HAVING a cheerful word with exhibitors down along the line at the end of a class is one of judge Clare Oakes trademarks and it was no different at Ballinasloe in September 2016. “Smiling through the torrential showers was Clare Oakes who deftly judged the opening championship,” read the show report in The Irish Field the following Saturday about Oakes judging of the All Ireland two-year-old Connemara filly final, won by the Walsh family’s Moyabbey Twilight.

Earlier that month and as told last week, Clare’s daughter Susan had sustained a brain injury when her side saddle broke during a warm up session before the Central Park Horse Show in New York. “She will be fine,” predicted her mother that day. A positive outlook runs in the family DNA and anecodtes involving Connemara ponies are never that far away either.