them.
Connemara Trail
Willie loved Connemara and would stop to talk to locals and children and admire sunrises, sunsets, the Wild Atlantic, and nature in all its forms. But he was ahead of his time as he really developed the concept of the ‘Greenway’ or ‘Bridleway’ fifty years ago using the old railway line from Galway to Clifden, which is all the fashion now. He got the idea to pioneer trekking in the West with his Connemara Trail when standing in his stable yard looking at all his hunters with their heads over the stable doors after the hunting season had ended. He thought there may be people out there who do not hunt but would be interested in exploring the rugged and picturesque landscapes of Connemara on horseback.
He went into the Irish Tourist Office in Galway and asked them to keep him in mind if they got any enquiries. They were back to him quickly with twenty-six French visitors. Foreign languages were not a problem to Willie as it is well known that Willie’s charm translated easily to any language! It started in 1969 from Barna, where he kept his horses in a field belonging to my parents for a short time before he bought land in Connemara. Today, more than fifty years later, the Trail runs along the old railway line, over bogs, mountains, and beaches, much of it only accessible on horseback, which ordinary tourist never sees. Willie would give a running commentary on the sights, the heritage, and flora and fauna. Willie brought prosperity to Connemara hoteliers as his visitors stay in the top luxury hotels, sampling the best food and Irish hospitality along the way. Such is its popularity that many people re-book a year in advance. Some visitors have been coming back for decades.
Connemara Ponies
Willie got into Connemara Ponies quite by accident and now has the largest herd in the world with customers all over Europe and North America. His most talented and successful pony stallion was Grange Finn Sparrow, who sired many top showjumping, showing, and eventing ponies before being shipped to the USA for an outstanding career. Willie kept his progeny from the time Sparrow stood in Ireland, and his stallions run with the mares on the hills of Connemara. Today if you visit Dartfield near Loughrea, you will see part of the herd, with mares and foals grazing in the Horse Park.
Dartfield Horse Park & Museum
Dartfield is a twenty-thousand-square-foot purpose-built complex on 350 acres. In the reception, there is a smashing painting by Paddy Walsh of Willie with his Irish Draught stallion Baladin, bred by Chantal Deon out of her great All-Ireland Champion Mare, Brehon Lass. Willie’s vision of heritage, history, and tradition come together with a unique tribute to the Irish Horse and Connemara Pony and the Galway Blazers in the walk-through exhibition. Visitors were assured of a great welcome: a cup of tea and a chat with Willie, Andrea, and Joe.
Dartfield is popular for tours, especially schools, as it traces the evolution of the horse and farming to the present day. It has a rare collection of farm implements, tack, stable equipment, and carriages, including the Mountbatten family carriage and one of soprano Jenny Lind’s, who was known as the ‘Swedish Nightingale.’ She was famous in America, where she performed concerts promoted by P.T. Barnum, the central character of the recent film, The Greatest Showman.
Dartfield has a tack shop and café, and horses and ponies are available for riding on the farm across a wide range of cross-country fences. Many are also for sale.
Willie’s Legacy
Meeting Willie’s family this week, they were understandably distraught at the loss of their irreplaceable father who shaped them into the fine family they are today. But his many clients around the world will be delighted to know that his children have vowed to pick up the reins and build on his legacy so that it will endure. So the horse and pony enterprise will continue, as will the Connemara Pony Trail, Dartfield Horse Park and Museum, and hiring of hunters to visitors to the Galway packs.
Final Farewell
The funeral mass was said by Monsignor Geraghty assisted by Father Clarke, Fr. Sweeney and Fr. Lawless. Willie’s daughter Dorothy thanked everybody for their support and recited the poem, “The Old Brown Horse.” Willie’s remains were escorted by mounted family outriders to the church. In Kilnadeema Cemetery, his son-in-law Liam McAlinden, huntsman of the East Galway Hounds, blew ‘Gone Away’ on the hunting horn in the shadow of the coverts of Knockash and Coorheen where Willie led the followers of the Blazers for many decades.
Willie is survived by his loving wife Moira, sons Declan, Justin, and William and daughters Dorothy and Marguerite, his sister Peggy and brothers Vincent and Jimmy, much loved grandchildren and his extended family, neighbours, and friends.
Sadly we will never see the likes of him again.
Codladh Samh (Gaelic for ‘Sleep Well’), Willie, and thank you for so many wonderful memories.
Posted September 29, 2021