EquiRatings managing director

From corporate lawyer to running a data-driven equestrian consultancy with his university friend, event rider Sam Watson, Diarmuid Byrne is proof that you don't have to love horses to obsess about eventing

- Bethany Stone

I left university quite relaxed about life, even though I probably shouldn’t have been. I was always so sure what I wanted to do but really, I knew so little about corporate law. I just picked the top law firm in Ireland, did one interview, and was the only non-law graduate accepted onto their programme – I’d studied sociology and social policy. It’s funny, looking back. I was pretty naive.

It was the best and worst of times. There were multiple occasions when I worked all night – I never ever finished before midnight, and I never got thanked. I remember it being this really tough corporate environment and I learned so much, way more than I did at university. I sat in boardrooms with the biggest companies in the world learning how to negotiate, how to hold yourself.

It was class. But it wasn’t a career I aspired to follow.

I think I’d like to run any business, not just equestrian, but I enjoy knocking around with Sam Watson so much and had confidence that whatever I did with him would be a success. I met event rider Camilla Speirs at Sam’s wedding in 2012, we went out for a good few years. That really brought me into the eventing world, holding her horses.