I HAVE always had a great love for horses and ponies, having lived on studs growing up as my father was a stud manager. My mother made me do my Leaving Cert and a secretarial course, just to hopefully get me away from going down the horse road and away from being as poor as a church mouse, but it wasn’t to be.

My interest in showing started with working on the Carrickhill pony stud, first during summer months and then fulltime after school, where I learnt everything from stallion handling to broodmares, foals, ridden ponies and the hunters in winter.