IT has been a joy and a privilege to have had a lifelong passion for horses. My parents always said that the first sentence I ever uttered was “I want a pony”! Horses, and specifically event horses, have taken me to wonderful places and taught me so much about how to handle challenges, both within the equestrian world and in the wider world.

My husband Frank and I moved to the Mellon Stud in Co Limerick in 1997 and horses were the primary reason for our move. Frank pursued his love of National Hunt horses and I began to germinate the idea of a sport horse breeding program.