After the excitement of Dublin Horse Show - not to mention the damage to my credit card, I thought it was about time I knuckled down!

I had been asked to do a lecture demo on Equitation Science for some of the leading Pony Club riders in Ireland. So the day after the show I headed to International Showjumping superstar Cian O'Connor's yard to run a day-long seminar for the five selected riders and their parents.

It's always an exciting day for me when I can do a power point presentation to people who have not ever contemplated Learning Theory before now, and then give them lessons on their own horses to see how quickly improvements can be made to how they train their horses. The riders lapped it up and the written feedback we received after the event made it all the more worthwhile.

I was staying with Orla Doherty who is a lecturer at Dublin's University and is the leading dog behaviourist in Ireland. I love staying with her as we continuously bounce ideas off each other and have a good time!

I then caught the train up to Northern Ireland - Co Derry right up the top. Here I stayed at Drumeen Lodge - a house that holds many fond memories for me and is the former home of my dearly loved and missed late friends, the brothers Samuel and Stephen Moore who were both killed in Eventing accidents. Now the house is owned by Chris Eiken and its always great craic to be back there - summer BBQ's and laughter ringing out once more.

I managed to squeeze in a HUGE lecture demo evening at Gransha Riding School in Co Down. The poor organisers only had 48 hours to advertise the clinic, and still 60 spectators turned up to hear me talk, and watch Equitation Science in action. It was a 3 hour affair at night, and I was brought five different horses to work with, including difficult loader, a half-started horse with tension (bucking and rearing issues), and a youngster just starting out as a dressage horse. I also had the pleasure of finishing the demo with a very well schooled Irish dressage horse (man he could move!) who was really beautifully ridden by Kirsty Stewart. We demonstrated how the more difficult movements of dressage are really just a combination of the single learned responses of the horse to go stop turn and yield. I'm always humbled to think that even on the far side of the earth there are 60 people willing to give up an evening to come along and experience a better way to train their horses.

Up in Northern Ireland I also got to doa bit of touristing - this time a walking tour of the walled city of Derry - home of course of the the Bloody Sunday tragedy. Its an amazing town filled with great history. I went with an old friend Jane McFarlane - we had such a fun time being kept occupied by a couple of the Apprentice Boys in the Seige Museum!

Just before I left Northern Irteland I got to go back to the stables of the Crawford Brothers - this was the event yard I first started off in as a Three Day Event Groom for the Irish Team. Now its a full on racing yard - point to pointers and steeplechasers. They even had a starter in this years Grand National - thats the head shot of me and "Killyglen" who looked for a while as if he would pull of an unprecidented win in the big race! It was my first time patting a Grand National runner!

Righto - I know there are a few of you out there who are just DYING to know what has happened to the wonderful Lusitano stallion I was looking at.... well unfortunately Xangai the 8yo failed his testing for Piroplasmosis so he is unable to make the journey over. I was more than gutted and the owner Vasco was upset as well, I really think we could have had a great future together. The other horse "the White Whisper" ended up having some issues with his classification and pedigree so I had to turn him down. Murphy's Law kicking in when he few through his blood tests.

So I have come home empty handed at this stage, but will be returning to Portugal shortly to continue the search! But first, its home to family and friends, Donnerwind, and a pile of young ones to train on and sell!