I WAS shocked to be announced the winner of the Irish Racing Excellence Award at the recent Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards. To be honest, after picking up a prize in my own category earlier in the evening, I was very content to sit back and enjoy the rest of the night. I never for one moment expected to win the overall award. Someone nearly had to push me off my chair to go up to collect it, as I was genuinely surprised!

While I don’t come from a farming background, my grandfather always had work horses. My parents were never involved. From a young age, I badgered them to get me a pony, so the interest clearly came from somewhere. While most young kids my age would have had posters of popstars and footballers on their bedroom walls, mine were of Eddie Macken and Paul Darragh. Back then, it was all show jumping for me, as I had yet to discover racing.

I learned how to ride from a local lady, Mrs Seabrooke, who lived near us in Gorey. My father knew the owners of Carrigbeg Stud, Stephanie Von Schilcher and Tom Gahan, so he asked if they would take me in. From the end of primary school, I would have spent evenings, weekends and holidays working at the stud. Steph would have been very heavily involved in three-day eventing at the time. As well as the thoroughbreds, she had the eventers in the yard. I did a bit of hunting and hunter trials once Mrs Seabrooke had taught me.

Tom Gahan had a trainer’s licence for a while. We had one point-to-pointer called Blackavar and he won three or four point-to-point races. I loved him to bits and still love telling stories about him. I rode work on him and went with the horse when he ran. That’s really when I started to get into racing.

Sales work

I did a lot of sales work with Carrigbeg Stud. In those days, it was more yearling than foal sales. I would have been very involved in the prepping of the yearlings. It was mostly Goffs at the time, although Tatts came later. After I finished in school, Steph sent me to Germany, to work for a relation of hers, Christina Kagnick.

I was only meant to be there for a couple of months, but I ended up staying two years. I came home for the sales but returned. Christina was one of the leading amateur jockeys in the country. Although horses are largely trained on the racecourses over there, I worked at a breaking and pre-training yard. I would get the young horses ready before they were put into full training. It was something that I really enjoyed. My time in Germany was a great experience and I got to go to the races in Baden Baden a few times. Although I really enjoyed my time there, I think I always preferred working with the mares and foals and doing the sales, so it was an easy decision to come back to Ireland. I came home in 1986 and spent the next 15 years working full-time at Carrigbeg Stud. After getting married, I then took time out to raise my two daughters, Sarah and Ciara. They are both grown up now and I’m a grandmother to Ross and Theo.

Sarah is a nurse in Wexford General Hospital and Ciara works at a veterinary clinic in Gorey. Ten years ago, I got back into employment after Olive (O’Connor) very kindly offered me a job. It was the first time that I had worked in foaling and, from the very first night, I was hooked.

Learning on the job

I came away thinking ‘Why haven’t I been doing this all my life?’ I shadowed Olive over the next number of years, learning as I went along. We would foal up to 70 mares in a season. A lot would just come in to be foaled and then leave, but some stay for the rest of the breeding season. We also get a big number of foals coming back to us to be prepped for the sales. So, there are always mares and foals coming and going.

The early part of the year is always very busy for us. After the foaling season, we then have a quiet time which is usually spent doing maintenance and painting around the yard. It picks back up again when the foals and yearlings come in to be prepped for sales. I stay home during the sales, keeping the yard ticking over and sending the horses to Olive at Goffs, Tatts or to the UK. There is another short period around Christmas where it gets quiet before it all starts again in January. I find that the seasons come around very quickly.

Both Olive and Shannon Ballagh had nominated me for the Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards. I’ve never been one to look for the limelight, so that’s why this award means so much. It shows that people like me are seen and appreciated for what we do. There are so many people who work behind the scenes, dedicating their lives to caring for these beautiful animals.

Every one of us that got nominated and won awards are really only the tip of the iceberg, but these awards are basically saying ‘thank you’ to everyone behind the scenes. In return, I’m saying thank you for being nominated and to Godolphin, the sponsors, Barbara White, Sandra Hughes, Joe Osborne, Bernard Caldwell, the judges and everybody involved in organising such a fantastic event. It’s something I will treasure forever.

Siobhan was in conversation with John O’Riordan.