MICHAEL’S AT HOME ON THE RANGE Irish cowboy turns farm into Wild West ranch complete with saloon
Mick Lacumbre, who stars in RTE series Stetsons And Stilettos, reveals how he has his own piece of Americanstyle frontier in the Midlands with the Fossey Mountain Springs Western Riding Ranch.
He is among a small but growing community of horse lovers who live their lives cowboy-style.
Mick said: “No matter what time of the day you see me this is who I am. I’m a cowboy at heart.
“I always wanted to have a cowboy town, so I built my own. We have a jailhouse and a boot store.
“We teach people to rope. There’s not that many roping in Ireland.
“It’s illegal to rope cattle in Riders at ranch in the Midlands Ireland unless you have a breakaway rope which I have.”
The only thing missing on the Laois ranch is cattle but the site is technically a riding school although the saloon and roping lessons give it the feel of a working farm.
Irish horse-lover Niall Bradley is also obsessed with everything cowboy and western.
He added: “I had a brain haemorrhage 15 years ago and I was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital and I don’t know if they planted a horse’s hair in my brain but from then I’ve been crazy about horses.” He reveals how he has been competing with his horses in the All-ireland Western Horse Championships which are held in Co Leitrim. Niall added: “There are quite a lot of riders in it. It’s the love of the horses and the whole cowboy thing goes with it. “They get on their Stetson and go show a horse. We try to make it look easy but it’s not.
“It’s one of the hardest disciplines because you are only allowed to use one hand.”
Daughter Danielle said people in the area do double takes when they see her cowboy dad walking down the street.
She added: “It is very unusual to have a daddy that is a cowboy that lives in Ireland because they are normally from America.
“When he is walking down the street with a cowboy hat on him, everybody is looking at him.”
Wife Jackie said he “eats, sleeps, drinks horses”.
She added: “He works day and night, morning, noon and night, seven days a week.”
Stetson And Stilettos will be shown on RTE One on Tuesday at 7pm.
Saloon at the Fossey Mountain Springs, Niall Bradley and the Sundance Hotel
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