MY interest in horses started as a very small boy. In fact, I think I could ride before I could walk!

My earliest memories are competing in lead rein showing classes with moderate results, then moving up through the Pony Club, where my love of eventing started with an amazing pony called Bonny.

Our first outing was a bit of a disaster, as I thought galloping to a drop fence was a good idea, however, Bonny thought otherwise. We were eliminated after that, though we were a great winning combination.

I went to work for Captain George Rich in Leicestershire, where I was privileged to ride some amazing horses. I was hunting four days a week with the Quorn, Cottesmore and Belvoir, which was an amazing cross-country riding apprenticeship.

We also produced some lovely young horses, mostly sourced from Ireland and these were sold all over the world. One particular horse I produced went on to compete on the Olympic show jumping team for Spain.

In East Anglia, where we lived, I had some lovely sport horses of my own and enjoyed competing them in show jumping and eventing. I also loved my hunting and was joint-master of the Suffolk Hunt for 25 seasons.

My daughters both rode extremely well and enjoyed competing and hunting on some cracking ponies. Marianne, my eldest daughter, got the eventing bug and had a number of lovely horses, which she competed up to what is now four-star level.

One of these was Summers Mist and she was the mother of RCA Patron Saint.

We ran a competition yard from the family farm and were fortunate to have some great riders based with us. They competed my horses and gave us some amazing days out, enjoying the wonderful sport of eventing.

10 years ago, I met my wife Tanja at Camphire Horse Trials here in Ireland and we set up Belline Equestrian shortly afterwards. I love Ireland, its people, its amazing horses and would not want to live anywhere else.

1. Congratulations, a magical Badminton result for RCA Patron Saint and Lucy Latta?

Lucy Latta is the Ice Queen! This young lady is very special: her first five-star, first five-star for ‘Paddy’ and they absolutely nail the cross-country and very nearly win the whole competition. Superstars, both of them!

Big thanks must also go to Esib Power and Lucy’s family, Yvonne, Charlie and Andrew for the training and support.

2. Proudest breeder moment?

Badminton 2024 was a dream, a fairytale! I’ve been going to Badminton as a spectator since I was eight and you then dream. I thought I had been very fortunate in the past to have horses of my own competing, but never in a million years would I have thought we could have bred a horse that would come second at the world’s greatest three-day event.

Lucy Latta and RCA Patron Saint, pictured at the First Horse Inspection on their way to second place at Badminton Horse Trials 2024 \ Irish Eventing Times / Equus Pix

3. Tell us more about RCA Patron Saint?

Patrick, as he was known to us, hence the name Patron Saint, was born in the UK.

He grew up on our Suffolk farm with Billy, both by Grafenstolz. Both competed in the UK foal futurity competition and were highly placed in the final, held at Osberton Horse Trials.

He was broken by Will and Ginnie Turnbull before joining us here at Belline. We then produced him and he competed at Stepping Stones and other unaffiliated events.

4. When did you sell him?

As we had some more youngsters coming through, we decided to enter him in the Go For Gold sale. I now, of course, wish we hadn’t! He was selected and was purchased by Sam Watson for his present owner for her daughter to ride. Subsequently, the ride passed to Lucy, who then produced him to five-star level.

5. Summers Mist - tell us more about her?

Her stable name was Sally, a very much-loved member of the Ames household. Purchased as a six-year-old for my daughter to compete, she excelled at show jumping and always came home in the ribbons.

I think Sally evented under sufferance. She really didn’t like dressage, however, she more than made up for her mediocre scores by nearly always going double clear inside the time and was an Advanced level horse when she retired.

My daughter listened to Lucy’s interview after her cross-country round with Paddy and described it as, “just like his mother”. It would seem that Paddy has a huge amount of her in him!

Her breeding is unrecorded, but I know she came from Ireland. There are a few of her progeny on the ground, so perhaps DNA might help us here, as it would be great to find out.

6. How many broodmares?

At present, we have only one Sligo Candy Boy mare due to foal in a couple of weeks to BGS Ocean View. Fingers crossed, maybe the next Badminton champion!

7. RCA/Belline are yours - thoughts on prefixes?

From a breeder or producer’s point of view, it is nice to sell horses with prefixes. It builds a brand, which of course helps with any marketing.

I do not think these should be removed without the express permission of the owners. Unfortunately, there have been cases where horses have been re-registered in other countries to enable prefix removal and, in certain cases, names changed. This really should not be allowed.

8. It takes a team - who’s on yours?

Belline has a pretty big team.

Firstly, none of this would have happened had my wife Tanja not found Belline and convinced me to start the incredible journey that we have enjoyed for the last 10 years.

We have three riders based here, led by Robbie Kearns together with Caitie Slater and Charlie Boardman. Other Belline horses are with Joseph Murphy, Esib Power, Patrick Burns and Noel Dunne.

Our head girl is Maxine Rae, assisted by Emilee Wood and Elie Crouzier. Danielle Graham also helps out at internationals and organises transport logistics.

Brian and Ray are our yardmen, who muck out daily and our farrier is Jodie Skelton.

Our veterinarians are J.P. King and Tim O’Hagan from Equivet, Ger Kelly at Fethard Equine Hospital and Shane Ryan from Kilcash Vets.

9. Paris Olympics medal predictions?

My money would have to be on Team GB, but the Olympics is unique as your three team riders all score. One slip-up can change the picture completely.

I really fancy Ireland’s chances of a medal, as we have some excellent combinations, so with their talent and some Irish luck, they could indeed be on the podium.

10. Six people you’d invite around for dinner?

I’ve been very fortunate to meet some amazing and interesting people during my life, but I think an interesting dinner party would be John Magnier, J.P. McManus, Mark Todd, Tom Cruise, Nick Boyle and myself.