CELEBRITY FANS: SHARON SHANNON, Musician, 41: Horseriding

How did you get into horseriding?

I was brought up on a farm. My father used to breed Irish Draught horses and Connemara ponies. We had our own little show-jumping course. It used to be made up out of old car tires, tar barrels and poles for the jumps. About three or four evenings a week when I came home from school I’d spend about an hour pulling all the jumps around the field. You’d to change the position of the jumps so the land wouldn’t get all dug up.

Is showjumping difficult?

There’s a lot of skill involved. My younger sister, Mary, used to do a bit of it as well. We never had any formal training but my brother, Garry, did a lot of reading up on the technicalities. He used to help us with the practice of it, like walking the course and measuring the distance between jumps and changing the stride of the pony. You have to be really exact so you get the horse to stride right as he’s coming into the jump, and not jump too far from the fence. It’s not just a case of sitting up on the horse and hoping for the best. I wasn’t as accomplished a rider as I’d like to have been. I was fairly good at it but would have loved to have had a lot more years experience at it, because I definitely had a huge passion and love for it and a great love for the horses themselves.

Did you compete?

We used to go to gymkhanas every weekend during the summer, but the show-jumping all came abruptly to an end at 16 because you’ve to be under-16 to compete on a pony. I’ve done a little bit since in spurts here and there, but nothing like when I was between 13 and 16.

Did you have a favourite pony?

I loved them all the same. They were all very tame – like dogs. We could get up on them without bridles or saddles. We used to play the banjos and accordions while on their backs like Ted and Dougal! We used to bring them into the house for the craic, too. Or we used to coax them to put their heads in the window. I’m a big animal lover. I remember I used to think I’ll never ride horses because that’s cruel, but once we started training them to jump, I realised that the horses themselves loved it. Their ears would be pointed forward, which means they’re happy and excited. You could tell even that they’d be proud of themselves when they’d make it over a big, huge, high jump. They liked all the praise.

Did you go hunting?

Yes, but the kind of hunting I was involved in Co Clare was drag hunting. We didn’t actually chase a fox. The whole route was planned out beforehand – they dragged a scent along the land, and the beagles would follow the scent, and the riders and horses would follow the dogs. The horses just loved it. They’d be so excited. I suppose it’s a social thing – a great day out for them!

Would nasty weather on a hunt faze you?

No. You’d get such a rush of adrenaline – the weather would never bother you, but you’d know about it afterwards. If you just do it every now and again, which I do, every muscle in your body would be aching for days and days after.

If you do go out these days, how do you manage it, if you don’t have a horse?

Sometimes I get invited out by various people, like the Galway Blazers here in Galway. They have a charity ride-out every winter, a little drag hunt around the place. It might be three or four hours long. I did it a few times. The odd bit like that and theres actually a place in East Galway called Flower Hill; a fellow called Oliver Walsh, he has a huge farm of land he has made up into a cross-country course with these massive big jumps, way bigger than I ever did growing up. He’s loads of fabulous horses and you can go out there and do the course and stay up there for a few hours. It’s a fantastic place.

What is it about horseriding that makes it so special?

I suppose it’s like getting a spin on anything – it’s great fun getting a spin, like on a roller-coaster, anything that gives you a buzz. You’d get a great buzz from jumping over fences, and the hunting and going along really fast. It just pumps up massive adrenaline. You get great satisfaction from going towards a jump and getting over it. But the best satisfaction that I got was my time show-jumping.

• In conversation with Richard Fitzpatrick