'It wasn't all about coming back to ride horses – it was just about coming back'

There’s a melancholy image seared in Frances Crowley’s mind since April last year that still gives her the shivers.

The occasion was a Pony Club event in Clane, County Kildare. She was shooting the breeze with Gillian Walsh, and in front of them, just out of earshot, their respective husbands Pat Smullen and Ruby Walsh were watching the little ones do their thing.

The sun was shining and in different circumstances it might have been a serene moment to savour, two devoted wives and mothers of beautiful young families appreciating their good fortune in life.