Equine background: My grandfather kept horses and that interest spread to my father. He bought us ponies when we were kids. The interest built and he changed from his hire business to equestrian in 1983. We started with a small indoor arena, an outdoor arena and a riding school.

I work as the general manager of the Cavan Equestrian Centre. My parents, Mervyn Snr and Pauline, are heavily involved. Pauline looks after the office and sales, while Mervyn is always renovating.

2014 marks the 20th anniversary of Cavan’s first auction. Mervyn had developed a new centre with new arenas and indoor facilities by 1993. He always had an auction in mind. Goresbridge was down south and it seemed like the northern part of the country could do with something similar. In the last week in January 1994, the first auction was held. It’s a big part of our business now, with six two-day sales each year. The idea was that breeders of half-bred horses would have an outlet for selling their animals. It developed very quickly. It was always a performance sale where sellers were able to show their horses riding in an arena. We also have young stock sales and Irish Draught sales. Sales have had a tough couple of years but we hope it is levelling off.

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The industry: I guess there wasn’t a breeding system in Ireland for a few decades. We were so successful but never planned or set up a structured system, and the breed suffered. There are a lot of good breeders out there. Not all are in it for the business. Many are there for the love of it and it is a big pastime.

Changes: There needs to be a lot more effort made on the broodmare herd. We have such a strong thoroughbred industry that it attracts lucrative owners and big sponsorship. The half-bred industry suffers as a result. If prize money was better it would trickle down. People would spend more on foals etc.

My ambition: I am very busy with the centre. My wife Victoria and I have a young family. Camryn is seven, Jamie is five and Chloe is eight months old. It would be nice to see them competing in the future. I enjoy my work and get a buzz out of it. I will continue to develop the business. Already I have my sights set on out first sale of the year which will take place on 4 to 6 March 2014. We will also hold two sales during our big September show, an elite foals sale and a select elite sale of three-, four- and five-year-old horses. The latter will be restricted to about 20 horses. We will also have our premier three-year-old sale in August.

For information on Cavan sales, log on to the website at www.cavanequestrian.com