Sweetnam closes on RDS dream

TWENTY years after first competing at Dublin Horse Show, Shane Sweetnam is close to living his dream by lining out on the Irish team to contest tomorrow’s Nations Cup contest.

The Cork rider is now aged 30, has become a regular contributor to the Irish team cause and now he is hopeful of belatedly adding Dublin to his CV.

“I first rode at Dublin Horse Show when I was 10 or 11, so that was about 20 years ago. I can’t remember much, so it mustn’t have been very auspicious,” said Sweetnam, who relocated to the US eight years ago and rides out of Florida, moving to Kentucky for the summer.