I’M a retired farmer from Castleblayney, Co Monaghan. My wife Mary and I have three children Paul, Anne and Conor and also have five grandkids; Louis, Niamh, Niall, Liam and David. Paul lives locally and helps with the horses on a daily basis. I’ll be 90 next month and have been involved in horses and horse breeding all of my adult life.

My father was a horse dealer back in the 1940s and I would normally keep between five and 10 horses at any given time. Currently I have two broodmares, one of which Cloverdale Girl (Hermes de Reve) is a half-sister to Dondante.