ENNISKILLEN’S College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) staged its annual Careers Day last week.

Students enrolled in the college’s Foundation Degree and Honours Degree programmes in Equine Management had the opportunity to talk to a range of employers and to test their job interview skills.

The day also featured a panel discussion, which saw Leo Powell quiz six guests about their careers in the equine industry. The panel consisted of Brendan Mayne (Alltech in Kentucky), former jockey Rachael Blackmore, Alan Creighton (Irish Equine Centre), Mark Costello (The Irish Field), Niamh McElhinney (Connolly’s Red Mills) and BHS performance coach Mark Robinson.

Here we pick out some of the highlights of the discussion.

BRENDAN MAYNE (Alltech)

I don’t have a horse background. I’m from Kildare, so I was blessed to have a lot of stud farms around me. I managed to get a part-time job while in secondary school with Derrinstown Stud. When I went to CAFRE, I loved the practical element of it because I’m not the most academic person. I loved the fact that there were actual horses on site. I thoroughly enjoyed the racing and breeding units in particular. I started off with the Foundation Degree for two years and then I went into the Honours Degree for the final two years.

After I graduated from CAFRE, I started a science placement in Edinburgh University. From there, I took an internship with Paca Paca Farm in Japan. When I came back to Ireland, I worked for Godolphin for a couple of years and then I got a position with Lane’s End in Kentucky, where I became the foaling manager.

I worked there for a couple of years and then I pivoted into being the Research Farm Manager at Alltech when that position opened up. It was something different and it excited me. I’m not as hands-on now as I used to be with the day-to-day horse care. I do a lot more laying out of research projects for Alltech.

Alltech is a global nutrition company, a multi-species agricultural business with 6,000 employees. It’s a very good place to work. We do sheep, cattle, horses and poultry. My main focus is equine nutrition and ruminant nutrition.

We have a small group of horses and cattle on the farm and we carry out pilot studies to ensure that our products are safe and to see if it’s worth investing in them.

MARK COSTELLO (The Irish Field)

I always wanted to be a journalist but didn’t do well enough at school to study journalism, so I did a basic social science degree in Galway. While in university, I helped set up the Racing Society and we invited trainers and jockeys to come to the college and give talks.

This helped us to make contacts and we managed to get the racing industry to support an internship scheme for the summer months. We secured about eight placements across racecourses, studs, trainers, bloodstock agents, the racing authorities and even with a major bookmaker. I got the internship with The Irish Field and I never left.

That’s very relevant for people here today. I found that, while in college, you could ask industry stakeholders for help and they invariably would give it to you.

I wasn’t a very organised person in college and I wasn’t a good writer when I started with The Irish Field but I was able to pick things up quickly and learn from my mistakes. I started out covering point-to-points, then race meetings, and, over the years, I saw how the newspaper was put together each week.

I’ve had a great career there and I would like to encourage others, but the fact is that journalism is struggling as a profession right now. Fortunately, The Irish Field has a very loyal readership and we’re actually outperforming every other title in the country in terms of retaining readers.

But attention spans are shortening and younger people can be reluctant to pay for content. We’re always happy to offer discounts for students. Hopefully when they read it, they will see the value of it. We love publishing articles about people who have made a living working in the equine industry and asking them how they did it and what advice they can pass on.

We’re also delighted to publish articles written by students on equine courses. It could be a summary of a project you carried out or research you undertook. Having your work published by The Irish Field could be beneficial to you in the future, so feel free to get in touch.

RACHAEL BLACKMORE (former jockey)

I had a great childhood. My dad is a farmer. My mom is a teacher and would have loved it if I followed her into education but I couldn’t think of anything worse, personally, than going back to school for the rest of my life.

I was always going to go to college when I finished school, even though I wasn’t the most academic person. But my friends were all going to college - it was just the thing to do. I spent two years in UCD studying Science, but I kept failing the maths part. So then I went down to Limerick and did Equine Science, and I did a business course in Griffith College in the evenings.

So I was doing all of that and at the same time trying to become a jockey.

Because I failed a few exams along the way, I was 25 when I finally finished college and I was at a crossroads. What am I actually going to do? I need to get a real job.

I was an amateur jockey, tipping away, not really having any major success but really enjoying it, and holding on to that hope through the whole first half of my 20s that something would kind of click.

So that’s when I got the opportunity to turn my licence from amateur to conditional, through [trainer] Shark Hanlon. He supported me, and I just got more practice and got better, and things just kind of snowballed from there.

My family were always so supportive. They could see how much I loved riding and that that’s what I was passionate about. The books aren’t for everyone. Everyone needs to explore different areas to find what they’re good at.

I rode a winner when I was 21 and I believed then that I was capable of riding another one. But I never believed I would have had the career I had in any shape or form. I could never have envisaged what actually did happen.

Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh were big role models for me. There’s a whole host of women that went before me, But when I won the Grand National, I didn’t think ‘Oh, I’m the first girl to win it’. It didn’t even enter my head.

I didn’t want to highlight it, because I didn’t want trainers to treat me differently to any other jockey. I didn’t want it to be an issue. You’ll always have that 1-2% of owners who prefer a male rider. Other owners and trainers might think a female rider might suit a horse. It balances out.

I am in a privileged position if I am a role model to others. But I was doing it all for myself. I wasn’t thinking ‘I want to ride the winner of the Champion Hurdle, so I can inspire people’. But it had that knock-on effect, to give other people joy and maybe make young girls and boys take notice and maybe want to do it as well. I was so, so lucky to be that person.

Now I’m at a stage in my life where my career is taking a whole new direction. I’m similar to a lot of people in the room today, trying to figure out the next stages of my life. It can be hard for jockeys to think about a second career, when something is your sole focus for so long. It just dictates everything in your life, and then it’s over.

I’m very lucky that my career as a jockey has given me jobs to do in the industry. Being a trainer was never really something I wanted to do. I see the hardship that trainers have to go through and I just don’t think I’d ever be able to replace the feeling of riding a winner.

Looking back, I wouldn’t change a single thing in my past because of how it all turned out. I was so used to failure from the ages of 19 to 25 that it stood to me when I had success.

Then I was bit older when I had bigger successes, but also bigger losses, and I was able to deal with that, maybe because I had maturity on my side. So I just wouldn’t change anything.

NIAMH McELHINNEY (Connolly’s Red Mills)

My background is in equine, but a love of horses alone won’t pay the bills. My first job was in a pet shop as part of a sales team. From that, I took an interest in nutrition and learned how products were packaged and placed, and how you match each animal with the right nutrition. That work also taught me about business, profit and loss, staff, dealing with competition and customer demands. Gaining those skills helped me progress into a sales job for Connolly’s Red Mills. I started off basically cold-calling people. You hear ‘No’ a lot more than ‘Yes’ and it builds your resilience. Unknowingly, you are building a skillset. Now I am their Northern Ireland manager.

Nowadays, there is nothing holding women back in the professional world. It comes down to pure graft, pure hard work and aligning yourself with your goals. It’s putting yourself in front of the right people. It’s making yourself known. It’s basically asking someone ‘Can I shadow you for a month?’ Learn from your mentors. You’ll always take something from it and it will come in handy sometime.

My advice to students is never to cut corners. If you can show resilience, commitment, and a reputation for being trustworthy, then that’s going to be more than enough in the long-term. That’s what stood to me with Connolly’s Red Mills. I was in a promotional role for 12 years, probably the longest-serving rep they had. So when my boss got promoted, they knew I was more than able to step into that role.

When things don’t work out for you, ask yourself or a mentor why? Evaluate what happened and what you could have done differently.

MARK ROBINSON (BHS Equestrian

Coach & Assessor)

I’m from a non-horsey background. My grandfather had horses and ponies on his farm, where I used to spend my weekends and school holidays. When I finished school, my parents directed me away from horses, so I went to the University of Ulster to study Environmental Health & Industrial Studies. I loved science in school, so I said I’d give that one a go.

It was a four-year course and, while at Uni, I became heavily involved with the Equestrian Club and I worked at a trekking centre in Donegal during summer holidays. So college for me was a roundabout way of getting to work with horses.

I started working in a very large equestrian centre in England, where there were about 50 staff. I had to learn to be a team player there, riding horses one minute, clipping the next, then running lessons or setting up. We did a lot of training on-the-job and there were competitions at the weekend, so there was a lot going on all the time.

These days, I have quite a variety in what I do. I’m still riding, still competing, and I’m coaching. I’m an assessor for the British Horse Society and a dressage judge. I also do a bit of lecturing.

Now that I work for myself, I obviously have much more flexibility in what I do. I manage my own time and I can take days off when I want. But the downside to that is there’s no holiday pay or sick pay.

I’ve always been a bit driven - I don’t have anything to fall back on, so failing is not an option.

I love learning. I’m obsessed with it. If there’s a talk, a presentation, a demo, I’ll be there. That’s always been a big driver for me - learning more about horses, riders, and the psychology of teaching horses and riders in their relationship.

I very much treat horses as individuals. If we do that we become better trainers. We can identify their strengths and their weaknesses and train them accordingly. Riders are very much the same.

I often see myself as an interpreter. The horse is speaking one language, the rider is speaking another, and we have to try and get them communicating a little bit better. A slight tweak can break down the language barrier. That’s my job really, to be the voice for the horse.

Interpersonal skills are something I have had to work on. I’m not naturally the sort of person that will get up on this stage and talk to you. But I’ve challenged myself to be more brave, to learn to become more confident in these situations.

ALAN CREIGHTON (Irish Equine Centre)

I rode horses and ponies at home during my school days, but I was also able to get through the educational system easily enough, while enjoying myself at the same time. I studied Food Science and Nutrition in college and I could have had 12 horses in full work at the same time. But, at that time, the prices for show jumpers were not what they are now, so I was never going to go into it full-time.

I ended up in the Irish Equine Centre by pure chance. Kildare County Council were basically paying people to give graduates a job, so that’s how Professor Tom Buckley came to give me a call. He said I gave the worst job interview he had ever heard, but there was nobody else for the job so they offered it to me. And because there was a horsey element to it, I decided to give it a go. That was 30 years ago.

I was working in the microbiology department for about three years when Tom sent me out to the stables of one of Ireland’s greatest racehorse trainers, Dessie Hughes. Dessie’s horses were suffering from poor performance and I was sent out to take samples.

We had no idea what we were looking for, but we found different types of fungus that, in humans, were linked to respiratory problems. We diagnosed the problem as being aspergillus. We advised Dessie to disinfect the yard and improve ventilation. All of a sudden, the yard became ‘healthier’.

Word travelled fast and, before I knew it, I was in Newmarket working with Henry Cecil and in Lambourn helping Nicky Henderson.

Now I get to work with lots of racehorse trainers who want us to run tests for them, bloods, scopes, absolutely everything. We just put the picture together.

Despite my poor job interview, I soon learned to be a good communicator. I’m always positive - I don’t just point out problems, I offer solutions. That’s one bit of advice I would always give people: don’t be the person who sits on the fence. If you’re confident about a particular situation, portray that confidence. Be positive about it.

We have nine staff in our department now and they all have good people skills. They all have an equine or agricultural background, so they speak the language of our clients. People in the horse business don’t have a lot of time and they don’t suffer fools. You have to learn what pushes their buttons really quickly. I think the biggest skill is to try and get someone to do what you want them to do, but make them think it’s their idea!

I’m lucky enough to work with some of the best trainers in Europe. Everyone thinks those trainers have some magic bullet which makes them better than everyone else, but the secret is that they do the simple things properly, and that takes severe discipline. Their attention to detail around the basics is unbelievable. They just have good staff in the right positions, who do their jobs to the best of their ability.

What also helps trainers to trust me is that I’m not trying to sell them anything. In fact, I try to help them in other ways. Without breaching client confidentiality, if I have seen something that works well in another premises, I might suggest it to a client. For example I am helping some people in the Middle East with designing new yards, based on everything I’ve learned over the years.

Leo Powell: Love what you do, it’s important to be happy. I don’t care what job you’re doing. If you don’t like going into work, you’re in the wrong job.

Brendan Mayne: Travel. Get out of your comfort zone. Get out of the country. It looks great on a CV. Ireland will always be there.

Rachael Blackmore: Be patient. Things happen for people at different stages in life. Find something you love and be patient.

Alan Creighton: Travel is very good, particularly in the horse industry. You gain experience and contacts by travelling, and the more of those you have, the better.

Mark Costello: Make your own luck by putting yourself in front of the person you want to learn from or work for. Ask them for advice or some experience. Even if they can’t help you, they may know someone who can.

Niamh McElhinney: There’s no substitute for hard work and being able to communicate effectively and properly to the people that you’re dealing with. Try to see things from the other person’s perspective and then that gives you a whole new insight as well.

Mark Robinson: Most of us are probably in this room because we love working with horses. Don’t forget that. Always keep horse welfare at the centre of everything you do and that will help your success within the industry.