I’VE always loved horses and started riding lessons as a child in McGarry’s (now Sligo Riding Centre), which started my lifelong love affair with horses.

Horses were obviously in my blood. My mother’s paternal family – the Heffernans and Knoxs – were steeped in horses and breeding. My grand-uncle George Heffernan was on the 1937 winning Nations Cup team in Aachen and his brother Mark was the Army’s team vet.