Welcome to Sycamore Stables

Sycamore Stables is the home of the WKD show-jumping team, consisting of Joanne Sloan Allen, and Sameh El Dahan.

Location

Set in the beautiful green hills of Co Antrim, N. Ireland, only 15 mins from Belfast International Airport, 20 mins from Belfast City Airport and 2 hours from Dublin international Airport, it is ideally located for customers wishing to come and visit and try out our large stock of sport horses.

Facilities

Our large Andrews Bowen sand arena, the same surface as the London Olympics, our beautiful purpose built grass arena, and full set of international standard jumps, mean that clients can try as many horses as they wish in comfort and privacy, with also the possibility of horses being brought in from surrounding areas if we have nothing suitable in stock ourselves.This makes Sycamore Stables truly a “one stop” shop for all your equestrian needs!

Services

We can also arrange visits from local saddlery suppliers giving clients the opportunity to have saddles fitted and tack made to measure for their new purchases, and can organise all shipping and transport door to door if required.

We work with many top veterinary practices, and indeed hold several clinics for visiting equine specialists including experts in the field of dentistry and ultra sound diagnostics. All our horses have been vetted prior to competition with us. Of course all potential purchases are also open for pre-purchase vetting, if and when required.

Another service which we offer clients is to avail of the fertile grasslands here in Co.Antrim to start their own breeding programme! - We offer a full package from sourcing the broodmares, putting them in foal, foaling and registering their new Irish Sport Horse, and then eventually shipping the young-stock to their new home – Alternatively we can, of-course produce the resulting offspring to as high a level as the client wishes.....all the fun of raising a home-bred to competition without the hassle!

Of course we also provide training, and indeed have a limited number of top, experienced horses available to loan for some of the popular spring tours – on a first come first served basis.

Clients are more than welcome to come and stay in our purpose built accommodation to try out potential purchases over several days – we understand that buying a horse is a large commitment for most people and we want to make the whole experience as pleasant, memorable and fun! as possible.

So please feel free to browse through our website – these are only a small selection of the horses we have available – with others ranging from broodmares, foals and yearlings right up to 5* horses competing at world cup level always coming through our farms. Both Sam and Joanne can be contacted at any time, and look forward to being of service!

Rider biographies

Sameh El Dahan

Riding for Egypt, Sameh has an amazing depth of experience on the international circuit, competing on the difficult and extremely competitive european circuit for several years, he is currently climbing the Longines rider rankings list at an incredible rate and is a fierce competitor against the clock – combining recently with top speed horse Limelight de Breve to win many top speed classes this season alone.

His strong but sympathetic style enables him to get the best out of his horses and his results speak for themselves. A fantastic producer of horses he has taken many to top level from the start of their career. He is an excellent trainer and whilst in Cairo ran a highly successful academy there, with many of his pupils since going on to make their own mark on the european circuit.

Bi lingual in Arabic and English, Sam has a strong client base in the Middle East and is always happy to hear from new clients wishing to purchase a horse from Europe, or indeed train, but. unsure how to go about it.

Career highlights

• Former Egyptian National Champion
• Voted ESM website international rider of the year 2012
• Qualified for World cup finals s'Hertogenbosch 2012
• Winner of many, many international classes, including recent wins on the Morocco Royal tour 2013, with several top three placings in the World Equestrian games qualifiers and World Cup Qualifying classes.

Joanne Sloan Allen

County Antrim native Joanne, has developed Sycamore Stables over many years, adding on many features such as the sand gallop and grass jumping arena, to make the yard the marvellous facility it is.

Having had the privilege to be based as a young rider in the yards of such olympic greats as David Broome, Peter Charles and Graham Fletcher, to name a few, and training recently with Irish legend Cmdt John Ledingham, she brings a depth of knowledge and experience to the team, and is a regular competitor on the Global Champions invitational tour, and on the international circuit.

Joanne believes in constantly trying to grow and evolve the business, to try and source the quality horses which international clients are looking for, whilst also offering value for money horses at the other end of the scale for weekend and hobby riders. Fluent in French, she has many contacts in the international horse community, loving Irish bred horses and trying as much as possible to promote the Irish Sport Horse industry abroad.

Like Sam she is also available for lessons, with the two of them often taking lessons jointly – each concentrating on a different aspect of the students training.

Her career highlights include:

• many wins on the Global Champions Tour invitational circuit over the years, including leading lady International Rider in the CSI 1* at Cannes International Show 2012
• many placings at international level up to 3 including recent top three placings at the recent Morocco Royal Tour 2013, where she was placed in several ranking classes, including a world cup qualifier. The sourcing and production of many horses from the beginning of their career to top international level, including Heritage Spirit, Wicked Thoughts, Wicked Way, and most recently with WKD Pepperpot, Suma's Zorro, WKD Monaco, Championes and WKD Lexington, plus many many more.

The Team

Together Joanne and Sam offer clients their experience of the international equestrian circuit, invaluable connections to find the right horse to suit, and of course all this being supported by a top infrastructure of staff behind the scenes at sycamore stables, whom the yard couldn't function without. So contact us to see how we might help you today!