AMONG the many Irish spectators at last week’s Badminton Horse Trials were Co Meath farrier Anthony Lynch and his wife, Caroline, who produces young horses on the eventing, performance and dressage circuits.

The couple spent the few days in the company of Trim native Linda Woodward (nee Perle) and her husband Chris, who live in Suffolk and travelled to the event with their dog Murphy. Caroline, who takes up the story, and Linda once worked for the late Frances Cash.

“Linda was doing just a summer job so she finished and was going off to college when I arrived at the yard in October 1988 to work full-time, having jumped for the season in Switzerland as Caroline Condon. We hit it off straight away and she stayed in The Moy at weekends with me and Frances for a while. I was only meant to work there for six months but, two weeks after arriving, I met Anthony and, when we got married, Linda was my bridesmaid!”

Caroline attended Badminton just days after filling the reserve spot in the Festival supreme working hunter horse championship at the Northern Ireland Festival on Lucy Durack’s six-year-old Kingstown Cavalier mare Beenandunit. Today, she is competing at the Dressage Ireland Eastern Region show in Marlton with her own and Robert McHugh’s Moylough Legacy mare Hio Easter Rose, who will then be aimed at the Dublin Irish Draught performance qualifiers.