IRELAND has lost one of its best known horsemen, Willie Leahy from Aille Cross in Loughrea Co Galway. In the nearly 70 years that I have known Willie, he never changed, true to his dedication to the traditional Irish Horse, Connemara Pony and the countryside where he was most content.

He started from modest means on a small family farm with one horse, leaving school early, but his boundless imagination and vision saw Willie develop one of the largest equestrian enterprises in Ireland, with farms in Loughrea and in Connemara.