MICHAEL Duffy (22), the sole rider representing the Irish senior show jumping team at Wednesday’s press conference, described his recent rise to the top ranks of the sport as “an incredible honour”.

The Galway man, who was named as part of the squad with Belcanto Z for the first points-scoring Nations Cup of 2017 in La Baule next week, said: “I am very thankful to get the chance to ride on these teams.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky, there are plenty of good riders, so just to get the opportunities to showcase myself, it is an incredible honour. At the start of the year I would never have dreamt I would be sitting where I am today or on the teams that I am.

“These things happen and we can only make the most of them. My horse (Belcanto Z) is in incredible form, he’s in the form of his life, and hopefully we can just keep the results coming, keep moving forward and keep pushing on. We all have our dreams and aspirations so we have to do our best to fulfil them.”

Of Rodrigo Pessoa, Duffy said: “To have a man of his calibre, the wealth of knowledge that he possesses, and to have access to that is incredible. He is very forthcoming with it, he is incredibly easy to talk to. First impressions last week were great, the team spirit was good and we all pulled together, it was fantastic.”