I'm from Butlerstown, Co Waterford, based five minutes away from Henry de Bromhead's yard. My first association with horses was through my parents who were both big into eventing. We have a yard here at home because my grandfather, on my mum's side, used to be a Huntsmaster for Waterford. On my dad's side, my granda was more into racing and owned a few racehorses with Paddy Mullins. Mum and dad always had eventers in the yard, and we were very lucky that we got ponies from an early age and did pony club, the Irish Pony Society, and working hunters. I did pony club eventing, and I was the Junior Individual Eventing Champion in 2022. That was in Tattersalls at the Eventing Championships.

Dad always had the racing on the television and I always looked at photos of granda's old horses that he ran. I'd say from the age of four or five horses were all I had my eyes on really, including watching Tramore when it was on. Something about racing just caught my attention and I loved the whole atmosphere of it. I was in school with Henry's eldest twins Jack and Mia, and they started riding out in sixth class. I would always have gone racing with Jack and Henry to Tipperary and Tramore and those kinds of places. I suppose it was a natural progression - we were riding ponies together and Jack and Mia started riding out and told me about it in school. I kind of felt I wanted in on the action and over I went. Jack's a big part of my career and I think about him every day. His loss puts things into perspective and makes you appreciate things more when success does come.