Great Broodmares: Stream Lion

Stream Lion, foaled 1974 was Ireland's leading producer of event horses. She was owned by Mrs Patricia Nicholson, Kells Co Meath.

Stream Lion was a daughter of Ideal Water, a son of Water Serpent xx, both sires renowned for producing performance. Her dam was Laughton Lass by Laughton, an Irish Draught and also a reservoir which bred performance.

Mrs Nicholson established herself as a leading breeder of event horses, striking up a relationship with Bruce Davidson in the USA who campaigned a number of her output. Her most successful produce was Eagle Lion, a hunter champion in Dublin, foaled in 1985 by the thoroughbred sire Gipfel xx. His successful stablesmates included Pirate Lion and Regent Lion.

It was a Lucky Buy

“Johnny Doody knew this old lady who had horses, so I’d buy a horse, break them in and sell them on, mostly abroad, usually to Italy. The last time I went down, Johnny said: ‘She hasn’t bred anymore, the lads want their tractors, they don’t want these old proper Irish mares’.

So I said, ‘What’s happening to the mare?” And he said: ‘Oh, she’s going to the factory next week’. And I said ‘No, she’s not. I’ve had four out of her that have gone to Italy and elsewhere, she’s coming home with me.’ I took her home, got her in foal, she bred three beautiful foals and then she had her happy years. And that’s how I got into all that.”

That lucky buy, at factory price money, was Laughton Lass the mother of Stream Lion. The walls are filled with a gallery of photos and framed front covers of her progeny, including one photo of her daughter Stream Lion show jumping with Peter Charles. She was by the Water Serpent xx son Ideal Water, that stood at Knockrath Stud with the late Victor Allen, “a really nice man.”

Stream Lion was ridden by Nicholson's daughter before being handed off to Peter Charles as a show jumper where she jumped to 1.50m Grand Prix level. After her successful career showing, she was kept for breeding.

Her first foal was the 1982 Rennies Boy gelding, named Rebel Lion, who was ridden on the amateur event circuit in Ireland by the Co Kildare rider Donal McKenna.

In all she has had eight offspring: Pirate Lion, Regent Lion, Eagle Lion, and Lion King (all ridden by American eventer Bruce Davidson), the mare Cara Lion who produced Sea Lion and Cruise Lion, a two-year-old colt, a mare currently kept by Patricia for breeding, and a new colt by the stallion Mr. Lord xx. Her four sons ridden by Davidson have had excellent careers at the highest level of eventing. 

With Bruce Davidson Eagle Lion won the Fairhill CCI three star, the Badminton Horse Trials, making him the first American to win the event, and had top placings at many other leading venues.

Eagle Lion was the only horse to complete the four star course at Badminton double clear, no jump penalties, no time penalties, four times. Between the years 1990 and 1998, Eagle Lion gained 1277 points.

There is a statue of the horse and his rider at the Kentucky Horse Park, dating from 2007.

Bruce Davidson had an outstanding career collecting 2 team gold and 2 team silver medals at the Olympics.He was also a two time World Champion.

Mrs Nicholson was acclaimed the world's top event horse breeder by the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses in 1998/99. Her most successful mare Stream Lion produced at least ten foals by a variety of stallions. The foals all carried the Lion suffix. They have been successful performance horses.

Pacific Lion by Ideal Water out of a King of Diamonds mare Kilmoganny won team silver at the Pan American Games in 1995 ridden by Melissa RaneshouSen for the USA.

One of Stream Lion's progeny, Cara Lion was retained as a broodmare. She bred foals by Errigal Flight and Cruising. Nobleesse lion by Tall Noble out of a King of Diamonds mare. Delta Lion bred foals by Special Sharp, Master Imp and Harlequin du Carel.

Pirate Lion won the individual bronze at the World Championships in 1990. He was a son of Patch xx.

Regent Lion by Horos xx, an American bred thoroughbred who stood at Suma Stud. He was by Head of the River xx.

Eagle Lion's sire Gipfel xx stood at Victor Allen's Knockrath stud, Ballinlough, Co Meath, which was also the home of Ideal Water the sire of Stream Lion. Gipfel xx was not a hugely successful sire. He has only 60 foals recorded in the IHR. Eagle Lion was undoubtedly one of his best progeny, if not the best. The Ideal Water (Water Serpent xx) breeding of his dam unquestionably played an important part in Eagle Lion's make up.

Patricia Nicholson pioneered the breeding of event horses in Ireland. Now the successs of Irish bred eventers is taken as a matter of course, but when she set out to plough what was then a fairly lonely furrow, she had a mountain to climb. She climbed to the summit, producing horses which were the envy of the world.

Eagle Lion richly deserves his statue at the Kentucky Horse Park. He was a great challenger, a formidable opponent and it was his luck to have been partnered by a superb horseman, a man who saw the merit of Patricia Nicholsons's breeding enterprise and went back again and again. Patricia Nicholson richly deserved her accolade as the world's leading breeder of event horses. She proved her entitlement by the success of the horses that she bred.

Thanks to Nicholas O'Hare and Patricia Nicholson for this article