KIERAN and Mairead Ryan, plus son Ivan, flew over to Birmingham on Thursday evening, so they could be at the National Exhibition Centre as soon as the doors opened for day three of the 75th Horse Of The Year Show.

The trio were most interested in Friday morning’s show hunter section, paying particular attention to the heavyweight class, in which Rob Walker finished third on Jill Day’s traditional Irish Sport Horse gelding IJ Countryman. With Ivan in the saddle, the grey was reserve champion heavyweight at last summer’s Dublin Horse Show, having won his four-year-old class.

A son of the Irish Draught stallion Lionwood Kinsales Lad, IJ Countryman was bred at their Cabragh Lodge yard in north Co Dublin by the Ryans out of the Kingsmaster mare Clonhaston Lilly, whose own dam was by Ghareeb. The breeders have retained IJ Countryman’s three-year-old full-brother and a two-year-old half-brother by the ID stallion Gortfree Lakeside Lad.

The Ryans didn’t travel too far from home on Saturday, but headed west on Sunday to the Galway Blazers’ point-to-point in Loughrea. There, Ivan landed the six-year-old and upwards geldings’ maiden on Kieran’s Look Don’t Touch, an Imperial Monarch bay, who scored by 18 lengths from Longhouse Star, who was partnered by international event rider Toni Quail.

This win was very much a family affair, as Look Don’t Touch is trained by Conor Maxwell, who is married to Mairead’s niece Karena Curran, while the nine-year-old was previously raced on the track by Kieran’s sister Judy and her husband John Duffy. While the rest of the family were in Loughrea, Ivan’s twin brother James, who is apprenticed to the Tom McCourt yard, was riding at Naas, where he failed to add to his excellent seasonal tally of 31 wins.