WE live in Upperchurch, Thurles, in the Slieve Felim hills, (approximately 600-700 feet above sea level), the home place where my parents Toby and Annie and eight children – four boys and four girls – grew up.

My father always kept horses and I recall early visits to the RDS with mares, foals and three-year-olds. They were taken to be sold and, at the time, they were always sold. It was a long week at the RDS, Monday to Saturday and living on the show grounds. My father sold a four-year-old horse there in the late 1960s and bought an outside farm with £20 to spare. So, horses are in our blood here.