AN intriguing request was posted on Cheval Riding Club’s What’s App group chat on the morning of Tuesday week last for ‘two models for a photoshoot with a famous sportsperson’. That was at 10.38am – at 11.56am anyone thinking of applying realised they were way too late as another post read, ‘Supermodel positions filled, thanks!’

Dressed up, made up and out of bed just for the honour, Cheval supermodels Laura Carrick and Ita Kinahan travelled into Dublin on Thursday for a promotional photoshoot for the Kingspan Kickstart Sports Fund, Ita bringing with her the show jump which the fund helped buy for the Cheval showgrounds. They arrived at the Clayton Hotel, Ballsbridge, at 2pm with former Irish rugby captain Johnny Sexton making an appearance shortly afterwards.

“Johnny was really interested in the club and also asked about the type of injuries riders most usually suffer from,” said Laura. “The Kingspan people were delighted as the fence was something tangible that they could see their funding had bought.”

Before taking up her modelling rode, Laura had represented Cheval in a more usual way by captaining the club’s red team to win the North Eastern Region’s qualifier for the AIRC team show jumping championships. She is due to line-out on the final day of the Dublin Horse Show (August 14th to 18th) on her home-bred gelding Amura R. Ita, who is the team’s chef d’equipe, made sure the fence was back at Cheval for tomorrow’s Pre-Festival Show.