WILLIAM McMahon and Grace Maxwell Murphy of Craughwell, Co Galway, had much to celebrate after the Royal Three Counties show last week when their home-bred Gleann Rua Monarch bagged a ticket to HOYS.

On what was his UK showing debut, this Moylough Legacy six-year-old won the Small Riding Horse class and was Reserve Champion Riding Horse.

Monarch, who is half-brother to the couple’s 2022 supreme hunter champion, Gleann Rua da Vinci (by Camillo VDL), finished second in the 2024 RDS small riding horse class and was champion at the Western Area IPS Summer Show two weeks ago.

“We were thrilled and honoured to win in such a good company over there,” Maxwell Murphy told The Irish Field.

“That he’s a home-bred who we always felt was special and hoped that he would be a horse that would take us places, means it’s just fantastic when that actually happens.”