Ado Moran, huntsman with the Carlow Farmers, sold Sam Salad (Lot 17) to Co Wicklow’s Susan Fitzpatrick for €20,000 at this year’s Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale in November. The eye-catching five-year-old palomino gelding is by the Connemara Pattys’ Veuve Cosmic out of Edward Norris’s thoroughbred mare Dancing At Lunasa (by Sharifabad).

Ado and his brothers Robert, Ciaran and Mike are all heavily involved in horses and often work together when producing young horses. Before the success of Sam Salad at Goresbridge, Mike and Ado’s horse, Loughmogue Miracle Star (by O.B.O.S. Quality 004), was guided to victory by Mike at this year’s Dublin Horse Show in the Working Hunter horse class for five and six-year-olds before the pair also went on to become reserve working hunter champions.

Shortly after the Dublin Horse Show, Ado and brother Ciaran of MK Sport Horses visited Co Kilkenny breeder Edward Norris and from a field of five horses the brothers went home with two each – Sam Salad was not among them.

Ado was in the market for hunters and it wasn’t until, his friend and treasurer of the Carlow Farmers’ Hunt, Jerry Tobin approached him about going into partnership on a nice young horse that Ado thought Sam Salad might fit the bill.

Too good to leave behind

“Jerry left it to my judgement, so I went back down to Kilkenny for Sam Salad,” Ado began.

“He was a very free moving horse when I saw him that day in the field, a very correct model and my first impressions of him were very positive, but it was September, almost time for hunting, and I wasn’t really in the market for a competition horse. Though I did have the feeling that he was too good to leave behind,” Ado continued.

“He wasn’t bought with the intention of selling him at the Go For Gold Sale, but he progressed so nicely I thought he could make the sale. I got him ready for the selection day and then when hunting started up again he went to MK Sport Horses where Alyson Keane took up the ride.”

Commenting on Sam Salad’s arrival, Keane who runs MK Sport Horses with Ado’s brother Ciaran said: “It was just common sense that a girl ride him, because he was that smaller type and he had an attitude to die for, just the perfect lady’s ride.

“I rode him at his first one-day-event after he was selected for Go For Gold and he was double clear in the intro class at Ballon. He took to it like a duck to water, he just has the perfect attitude. If you could bottle his attitude and sell it you would be a millionaire,” Keane continued.

Sam Salad’s new owner Susan Fitzpatrick is “delighted” with her purchase and hopes that “he will make a good all-rounder that will go and do some jumping, dressage and hunting”. When asked what about Sam Salad caught her eye, Susan said: “He was very nicely produced – he was broken nicely and that was key. I have high hopes for him in the future.”

Sound advice

Ado’s advice to those buying and selling horses on a small scale is to “get to know people, hunting is a great way and people tip you off then about a nice horse they might have seen”.

“Everyone has a different opinion about what a nice horse is, but most importantly you have to like them – grand is just not good enough. You have to believe that you will have someone to buy the horse before you buy him. I knew Sam was going to suit anyone, he’s no one trick pony.

“His breeding wasn’t recorded when I bought him, so there was a lot of work to be done to get the green book but it was worth it – he wouldn’t have been in that sale without it and there was easily €10,000 of a difference in his sale price because his pedigree was recorded.

“Sam Salad’s sale just goes to show that the small fella can have success at the big sales it’s not just the big eventing yards.”

The name: A young nephew of Ado’s girlfriend, named Sam wanted to call a horse after himself and hence Ado’s purchase was called Sam Salad.

Breeding: Sam Salad is by the Connemara Pattys’ Veuve Cosmic out of the thoroughbred mare Dancing At Lunasa.