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The late, great Puissance – a stallion with a special legacy *H&H Plus*


  • Following the news that successful sire Puissance has died at the age of 32, here is an exclusive feature (first published in our sport horse breeding special issue in March 2019) in which Pippa Roome visited Ballyquirke Stud, Co. Kilkenny to meet the stallion, his son Imperial Tiger and Michael Hutchinson, the man responsible for them both...

    TWENTY-SEVEN years is longer than many marriages last, but Michael Hutchinson’s relationship with his star stallion Puissance is continuing strongly well into its third decade.

    “I always loved the horse because he always kept you thinking as a rider,” says Michael. “He’s been good to me, so it’s my job now at this stage of his life to be good to him.”

    Puissance is 31 years old and he sports patches of grey on his face and neck, but he heads off for a roll and a buck about when Michael turns him out in the field.

    “A stallion’s got to get out in open space every day,” says Michael. “Generally my stallions are quiet because they get to blow off their steam in the paddock. I’ve always believed that if you give competition horses a certain amount of freedom they tend to be happier horses — and it’s the same with stallions.”

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