Meet The Trainees - Eamonn Fitzgerald

Hi, my name is Eamonn Fitzgerald and I am 16 years old. I first got an interest in horses when I was riding ponies in Abbeyfeild farm, from a young age.

I started riding out when I had just turned 13 for Michael Halford. I learned a lot from everyone there, including the head lad, Assistant Trainer, Mr. Halford and all the lads and jockeys in the yard. I used to go in on weekends and school holidays, which was brilliant. My favourite horse was a filly called Betty Loch, she was the first race horse that I rode. I learned how to ride in Abbeyfield farm and I also did lots of hunting with the North Kildare Farmers. 

We are well into the course and the time is flying. I’m really enjoying my time so far. All the instructors down in the barn are really sound. I have learned loads so far and we are taken out to The Curragh gallops such as Maddenstown or the Curragh plains which is savage, as well as being on the gallops every day in R.A.C.E. We have also done lots of schooling over the hurdles and fences. We got to have a schooling session with Sean Flanagan and we learned loads from him.

I got sent out to Mr. Halford’s yard in the middle of November I really enjoy it there and I’m learning a lot, the people I work every day couldn’t be nicer. I also go in on Saturdays and sometimes I go racing on Friday nights in Dundalk. I can’t wait until the flat season kicks off again and the 2-year olds start knowing their routine even better.

My daily routine at the minute would be getting up for 6.00am and I’m on my bus for 6.45am. We start at 7.30am but once the mornings start getting brighter, we will switch back to 7.00am. When I get in, I usually help muck out and let the horses out to the paddocks.  We then go tack up and put the horses on the walker, then we go muck out another few. We pull out at 8.00am in the winter and 7.30am in the summer. After that lot we tack up and pull out straight away, then we tack up our next lot and put them on the walker, before going for tea. We usually ride out 4/5 lots and finish about 12.30pm. We use many different gallops depending on the horse we are riding; the variety is great.

We are kept busy! We do fitness classes on Mondays and Wednesdays which are great for the fitness. We are allowed to go to the gym and simulators on our free evenings.  The simulators are great for fitness and technique.

After the course, I would love to get signed on and take out my apprentice licence, this is hard to achieve but hopefully with a bit of luck I can get there. 

Eamon was placed with Michael Halford on the 19^th of November 2018.

On the way to RACE Gallops