Meet the trainees - Anna Keirns

My name is Anna Keirns. I am 16 years old and from Ballybrittas in County Laois.  I have always had a strong love for horses from a very young age and I’ve been riding for as long as I can remember.  I began my riding experience in Stradbally Equestrian Centre where I did dressage, show jumping and eventing.  I’ve competed in a lot of shows and hunter trials around the county and I’ve also hunted quite a bit with the Laois Foxhounds and the North Kildare Farmers.  At a young age I started going to the local point to points and then started going to other Races such as the Curragh and Punchestown and that is how I got my interest in racing which lead me to apply for the Trainee Jockey Course here at RACE.

A day in the life of a trainee jockey here at RACE can be very exciting with all the thrills and spills on a day to day basis. Whether it’s here on the RACE Gallops or over on the Curragh Plains and Maddenstown Gallops. In the morning, so far, we head down to the barn for 8 o’ clock and the first thing we do is to check the board in the tack room to see which horse is to go onto the walker and then we go and muck out as many stables as we can or that we are assigned to do. When the first group have gone out to trainer’s yards we just work from the top of the barn and work our way down and then go onto the straw barn or isolation barn. After mucking out we go and clean up and sweep the barn.  After all is done we go and tack up our first lot and ride out.  Every day varies between two or three lots and we usually ride out on the gallops or either out on the Curragh Plains or Maddenstown Gallops. After all our riding is done and all of the horses are groomed and tack is put away we skip out, hay and feed all the barns and finish up by sweeping up the yard and barn. 

In the evenings we go over to the classrooms and we have 3 hours of classes per day from 2.15 pm – 5.15 pm. In these classes we do Maths, Business, Work Practice, Communications, IT, Health Related Fitness and Racehorse Care and Exercise. In each class we have assignments and portfolio. All have deadlines that everyone must follow.  After school on Wednesday we have a Mass, so school finishes earlier for this.

After school we go up to the Canteen for tea and afterwards we have the Gym and the option to go to the simulator.

Now, at the end of the course, I have met friends for life and would never regret my decision to come to RACE.

Anna was placed with Patrick Harty on the 14^th of February 2018

Training on RACE Gallops