ON October 6th, when I celebrate my 64th birthday, I will have spent half a century working in the racing industry.

I left school at 14 years old, finishing on Friday and starting work at Airlie Stud the following Monday morning.

Our family home in Dodsborough backed onto Airlie Stud and my brothers and I were always around the farm as children.

My father was employed at the stud and with our close proximity I suppose it was inevitable that I would end up working at Airlie.

I joined my father at an early age and two of my brothers soon followed. Initially I worked with the mares and foals, helping in the barns and with covering.

After a couple of years I moved on to look after the yearlings, a role that I really enjoyed. We used to have to get the youngsters ready for the sales - teaching them how to walk, lead and have manners.

During those years, I divided my time between Airlie and Captain Rogers’ second stud at Ballyowen. The latter was originally purchased solely to stand Santa Claus, winner of the 1964 Irish 2000 Guineas and Epsom and Irish Derbys.

However, it was subsequently decided that he should remain at Airlie and the yearlings were sent to Ballyowen, meaning that I spent half the year working with the yearlings and the second half back at Airlie with the mares and foals.

I also had experience handling the stallions at Airlie, as I provided cover when the ‘stallion man’ was on holidays. In 1979, I was sent to work full time with stallions at Simmonstown - a role I held for 17 years.

After Captain Rogers passed away, Mrs Rogers brought Ela Mana Mou and the other stallions back to Airlie and I came back with them. I remained at the farm until it closed down, shutting the doors behind me as I left for the final time.

Julian Lloyd spent some time working at Airlie Stud in 1975 and even after he moved on, we remained close friends. Kirsten Rausing also spent time at Airlie, working in the office in 1976, before moving on to manage the Baroda Stud.

By the time I left in 1997, Julian was managing Staffordstown Stud for Ms Rausing and he invited me to join the team. It was a wonderful opportunity, too good to turn down and it is where I have been ever since.

Since starting at Staffordstown I have worked with the yearlings, bringing them on and preparing them for the sales. They are born and raised in England, before being dispatched to us as foals in October or November.

We rear them here for a year, after which time we break them and teach them to behave as racehorses. Despite having spent almost 50 years working with horses, I have seen few changes during those times.

In most cases the way of handling and preparing the animals remains the same now as it was back then. The only difference is the number of girls that are now employed in the industry. When I started out it was very rare to see any girls working with yearlings or stallions.

Undoubtedly the highlight of my career was looking after Ela Mana Mou, a very good racehorse and brilliant stallion. I also looked after Ballad Rock who was owned by the McGraths and Henbit, winner of the 1980 Epsom Derby.

In terms of yearlings, the best I was associated with was Dragon Dancer, who finished second to Sir Percy in the Derby. Ironically, that winner now stands at Ms Rausing’s Lanwades Stud in Newmarket.

We are currently in the middle of the yearling sales season, a very busy time for all of us at Staffordstown Stud. I start at 5.30am most days during the sales, grooming and exercising the horses before visitors start coming.

I stay with the horses throughout the morning, walking them up and down the barns, showing them off to potential buyers. Later in the day, I will lead them around the sales ring, as potential buyers bid on them.

Lots that are sold early in proceedings are taken away soon after purchase (in order to make space for the later ones) but I have to remain behind with yearlings that are catalogued for later in the sale, so it can often be dark before I leave the complex.

Away from work, I am a huge music fan, with a particular liking for heavy metal. I have an extensive collection of LPs and CDs and drive my wife mad when I start playing the old vinyls.

Fortunately my son-in-law is also a fan and we go to a number of concerts each year. It works in my favour that the majority of bands I like to see tend to play their gigs in the run-up to Christmas, when the busiest time of my year has just ended.

With only a couple of weeks left in the yearling sales, I am starting to get excited about seeing Slash play the 3Arena!

George Dobbs was in conversation with John O’Riordan