Name: Fiona Payne

Age: 22

From: Foxrock, South Dublin.

Parents: Christopher and Sandra.

Who has been your greatest supporters to date? Without my parents supporting me I would not be where I am today. Every weekend in their spare time, they take me to shows and spend hours waiting for me to take my turn to jump. Although my dad Christopher is not horsey, he really tries his best to get involved and support me. My mum Sandra is my number one supporter. She mucks out, tacks up my horses, fixes my jumps in the warm-ups, without her I would not have my amazing horses. I am truly grateful that I have parents who want to help me to achieve my goals.

Horses: HVL Dream Machine is a nine-year-old gelding I have since he was a wild two-year-old and have brought on slowly.

Orestus Hollow, a six-year-old gelding. We bought Hollow broken last year and we are getting him ready to compete this year.

Orestus Diamond, a three-year old daughter to Orestus Hollow – the plan is to compete her next year in the four-year-old classes.

Who is your trainer? Taylor Vard

SJI Academy mentor: Johnny O’Connell

What has been your biggest achievement to date? Over the years I have ridden various types of horses. I have competed in open hunter trials with good results. I have also competed in E100 Eventing Ireland. My horse Dream is only competing properly the last two seasons and our biggest success was last year at Millstreet International 2019. It was our first time at Millstreet, he did very well in Amateur and 1.10m Ladies classes. I was very pleased how he took on the atmosphere. Dream and I compete most weekends jumping 1.10-1.15m and doing very well. I am delighted Dream and I were second in the AIRC Awards’ South Leinster Show Jumping Award 2019, representing Enniskerry Riding Club. Another achievement is taking on various racehorses and turning their lives around from unrideable and excitable horses to riding horses. A bond with a horse for me is more of an achievement than any height of fence a horse will jump.

What are your goals? For the 2020 season my goals are to get Dream up to 1.20-1.30m height, while also training and jumping my new purchase Hollow. While Hollow is very green and has raw talent, I’m hoping to get out competing with him by the end of the season. Prada will be ready to go next year for the four-year-old classes in 2021.

What, in your opinion, would help the sport horse industry in Ireland? In my opinion, the national media coverage of our sport is very poor. I think once a week there should be a dedicated hour -long TV programme of what is going on with our local, national and international riders, entertainment, education and the dedication our sport takes, this will not only encourage the younger generation to get involved, it will help people all over the country to understand what you need to be doing to get yourself and your horse to the level you want to get to.

Fiona Payne was in conversation with Emer Bermingham