THE Cuffesgrange Sport Horses team will be minus one family member for some of the competition season as Eamon, who has a keen interest in dairy farming, was one of a half-dozen recipients of a Nuffield Ireland scholarship this year. The scholarship entails a travel bursary and for a study to be completed on a topic of interest, with the Kilkenny farmer opting to study ‘Antibiotic Treatment in Livestock and its link with antibiotic resistance in humans’.

Eamon left on Tuesday to attend the Nuffield Contemporary Scholars Conference in Brasilia, which will be followed by six weeks travel from May through Singapore, China, the Philippines, Denmark, Germany, the USA and UK. Perhaps on his last stop he may have an opportunity to visit Cuffesgrange Little Ric, bred at the family’s stud. Campaigned by Saffron Cresswell, the brilliant pony has been part of two British gold medal-winning teams at the 2015 and 2016 European championships.