Shannon Equine Tours

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About Shannon Equine Tours

Katie and Linda met thirty years ago after an introduction from international three-day rider, Kim Walnes, famous for her mount, “The Grey Goose,” an Irish Sport Horse. Katie traveled to Ireland with her infant daughter, Cailin for the first time in the late 1980s and met Linda and her daughter Sarah, of an almost identical age, and her three-year-old son, Colm. The two women and their children traveled around Ireland in search of Irish Sport Horses to import to the US, eventually founding Shannon Equine Imports. Through their adventures, Linda introduced Katie to the ancient Irish culture, their horses, and imparted the impact they had on the history of Ireland over the span of thousands of years.

Their travels consisted of visits to farms in remote areas where the cliffs of the Atlantic served as the fences that bound the horses and cattle, to local pubs in small villages where pub owners would proudly push aside kegs of Guinness to display several horses they had for sale out back. There were amazing teas, offered by wives of farmers, with scones, homemade jams and cured meats, and experiences that changed Katie in ways that shaped her for the rest of her life. It is from these experiences that Katie and Linda have begun Shannon Equine Tours, to impart the magic of a country and an experience hidden from the average tourist.

Linda Downes: Linda learned to ride from an early age at the riding schools of Captain Hume Dugeon and Iris Kellet in Dublin. She moved to Clare, which proved as a more suitable stable then the suburban gardens of Dublin or her grey cob “The Kerry Man.” Linda met Kim Walnes, who took her under her wing, at a stable yard where she worked. They flew to America with “The Grey Goose,” Linda’s first airline flight -with a horse no less! Over the following years, Linda was a working student for Kim, surrounding the 1984 Olympics. Kim was an inspirational teacher for Linda, shaping her perspective on riding. She worked for a veterinary surgeon in Co. Clare and was privileged to explore the spectacular Clare countryside, byroads and bog roads, meeting interesting people along the way. Over the past 25 years she learnd from and helped her late husband Paddy Downes, a well-respected Irish Shows Association Senior Judge, buy, produce and sell horses for every discipline. Through that experience, she and Katie have enjoyed decades of friendship, selling horses, watching their children grow, and would now like to enable others to enjoy the real Ireland they have grown to love.

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