MY family were always involved with horses. I understand my grandfather had a half-bred mare which he used to ferry the local parish priest and even the bishop on a trap around the diocese. My father won prizes for broodmares at local shows in Sligo and Roscommon in the 1930s and 1940s.

Horses were king when I was growing up on our farm in Moygara doing the ploughing, mowing, bringing home the turf and for riding and jumping. We bred foals, sold some and retained the odd filly. I probably started breeding performance horses in a more serious way in the 1980s and 1990s.