Saturday with Aoife McNamara: I’ll go straight to Lahinch beach — I love to get my toes in the sand

Aoife McNamara pictured at Aoifes Cottage, in Adare Limerick

07.00

I get up at around 7am each Saturday and because I’m usually in our store in the cottage in Adare I try to get some exercise in and to get out in nature before work. I like to do some sort of a sweat first thing so I might do Hyrox, some yoga or I’ll go for a run before a dip in the sea at Lahinch beach. After that I treat myself to a flat white from Hugo’s in Lahinch town.

08.30

I’ll go home and get ready for work and have my breakfast. I usually get pastries in Hugo’s Bakery – I’ll get some sourdough bread too which I’ll have with local eggs, Moy Hill lettuce and some of my favourite Chimac Sriracha sauce. I love supporting Irish suppliers when it comes to my food.

09.00

The cottage in Adare is about an hour’s drive from home so I’ll leave at 9am and arrive at the shop at 10am. The shop is a considerable part of our business and our busiest days are Saturdays and Sundays – you can’t beat being in front of your customer.

10.00

One of my favourite jobs when I arrive is to tend to our beautiful gardens at the cottage which designer Leonie Cornelius helped us to fill with wildflowers. I’ll make sure the roses are deadheaded, everything is watered and all the flowerpots are refreshed.

11.00

For the rest of the day we’ll be working with customers coming into the shop, we might have one-on-one appointments especially if the races are coming up and we might record some social media content such as ‘Get Ready With Me’ type videos in which I show people what they could wear to an event such as the Gallagher Dublin Horse Show.

We have a lot of customers from the US who are staying at Adare Manor and we also have a lot of local customers. Because of the location of the cottage we attract a lot of people who are making their way to Kerry too.

I grew up showjumping and doing cross country, and my father has show jumpers and racehorses at home, so we’ve always gone to a lot of point-to-point meetings, races around Ireland and the likes of Cheltenham in the UK. It was wonderful to have my own ponies and horses growing up and my sister breeds race horses now too.

Aoife McNamara: I probably have a slightly different perspective on Best Dressed than other people because I spent so many years attending the show with the horses. Picture: by Anastasiia Redko.

Horses have always been a huge part of our lives, and we would have had horses that won in the RDS over the years, so it’s such an honour to be judging the Best Dressed with Bairbre Power as well as to have my clothing brand at the show.

I probably have a slightly different perspective on Best Dressed than other people because I spent so many years attending the show with the horses. For me, important factors are comfort and practicality combined with style. I’ll be looking out for something different and fun and it doesn’t have to be about buying everything new – I love the idea of people combining things that they already own. Of course, I’d love to see some Irish design in the mix too.

13.00

I usually try to bring a packed lunch but if I don’t I will pop into Cafe Lógr – a gorgeous cafe in Adare.

14.00

We might be doing some product development or making accessories in between dealing with customers. We often run events in the cottage but they tend to take place in the off-season because we don’t want to close the shop to customers in the height of summer.

18.00

The shop closes at 6pm and I’ll go straight to Lahinch beach for a walk – at this time of year in particular I love to get my toes in the sand straight after work. One of my favourite walks is the White Strand Walk in Lahinch. I’ll meet my partner and we’ll have dinner at home or we might go for a pint of Guinness in P. Frawley’s which is one of my favourite pubs. If we are going out for a very special dinner we’ll go to the Homestead Cottage in Doolin – it’s a real treat and such a special place.

20.00

Myself and my partner love to play card games – Bullshit and Forty-Fives. At this time of year when we really do not want to be inside, we might take the jet ski out.

22.30

I will probably head to bed around 10.30pm because I’ve had a fairly busy day. I’m a big fan of The Housemaid series by Frieda McFadden and I also love the books of Taylor Jenkins Reid. Malibu Rising is my favourite book ever. I recently finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo which I really enjoyed and highly recommend.

• Aoife McNamara and Bairbre Power will judge Best Dressed at the Gallagher Dublin Horse Show on Thursday August 6 at the RDS where the winner will walk away with a €10,000 cash prize courtesy of Poretti. The 151st Gallagher Dublin Horse Show returns to the RDS from August 5 to 9. To register online for Best Dressed and to save 10% on tickets visit dublinhorseshow.com