Meet the trainees - Ryan Bates

My name is Ryan Bates and I celebrated my 18th birthday last August. I’m from Wexford which would be known as a good place for yards and horses. Before coming to RACE I rode out in a few yards around my home town. Jamie cod only lives a few minutes away from my house and so does Benny Walsh.
I started out horse riding when I was 7 and ever since that day I wanted to be a jockey. My friend put me up on his pony called Polly, a Connemara, I jumped a few ditches and I said that I was going to become a jump jockey because there is  more of a ‘buzz’ in jump racing rather than flat racing.
As I got older I was riding in point to point yards where I got loads of experience and built up a lot of muscle and style. I schooled a lot of horses and I schooled in a really good place called The Railway Gallops in Wexford.
When I was in school I went to a career guidance meeting in my local school one night and I went to talk to Jamie Cod as I wanted to become a jockey and he told me what the best thing to do was and where I should go and he mentioned the RACE Academy in Kildare. I looked up RACE and I read through the information about it and I was really interested in going there. I sat down with Jamie and I said I was going to be a jump jockey as he is one and he told me that it’s a really hard life but when you are good you will do really well and in my head I was thinking that I should go to RACE. I got really good advice from Jamie which really helped me.
I went for the trail and I really tried hard to get in and I got called back for a place so I was really happy that I got in and  it’s a stepcloser to become a jockey.
When I started in RACE I was in the RACE yard for 3 months riding out one to two lots everyday. We rode out different horses most days and schooled a good few too. We rode out in the outdoor arena for a few weeks to get better and to get ready to go on the gallop. We went on the gallop and we schooled normally only once or twice a week so it was good because the horses would only get fed up of the same thing all week.
Near the end when we were being sent out to yards we went out on Maddenstown Gallops and we went at a faster pace than we would on the RACE gallop.
A few weeks later 10 of us from RACE got sent out to different yards. I got sent out to Alan Flemings which is just a few minutes away from RACE over by Tracy Collins and Paul Deegan.

I really like the yard I’m in and I am learning loads and getting loads of experience. I ride out with John Fitz and Adrian Heskin so I've learned a lot from them while riding out with them..

RACE Gallops earlier in the year

Practice shots on the Golf Simulator at Christmas