My name
is Aidan Kelly. I am 16 years old and I am from Monasterevin, Co. Kildare.
I was always interested in horses
ever since I was a young age. My Mother and Father had A Pony of their own
which had a Foal and was sold by my Uncle.
I have hunted a lot on my own
horse throughout the Winter and during the Summer. I would ride my neighbour’s horses
(Pat Harrison or Buddy as he is known as). When I was 14 I start working
with Michael Halford, this improved my riding a lot. I often visited the
Curragh Racecourse and would enjoy seeing the horses fly up the home straight.
I have wanted to become a jockey ever since Johnny Murtagh visited my local Chapel
talking about his life, horses and the ups and downs throughout his life.
I heard about RACE when Mikey
Melia joined the course 2 years ago. He told me about the course and ever since
then I have wanted to go to RACE. I went to an open day and soon after I
received a letter telling me I should attend a Trial Week. I was overwhelmed
when after a few weeks, I was notified that I got a place on the course.
I started down in the barn and
really enjoyed my time down there riding out 2 lots and learning more
information that I never knew about horses. My riding improved more and
more and eventually I was sent out on work placement to Christie Roche on the
20th of November 2017.
On my first day I rode 6
lots! There are about 15 horses in training. It’s ‘so far so
good’ in Christie’s. He let me school around the ‘8’ on the Curragh a handful
of times. I go into Christie’s every Saturday also as it gets me out of
the house for a few hours.
My daily routine in the yard is
to get in there before anyone else does and start working. I am usually
in the yard for around 6:40 am as I cycle and don’t have to wait for the bus.
I get into the yard and muck out the 5 horses. I look after them and bed them
down. We then go tack up our first lot and give them a walk. It’s the
same every morning. We ride that lot and move on to the next, tacking them up before
we go for our tea break. We then ride out the rest of our lots. When we
finish riding out we feed and do whatever else is needed to be done and usually
finish for around 12:30 pm. In February 2018 Christie retired and his son,
Padraig took over the training in the yard. Since then we a few more horses to
look after, so there are about 20 horses in now.
I am looking forward to getting my
National Hunt Licence when I have finished the course and I hope to have plenty
of winners in the future!
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| Aidan (nearside) upsides on long straight, Maddenstown (Assessment Week) |
