Meet the trainees - Chloe Finn O'Brien

My name is Chloe Finn O’Brien. I am from Ballyfermot, Dublin. I have always been interested in horses. Horses have always been in my family and played a big part in my life. I never liked school, I left straight after my junior cert and I was never in school. I always just wanted to be around horses.
Since I was young I wanted to become a National Hunt Jockey. I had never ridden a racehorse until I came to RACE. I did work experience in Moyglare Stud for a few weeks and they recommended that I go to RACE. I also heard about RACE from one of my friends who came here a few years ago. He really enjoyed the course and recommended that I apply.  I am really passionate about becoming a jockey and I am delighted that I applied.

I have been injured since November and up until the end of January, which has been frustrating but I have had lots of support from everyone at RACE. It’s now February and I’m catching up and loving being back in the saddle. I can’t wait to go on placement.

I am really enjoying it I have learned so much from being here. I have met so many nice people here and I hope to complete the course and go on and become a Professional National Hunt Jockey. 

Chloe was placed with Tracey Collins on 24th April 2017



 

Chloe doing riding display for Family Day in November 2016

Meet the trainees - Chelsea Hassel

Turning out horses for film shoot September 2016

My name is Chelsea Hassel and I’m from Cork and I’m 19 years old.  I’ve been riding Horses since I was a baby.  I did everything from pony club to hunting and only got into riding racehorses two years ago when I got a job with a small local trainer.  I was thrown up on everything and just told to “get on with it” so I never really learned properly how to ride racehorses.  The season before I came to RACE I was riding in Liam Burkes when I wasn’t at school (which was a lot) and I learned a lot from being there, which was something that did not happen the previous year.  Although I didn’t ride much in Liam’s, I really started to love the industry and it was there that I heard about RACE.

When I came to RACE I wasn’t really too sure what to expect but I thought it would be physically tough and now that I’ve been here so long and gotten fitter, it’s not bad at all!  Afternoon classes are a pain and so are the fitness tests but I can honestly say I’ve had the best laugh with the most amazing bunch of people and thinking back on how I used to ride, I only laugh now!.  RACE really isn’t what I expected as I didn’t think I’d have as much of a laugh as I have had the past few months. 
I haven’t been placed out on a yard yet but I’ve been told that  I will be out within the next week so I’m excited to find out where I’ll go although I’ll miss the laugh I have with Instructor,  Niall down the barn.
I don’t really know what my plans are for the future because at the beginning I just wanted to learn properly how to ride racehorses, so I could get into yards and not have trainers turning me down because of my age and gender,  but the more I stay here the more my plans change.  I’m hoping to get into a good yard and maybe stay as a senior and hopefully then I’ll get my National Hunt licence.

Chelsea was placed with James Nash on the 13th of February 2017

Meet the trainees - Loreena van Buuren

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