IF there’s another Galwegian who has seen the changes, not only in bloodlines but buying patterns, its Gabriel Horan. A succcessful producer of young horses, he has attended the Ballinasloe Fair since the 1960s. It’s a tradition he and sister Geraldine continue, one started by their late parents, the well-known Billy and Breda Horan.

Billy, a butcher by trade, and the ever-stylish Breda, a shrewd judge too, were a familiar sight for decades at shows in the west of Ireland.