I AM based in the townland of Cornascriebe, between Markethill and Portadown in Co Armagh. I combine the job of IT Project Manager for Capita PLC and breeding Irish Sport Horses. I was brought up on the Watson family farm in Cornascriebe, where my parents and now my brother run a suckler herd and breed pedigree Charolais cattle. As a child we were all involved in breeding and showing cattle, so it was through this, I got the ‘breeding bug’.

I started breeding in 1989 after I graduated from Queen’s University and got a full-time job and secured my first filly with the help of my father James and a family friend, John Brophy from Co Kilkenny. The three-year-old filly was Trixie Belle, by Diamonds are Trumps out of Trixie Lady (Bahrain) from Ger Burke (Glidawn Stud). We put her in foal immediately and got a filly foal - Cornascriebe Lady - and that was the first horse to carry the Cornascriebe prefix.