IF I come back as a horse in another life, I’d like to live at Longways Stables. A stone’s throw from popular tourist spot Ardmore in Co Waterford, the 200-acre cliffside property boasts beautiful sea views, as well as fairytale stone ruins. Barn owls frequent the remains of 16th century Ardoginna House, while horses graze what was the walled garden.

Sarah O’Connell describes it as “a calming environment” – not necessarily something you would expect from a source of fast horses. O’Connell and husband Mick Murphy have developed a reputation for selling talented horses at the breeze-up sales, as well as pretraining for clients that include Henry de Bromhead and Roger Brookhouse.