Cian O'Connor

A few of us from Lough Gara Stables took a spin up the road to the Keash Equestrian Centre last week to see Cian O'Connor and Mark Kinsella give a showjumping Demo. Cian finished the evening by doing a Grand Prix course against the clock on one of his best horses, Splendour.

As a fairly basic rider, the most impressive thing to see is just how easy and effortless the pros make it look, when it's anything but. Though I was more interested in watching than photographing it, I took along my new 70-200 2.8 VRII. It was my first time to use it properly and it's a brilliant piece of equipment, perfect for dimly-lit churches. It'll get a lot of use this year.