SOME 30 years ago, Michael Walsh and his son Martin travelled from West Clare to Goresbridge, where they spotted and secured a three-year-old chesnut filly.

Traditionally bred by local man John Doyle, their new purchase was a daughter of the great Laughtons Flight, and the first recorded foal out of the Sky Boy-sired Kyle Flower. This foray proved to be a fortuitous one, as not only did the filly turn out to represent Ireland as a show jumper, she significantly generated the now famous Shannondale prefix.