Hi, my name is Loreena van Buuren. I am 17 and I am originally from Holland but living in County Meath.
My dad was a farrier and he traveled all around the country to shoe horses and so I went with him most of the time and that is how I became interested in horses and now I am attending the Racing Academy here in Kildare. I first became interested in horses when I was only young and eventually got my own horse 5 years ago. I never went to a riding school and so I taught myself how to ride.
One day, a few years ago, I had heard people talking about horse racing and jockeys. I started thinking about what they had said and so after that I researched different horses, jockeys and race courses and that was when I realized it was something I would love to do or even go to watch a race. One day a friend of my Mam asked me if I wanted to go to Punchestown racecourse. Of course, I said yes! It was a day I will never forget as I bet on a horse for the first time and he won. The horse was named Don Cossack, trained by Gordon Elliott and won the Gold Cup. I got loads of pictures that day and seeing all the jockeys and race horses really encouraged me to look more into it.
That same friend of my Mam wanted to attend an open day in Gordon Elliott’s yard in September 2014 and so I went with him. We got a tour around the yard and we were shown a various amount of good horses. Towards the end of the day, I remembered that I had work experience coming up for school in February 2015 and so it came to me that I really wanted to try working in Gordon Elliott’s for the week. I was really lacking in confidence but I thought it was something I wanted to do and so I went over to Gordon himself and said I had to do work experience soon and that I had a big interest in working for him. We had talked about it for a while and he asked me to send in my CV and I could get some work experience there.
The week of work experience came and I started working for Gordon. I learned many new things that day and for the first time I rode out a racehorse called Cape Glory. It started off really well but I got ran away with on my first time ever on a racehorse riding short! But after Cape Glory I got a second horse named Harrys Summer and that was really good. The rest of the week went really well and I learned many new skills such as getting horses ready for the races and taking care of injured horses and so on. It was a week that I will never forget and after that week, Gordon had contacted me and asked if I wanted to come back every Saturday to help out around the yard and ride out about 2 or 3 lots a day. It was something I have always wanted to do and I gained a lot of experience from doing it.
After RACE I hope to stay as a senior if I get a job out of my work placement. I am currently doing ground work in the barn and I’m getting placed out to a Stud Yard soon. I have talked to many people working out in Studs and they seem to love working with Foals. All feedback has been very positive and so I feel I will really enjoy it and get great experience from it. Although things didn’t turn out the way I had always hoped, I have had many people supporting me all the time and I’m looking forward to the new experience I will get.
Loreena was placed in Aga Khan Stud, Sheshoon on the 7th of February 2017
