I STARTED off in Simmonscourt for quite a few years and I really enjoyed that. The year that Col Ringrose become President, he mentioned to me would I do the main arena. That was in 1998; the time has passed far too quickly.

I was main arena director for a long number of years and as horses became more valuable and with more expected from the riders, I felt there should be an RDS person in there with me. At that stage, the title changed to chief steward of the main arena and that has worked very well.

We have some great helpers who are there from early morning ‘til late evening. We really try to keep the standard up. Dublin Horse Show is unique in that we really have rules that other shows might not have, such as dress code when walking the course; riders can’t walk the course with a cup of coffee, it doesn’t look good. It always causes an issue at the beginning of the week for the pocket stewards but come the second or third day, the riders know they have to be properly dressed.

People wouldn’t believe what happens, we do a complete rehearsal of the Nations Cup parade with all the flags and the band and run through the whole thing, which means everybody involved on the day should know, come Friday Aga Khan day, what is happening.

The days are long, our morning meeting starts at 7am. My day starts at about 5am and I get into the RDS about 6.30am, check out the main arena to see that everyone is happy. I don’t leave the main arena until the last thing has happened, until everything is absolutely finished; it could be about 8pm.

I try not to take my eye off the main arena at all if possible. I will have it in my sight 99% of the week.

Most of my day would be in the committee box under the judges’ box and I also spend a lot of time in the judges’ box communicating with them. There is a tremendous team in there as well and they keep me right at times.

Giving back

I enjoy every minute of it, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t. I was very fortunate to get a lot out of horses and it was a great opportunity when someone asked me, to really give something back. It is a very nice thing to do. When I was riding and competing a lot of horses, I didn’t quite understand the pressure others were under to try and run the show. Now I am on the other side, I know that pressure; we are down to minutes and seconds especially on television days.

There is certainly a great team of volunteers there that help run the show and without their help, people would realise the show couldn’t happen because it would just be too expensive. Such wonderful horse people who are there for all the right reasons are involved.

In terms of memorable moments, any time Ireland won the Nations Cup… that atmosphere and that day when that happens, nothing can equal that, it is just amazing. To be involved in the main arena and the presentation of an Irish winning team, they are the memorable events that take place over the years that are hard to equal.