When I first came to RACE I was a "bag of nerves".  I was a young lad coming from England, and all on my own.  But I soon made friends and was well on the road to the big time, I hoped.

My first week down at the yard was, well how can I put it, pretty bad, as I was a rookie to the business and basically I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.  I was soon given a fork, a shovel, and a brush and told to muck out a stable.  I chose a stable but didn’t really know what to do, so I stood for a minute and looked at the person next to me, and took in what they were doing.  So I started to bank up all the shavings and to take out the urine and the droppings.  I soon got the hang of things and by the end of the week I was flying through it. Tacking up was a big problem for me as, yet again, I didn’t know what I was doing.  When I was given a set of tack by the instructor the only part I could make out was the saddle.  I was soon shown how to put on the bridle, and the saddle was just commonsense.  The first horse the I rode was a horse called "Hi Hansom".  He "took the Mick" out of me for the whole time I was in the indoor school.  He just wouldn’t settle and he was throwing his head all over the place.  When we hacked away he pulled the arms off me and I could hardly hold him.  When I came in, another one of the instructors was laughing at me and was saying "Are your arms a couple of inches longer, Sean?"  I was quite embarrassed as most of the other students could ride, and they were experienced in riding.  By the end of the week I was starting to pick up on small tips that the lads had given me; it was starting to work, and the instructors were starting to notice that I was getting better.  The instructors don’t hold back when they are slagging you, but when you do something right they will tell you, and it raises your spirits.  After he told me that I was getting better I was on cloud nine and I was proud of myself.  But that wasn’t to last for long.  On the third week I was put up on a horse called "Californian Spirit".  I was told that he was a big puller but when I was trotting around the indoor school he was very lazy and wouldn’t go for me at all.  When "Sir" told me to canter on I had a very long rein - big mistake!  As soon as we set off he didn’t just canter away, he galloped away, and I had to think quickly; I changed my hands to get a shorter hold of the reins.  "Sir" then said "Stand up in your irons", this just made it harder, and I was concentrating on taking a pull and keeping my balance at the same time.  I managed to get him settled but he was still taking a mad pull and I was starting to get tired.  When you are tired on a horse you feel like giving up and letting the horse go and jumping off, but I thought "No, I am never going to make it if I can’t hold a horse!"  I was making faces in frustration and every time I went past "Sir" he would laugh at me.  When we stopped he came over and said to me "You made a few mistakes there, you set off with a long rein, you didn’t talk to the horse, and you didn’t canter him away slowly enough."  He then went on to say "We are going to do that again Sean, and you better correct those mistakes."  I was nervous, and didn’t really want to go back out and canter again as I was so tired.  I got a short hold and said “Go on boy, go on”, he cantered away no problem, and I just said as I was going around the indoor school “Whoooo the boy.” I was amazed, he was like a little baby and was brilliant for me.  It is just as well though, as I wouldn’t have been able to take any kind of a pull as I was so tired.

On the Tuesday of the fourth week we where told that my group would be going down to the gallops from now on.  We were being promoted from the comfort of the indoor school to the cold outdoors.  We were all told, by the group that was already out at the gallops, that the horses are totally different down at the gallop and that they will take a massive pull.  "Sir" decided to put us all on the easy horses for the first few days and said to us when we where about to canter away “Just take it easy and go nice and slow." "Sir" cantered around with us and he would talk to us and try to relax us, and give us instructions.  After about three days down at the gallops, we were all starting to get the hang of things and were all starting to make progress.  After about two months the lads in the first group, which was the group that had the most experience, went out to the Little Curragh, which in a piece of land next to RACE where the horses would go and gallop around.  When that group went out there, "Sir" said  to my group “Right, it is time for you lot to start learning how to go up sides properly."  This is when you ride next to someone and the two horses think that they are racing.  I was on a horse called Star Man. I would be riding up sides with one of the lads named Keith.  He was on a horse called "Hi Hansom", that horse that "took the Mick out of me" when I first started.  We set of grand, and we cantered the first lap well.  It was only when it came to the downhill slope that things went wrong.  I was talking to Keith and I said to him "If we pick up the pace as we come down the hill we are both going to get run away with."  "Run away with" is a racing expression that is used when someone is riding a horse, and they can’t control it, and it is going really fast.  I think you can guess what Keith and I did; yes, we let the horses pick up the pace going down the hill and yes, we both got run away with.  When you see people getting run away with, it looks like a scary thing, but when it happens to you it is actually brilliant.  You actually feel like you are in a race and it is all over so quickly.  When we got back "Sir"  said “Well it wasn’t pretty, but it was your first time and you will do better next time.” Keith and I were laughing and joking.  The next time that we went up sided was the following week.  I was on a horse called "Sir True Blue".  I would be going up sided with another of the lads called Dean Pratt.  He was on a horse called "Aliwayan". We set of grand, and we started to hack away. Dean and I were talking away to each other.  When we got to the top of the hill I said to Dean "Don’t let him pick up any speed or get a run on you or we will get run away with."  I bet you can guess what happened - we both let them pick up speed and we both got run away with.  I ain't going to lie to you - it was brilliant!  But the big mistake was that I had forgotten to pull down my goggles.  Dean went ahead of me and  we were going "flat to the boards".  The kick back that I got from Dean's horse was unbelievable.  First, I couldn’t see out of my left eye for sand getting into it and then I couldn’t see out of my right eye. I was blind, and I was going around the gallop.  It was lucky that the horses weren't the fittest, because after a few laps both horses started to slow down, and we got them back and hacked around again.  The second time was much better and when we came in "Sir" said “Well jockeys, that wasn’t very pretty.”

A couple more weeks passed and we were eventually allowed to go out to the Little Curragh.  I went out with the advanced group.  I was on "Dream Catcher".  We started to canter away and Niall, our instructor, was leading.  We went in circles, and up and down the straight side of the fence.  The horse seemed to be jumping from side to side when he was cantering.  I thought nothing of it.  "Sir" started to weave in and out of the furze and then I noticed that there was a little jump in front of me and I couldn’t remember a time when anyone had jumped Dream Catcher.  He stuttered in to it, and ended up "bunny hopping" it. To tell you the truth, I nearly fell off.  Colm, who was in front  of me turned around and said “Well Magin, what do you think of that?” I told him that I nearly fell off and he just laughed.  At the end, "Sir" came over to me and said the reason that the horse seemed like it was jumping from side to side was because I wasn’t used to steering a horse when it is in open space. He said "Look, you have been on the gallop and on the rail so there isn’t anywhere the horse can go, but when you are out here the horse can go anywhere."

When we came to the end  of the first four months all the students that were going out to trainers were told which trainers they where going to.  "Sir" said to me "We could send you out, but we think that you will benefit more from staying back."  I said "Ok, but how long will it be for?"  He turned around and sarcastically said "However long it takes!"

At present I am still in RACE, but I feel that I am learning quickly, and I can’t wait to go out to my trainer.