GROWING up in Curraghduff, the love of horses was instilled in us from the time we could walk. My father [Tobias] worked horses, mainly Irish Draught mares, and bred a foal every year on the farm. Even after the tractor came along, he still used his faithful Draughts.

Horses were his true love. He thought nothing of taking a mare to Co Clare behind his bike to be covered with the right stallion, a distance of up to 100 miles, sometimes staying with his sister Josephine Ryan in Ballinahinch, Co Limerick, to break the journey.