Sherelle Duke: Sherelle Duke, who was fatally injured in a cross-country fall while competing in England last Sunday, was one of Ireland's leading three-day event riders.
Born in Portadown, Co Armagh, in February 1978, she was immersed in all things equine from an early age, following her two brothers Michael and Peter into the saddle, but more particularly shadowing her nine years older sister Sonya, who was to represent Ireland at top level and who became a role model for the young Sherelle.
She first sat on a pony at the age of three and the following year, won the lead rein championship at the Dublin Horse Show, with her father Ronnie proudly at the head of the diminutive chestnut mare Mountcaulfield Ruby.
Other ponies followed, most notably the working hunters Lennel Grouse and Brookfield Super Trouper, which were both on Northern Ireland hunter pony teams that travelled over to the major British fixtures at Peterborough, the Royal Highland and the Wales and West show.
At the age of nine, Sherelle followed her siblings into the Iveagh Pony Club where she found an outlet for her increasingly competitive instinct.
She represented the Iveagh branch in dressage, show jumping and three-day eventing, but even when she moved into the international ranks, she never cut her ties with the Iveagh.
She was a talented singer and an all-round sportswoman, playing on the hockey team and winning the junior cross-country schools championship while at Killicomaine secondary school. Horses though won out over study and, 10 years ago, when British coach Dot Willis started training the two Duke sisters, she predicted that it would take four years to get Sherelle into the medals at championship level.
Almost to the day, Sherelle won individual gold at the open European young rider championships at Necarne Castle, Co Fermanagh.
Four years later she was on the senior team at the European championship team at Punchestown and then realised another ambition when she completed Badminton in 2004.
With no horse qualified for this week's world equestrian games in Aachen, she had planned to ride Ballystockart at Burghley next month. Her ultimate aim was to represent Ireland at Olympic and world championship level, an ambition she seemed set to realise until her untimely death last Sunday.
She was due to fly to Hong Kong with long-term boyfriend Ross McCandless at the end of the eventing season and the couple were planning to get engaged in October.
She is survived by her parents Ronnie and Miriam, sister Sonya and brothers Peter and Michael.
Sherelle Duke: born February 10th, 1978; died August 20th, 2006.