CO Tipperary-based Conor Higgins was delighted to have been asked to judge the hunters at Balmoral this year along with Britain’s Michaela Bowling.

On Wednesday and Thursday, he met up with Philip Scott at whose Barnfield House Equestrian Centre outside Ballina, Co Mayo he learned to ride. Scott judged the breeding and youngstock sections with Britain’s Richard Ramsay and the Connemara flat and working hunter classes with Mairead Ryan.