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Welcome to Kennedy Equine Centre, home of the Kennedy Family.

Kennedy Equine Centre was first named in 1992 with the opening to the public of our riding school & livery facilities. The stud side of the business started in Caherwisheen just after we moved to Tralee in 1986. Glidawn Diamond returned to the yard in the Spring of ’87 to take residence as our first stallion to stand at Caherwisheen Stud. He holds the coveted position as the founding sire of our bloodlines & hopefully he will do so well into the future. As the first years at stud rolled by the yard became known as ‘Kennedys’, when the school opened it followed that we were known as ‘Kennedy Equine Centre’ & hence when our stock started jumping, the horses carried the ‘K.E.C.’ prefix, jumping in all the young horse classes. Some of our exports still jump under the K.E.C. prefix; K.E.C. Double Diamond in the U.S., K.E.C. Destiny, K.E.C. Texas in Italy & K.E.C. Saras Diamond in Barbados! We have expanded the Stud, now including top class stallions; Aldatus Z, Glidawn Diamond, Corghano,Sunny Boy,Marmite D’or , K.E.C. Bluejay Diamond ,Oke Boy & NEW For 2006 were KEC Maximum Joe & Olympian, Defi Platiere & Chaoca returned to the yard for the 2006 season, after a couple of years away. Maltstriker has now retired but has left us with is youngsters. New for the 2007 Season is the KWPN & IHR registered StallionLancelotwho has just arrived in Ireland.

The origins of this Family Business goes back much further. We are the fourth generation in horse on both sides of the family. William Kennedy’s father, Michael Kennedy & grand father stood stallions going back to the War Years & Anna Kennedy’s father Bill Spring stood stallions & her great grand uncles bred the infamous ‘Pharlap’ in New Zealand after emigrating in their youth.

The Public Riding School has now closed to concentrate on the stud & the production of our young horses. Most of the horses we compete are conceived, born, reared, broken & ridden on Kennedy property. K.E.C. Alicante, Champion 4 Year Old in ’03, was born in Caherwisheen, his dam line goes back with our family almost 30 years! We pride ourselves on producing horses for the ever changing market & we aim to produce horses for riders of all grades, from the amateur rider to the professional.

The Horse Industry is moving very quickly, it is now an international business. We are continuously evolving our business to produce the Irish Sport Horse that can compete with the big ‘Power Jumpers’ produced from Continental Lines. We have produced some top class horses in the past such as Diamond Exchange & Coolcorran Cool Diamond. We are continuing our breeding policy by importing Top Class Continental Bloodlines to cross with our Irish Sport Horse Mares to produce power, but more importantly, trying to keep the agile mind & technique of the Irish Draught.

The yard is always very busy, running in the annual cycle, Stud Season from Febuary to July, Shows from March to November, September to Christmas; weaning, breaking the 3 year olds; sales and maybe a holiday!

We always have a wide variety of horses for sale from Foals to Competition Horses. Please feel free to contact us if you have any queries on any of the items included on the site.

Our new yard, Kennedy’s Doohyle House Stud, is opening on Saturday 17th February with SJAI Shows, see SJAI Bulletin for schedule. This is a new facility just 20 minutes from Limerick City & is 1km off the Rathkeale by-pass on the Pallaskenry Road. It has state of the art facilities and will produce our youngsters for Showjumping & Eventing. It is based on 110 acres of the finest rolling limestone land & will give us more space & scope to expand into bigger shows & more facilities for training our young horses. We hope to also provide training clinics & working student training for young riders from at home & abroad. Please stay tuned for more news & information in the New Year. The Stud business will remain in Tralee for the 2007 Season. If you are interested in a Working Student Placement please contact us.