Tully Cross Farm
Westminster, Maryland

by Lara Bricker

REPRINTED FROM THE EQUINE Journal (Subscribe Today)

When Susan Yates started grooming for her neighbor
and event rider Lauren Hart O’Brien in the late 1980s, she
didn’t have any experience with the Irish Draught breed
on which Lauren competed. But once she
got to know Lauren’s horse, known as
“Locky,” she fell in love with the breed.

“Once I found the Irish Draught, I found
home,” says Susan, who with her husband
Charles now owns Tully Cross Farm, one of
the few specialized Irish Draught breeding
operations in the country. “They are so
intelligent and so kind. The temperaments
on these horses are just heaven. We have
quite a few studs here now and you can
walk out into the field with any of them.”
 

The 83-acre farm in Westminster,
Maryland, is home to four purebred Irish
Draught stallions, four purebred mares and
some half-bred horses. They are surrounded
on both sides by preserved farmland and
have a 12-stall barn and a four-stall stallion
barn.

Tully Cross Farm is strictly a breeding
operation with services for outside mares to
stay for both breeding and foaling.

The farm
also sells a certain number of foals bred on
the farm each year. “Our farm offers stallion
service, breeding, foaling, mare care,” Susan
states. “All of our stalls are on closed circuit
tv to the house. We have a vet on call 24
hours a day.”

Susan, a former emergency room nurse
who now works as a hospice nurse, has
always had horses in her life. Up until she
met Lauren, she had dabbled mostly in
Quarter Horses. Her husband Charles was
an immigration lawyer until recently when
he gave it up and decided to stay home to
work on the farm.

Tully Cross emerged as a breeding operation
after Susan fell in love with the Irish
Draught breed, and bought and imported
the gelding Master Tullibards in 2001. The
farm is actually named after Master
Tullibards, who tragically died after being in
a shipping accident only a year after he
arrived. Tully Cross is also a small village in
Ireland.

The Yateses are committed to growing
the breed in this country, where there are
only about 400 registered Irish Draught
horses. The breed is considered a rare
breed, and when some hear the pronunciation
of the breed (which sounds like “draft”)
they mistakenly think they are work horses.
“A lot of people just don’t know what it is,”
Susan says. She works to educate the public
about the breed.

“This is a riding horse. They all excel in
practically everything. They can do it all, they can be the
family horse, they can be the competition horse,” she says.
“They’re good for beginners and they’re good for
advanced riders. They’re immensely talented.”
The breed is successful in many disciplines. “They drive.
They jump. They do dressage. They’re very versatile horses.
That’s what they were bred to be by the Irish people,”
Susan explains, adding the breed had to be able to work
the fields, pull a cart and be ridden by a family. “It had to
work for every aspect and that was what brought that
breed together.”

The star of the farm is the grey stallion It’s the Luck of
the Irish (“Lucky”). He has been extremely successful in
the jumpers at “A” rated shows along the east coast under
rider and trainer Martin Deer of Oak Hill Farm.
“He’s trained our horses for the jumper world and has
been very successful,” Susan says of Martin. “He’s from
Ireland originally, he knows the breed and he knows the
horse and he does a phenomenal job.”

Under Martin’s direction, Lucky excelled in the jumpers
from the start. “He really only started his competitions last
year and went up to fifth level jumpers,” states Martin,
adding he is going to compete in eventing as well.
“Lucky is your classic Irish Draught stallion. He produces
a significant jumping line, his father’s a rated
European jumping stallion. He also produces these wonderful
family horses.”

The other top stallion offered at Tully Cross is the bay
stallion Abbeyleix Brian Boru, who is competing in the
jumpers as well and soon in eventing. The two other stallions
at the farm are yearlings that the Yates plan to bring
along. Before they can be considered registered stallions,
they must pass an inspection by inspectors who will travel
to the United States from Ireland.

But it’s not all about the stallions at Tully Cross, which
has four top mares that they use for breeding. Bridon Lady
Luck, a 2001 mare who is by It’s the Luck of the Irish and
out of Di Lady, took home top honors at the annual Irish
Draught Breed Show in September of 2006 in Port Jervis,
New York. The mare was named the Supreme Irish
Draught Champion after placing first in the Four-and-Over
Mares, the Best Purebred Mare and the Best In Hand.

Buyers are able to purchase offspring from the farm’s
horses each year if breeding their own mare is not an
option. “With a small band of horses, genetic diversity is a
tough thing to work on and that’s one of our goals,” the
Yateses say of their breeding operation. They believe that
the days of the $10,000 foal are over and price their young
stock so that people can afford them. “When you come to
us, we’re honest to a fault and we price our horses reasonably,”
“Susan says. “We want these horses out to the public.
We price our horses to the people who are going to give
them the best home. We’re more interested in getting the
breed out there than we are turning it into a high dollar
situation.”

At the end of the day, the Yateses have two sayings that
sum up Tully Cross Farm. “One is, ‘It’s about the horses.
They are the priority,’” she says. “The other is, ‘Exceptional
temperament, exceptional talent.’”
For more information about Tully Cross Farm and the Irish Draught Horse,

 contact
 

Charles and Susan Yates
Westminster, MD
410-871-2825
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