A Kerry farmer's horse sense bred successful web business

NOT many of us get to turn our passion into our day job. However, Kerryman Padraig O'Sullivan, mastered it a couple of years ago.

Mr O'Sullivan, developed a love for horses when growing up on the family farm in Caherciveen, Co Kerry. He set up paradering.ie, where you can buy and sell horses online, in 2010 after hearing about the problems that horse trainers and breeders had selling horses at marts.

"You could pay a couple of grand to sell a horse at a mart — when you include vet fees, sales registration fees, transporting the horse to the mart, the cost of preparing the horse to look good on the day of the sale, and commission of about 7.5 per cent — and that's if you sell the horse," he says.

"I have gone to sales myself on a few occasions with horses and have come away disappointed, without having sold.

After spending all that time, money and effort with no reward, it was quite frustrating," Mr O'Sullivan says.

It was this frustration which inspired Mr O'Sullivan to set up paradering.ie — which he says allows people to sell their horses more cheaply than at marts.

He has sold about 100 horses since he founded the company, including those of well known horse trainers.

"We sold the very well bred Bay Swallow for Pat Flynn [1] of Pat Flynn Racing, and sold a filly from Ger Lyons's yard — as well as a point-to-pointer for Grand National winning trainer Jimmy Mangan," says Mr O'Sullivan.

If you are interested in selling your horse contact us now or if you're looking to buy a horse check out our full list here or use the buyers reqeust page

See the article as appeared in the Sunday Independent - http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/a-kerry-farmers-horse-sense-bred-successful-web-business-3350520.html