My na
My name is Robert Smithers I am 16 years old I am from Athy co kildare.
My interest in horses began when I was about 9 or 10 when Paddy Crane came to ride out for my granddad he was stuck one day and needed someone to ride out a horse for him. It was a small 132 pony racer. I had to ride him down the road to the gallops. I did not ride him around the gallops but when I got back to my yard Paddy said to me I would make a good jockey. He said to me I should go to RACE. I asked him about it and he said to me he would show me how to ride proper.
It took about 2 weeks before I got the hang of it and when I did he showed me how to ride on a gallop and stand up and look like a jockey.
After a while I got my own horse a
14 2 cob. I went hunting with him for a year. After the hunting season was over
I sold him and got a pony racer. I went pony racing / flapping for about 12 races
on her. I had about three 2nd places and was placed a good few times in 2013.
I had 4 flappers up in my yard, I
didn’t get to race them because I didn’t have time but I rode them out on
Maurice Phelan’s gallops. That is how I found out about races and learned how to ride horse.
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| Robert riding upsides - Maddenstown |
