Young Irish rider spent most of last year in the under-25 grand prix division, but at the end of the year he got to take over the reins of the top horses of Ariel and Sue Grange’s Lothlorien Farm. And he started 2017 with a big win at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.) in the $75,000 Rosenbaum Mollengarden PLLC Grand Prix aboard a horse he’d only riddon for a week—Cita.

In doing so, he defeated Conor Swail, his former boss at Lothlorien, who used to ride Cita. See how this friendly rivalry played out…