About Us

Slieve Aughty Riding Centre is proud to present our friendly and helpful team who are here to ensure your holiday is a memorable experience.

Esther Zyderlaan, owner and manager of the Slieve Aughty Centre, settled in Ireland in the early 1970's.

Originally from Holland, she began to build her dream of a holiday riding centre with a "home away from home" feeling.  Since that time the Slieve Aughty Centre has grown to serve more interests and a greater number of guests.

You can often find Esther in her wellies digging in the garden or sipping a glass of wine in the restaurant in the evening.

Merel Zyderlaan, Esther's daughter and partner in ownership, grew up at the Slieve Aughty Centre.

An accomplished rider, she has ridden and trained numerous horses over the years, including many of the centre's dependable mounts.

Merel also has a talent for the arts and over the years has taken more interest in interior design, special event coordination and marketing.

If you don't see Merel around, she is probably travelling abroad or spending the weekend at a festival with friends.

Gerry Moran has worked at Slieve Aughty Centre for over 20 years.  Born and raised a few kilometres from the centre, Gerry has been leading treks and charming guests since the centre's modest beginning.  In his spare time, Gerry is a true horseman and is never far from a stable, horse sale or competition.

Guests benefit from his previous experience training young horses and show jumpers during lessons and rides and Gerry has discovered many of the centre's horses and ponies.

Jana Moran began her career at Slieve Aughty Centre as a guest, coming back year after year.  Originally from Germany, she and her mare Suzie moved to Ireland in 2001.  Jana and Gerry are the proud parents of Kevin, born in September 2006.  Kevin keeps Jana busy when she is not leading treks at the centre, but she still finds time to "horse around" whenever she can.

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Gerry Daniels brings his years of horsemanship, enthusiasm and endless energy to share with guests and staff at Slieve Aughty.  Gerry has been working at the centre for over 20 years and often provides additional horses during the busy summer months.

When he is not at Slieve Aughty, Gerry is busy training horses, preparing his hounds for the first autumn hunt, or supporting his children at one of their equestrian competitions.  At the end of a long day, Gerry is great company over a pint at any of the cosy local pubs.

Tracie Burroughs arrived at Slieve Aughty Centre during the summer of 2007.  Having visited the centre 2 years previously, she fell in love with Ireland' beauty and people, the guests and the horses.  Tracie is from Colorado and has been riding and caring for horse all her life.

As the stable manager, she is responsible for organising the daily rides and weekly lessons, looking after the horses and ponies and developing children's holiday curriculum.  She and her little boy, Shea, and her dog, Aiko, love to hike, camp and swim.  Tracie always has music playing when she is not working and has a secret passion for dancing and bluegrass music.

Josephine Allendorf grew up in Germany and Central America, where she studied Archaeology and English Literature.  She then moved to London where she worked for Lastminute.com and later ran the website of the British Museum.

Leaving behind a hectic lifestyle, Josephine has since fled the city to seek tranquillity in the Galway countryside where she lives with her 2 dogs, Floppy and Bouncy, some equines, 2 chickens and a duck.  Josephine is a BHSAI instructor teaching riding lessons at the centre.

Jeremy Castle, who runs the English Language Programmes at Slieve Aughty, is the director of the Shannonside Language Centre, which is recognised by the Irish Department of Education.  He has been designing and supervising English Language courses for children and adults for many years and is a specialist in the field of Business English.

Jeremy is also the author of a number of EFL books and has specially designed the syllabus of the holiday language courses at Slieve Aughty.

Meet Paraic Bergin, Slieve Aughty Centre's Marketing and Business Consultant since November 2008.  Paraic brings his expertise in finance and business development to the Centre and has been an integral part of Slieve Aughty's success through the recession.  He has conducted 2 well-attended marketing workshops here and currently sponsors Pearl, one of our friendly, older horses.

Paraic is the Regional Director for the Alchemy Network in Ireland and London, so he divides his time between work here and in the UK.  Paraic is based in Mullingar, where he resides with his beautiful family, including his wife Clare, 6 children, 2 cats and 2 happy canines.