I GREW up in a racing environment and although I have been away from the industry for the best part of five years, hopefully I can bring my extensive experience to my new venture as co-owner of the newly founded Irish Equine Aqua Centre.

My father, Paddy Osborne, was a very successful handler who trained Deep Idol to win the Irish Champion Hurdle and Brown Lad to win at the Cheltenham Festival.

On the other side of the family, my mother’s father, Bill Fogarty also trained for a number of years, before going on to work as assistant trainer and later farm manager for the legendary Vincent O’Brien.

My mother Joan worked for Goffs when they were based in Dublin. Horses became my life from a very young age and following a conversation with my Dad when I was 15, it was agreed that once I had completed my education, I could take over the licence from him. In preparation for that I took every available opportunity to gain the experience I would need.

At 17, I spent a summer with Jean Claude Rouget, one of France’s leading flat trainers. He had over 200 horses in his care and it was the first time that I had worked with flat horses.

Having finished secondary school, I began working for my father as his right-hand man. During this time, I also completed my Green Cert in Agriculture (awarded by Teagasc).

In 1997, I spent a season working with Richard Hannon snr in Britain, receiving the type of education one would expect from a master of the training game.

I returned home from Hannon’s and commenced riding as an amateur jockey in 1998, and continued to learn the finer points of training horses from my Dad. In January 2000, at the age of 22, I became a licensed handler.

My first season, 2000, proved to be a real baptism of fire, as the horses suffered from a virus and nothing went right for us.

My father had always bought National Hunt-bred store horses and I found myself waiting for those to mature.

However, the respiratory virus that had afflicted the yard for nearly three years had rendered the horses to little or no use on the track.

At this time I made a conscious decision to buy proven performers off the flat, with a view to racing them under both codes. Luckily this plan paid off as these horses started to win and gradually our yard became known more for its exploits on the level, as I started to buy flat yearlings more and more.

One such purchase, Latino Magic, was one of my biggest successes, winning the Group 3 Meld Stakes, the Ruby Stakes and the McDonagh Handicap.

King Jock, owned by Jimmy Long of Thistle Bloodstock, was another star performer, claiming the Group 2 Primo Carlo Vitadini in Milan, the Group 3 Desmond Stakes and becoming the only non UAE-trained horse (to this day) to win the Abu Dhabi Double of National Day Cup and Presidents Cup.

I really enjoyed the 10 seasons I spent training and it was a financial decision rather than anything else that eventually forced me to call it a day.

In 2010, having relinquished my licence, I went back to education, studying for a BA Arts Degree in UCD. I then spent time working in a non-horse racing related sector in Chicago, before returning home two years ago.

My father had fallen ill with Alzheimer’s disease and I took over the running of the family farm.

However, my love for horses never left me and I was always on the lookout for some avenue to get back into the industry.

Recently the swimming pool on the Curragh became available, and Charlie McCreevy Jr and myself saw in it an opportunity to develop an already established business a little further.

Having secured the premises, we set up a new business named the Irish Equine Aqua Centre and we have now been open two weeks. The facilities are excellent - a horse swimming pool, a 6-bay aqua walker, two cold jet spa units, a solarium, lunging ring, horse walker, paddocks and stabling for up to 50 horses.

We are hoping to develop the recovery livery side of the business, as there is little doubt that horses benefit greatly from aqua treatments.

The centre is open to everyone, be they local trainers, those from farther afield or owners with a horse carrying an injury, who feel it may benefit from swimming and or other aqua treatments as already mentioned.

We are keen to point out that the recovery livery section of the Irish Equine Aqua Centre is designed to cater for professional yards from all sectors of the horse world, and that horses coming to stay with us will be subject to health checks on arrival, and proof of up-to-date vaccinations for equine influenza and tetanus.

Feedback

The feedback we have received has been excellent and we are very pleased to have been approached by a number of veterinary surgeons, who are keen to refer horses in their care for aqua treatments.

We are also completing two rubber-floored stalls where any vet or therapist can examine and treat horses that they have referred to us for recovery or rehabilitation.

It is important for both trainers and owners to feel that their horses are in safe hands and in this respect I am confident that we are able to stand up to the task.

I have a proven track record in dealing with horses, while our head man David Molloy (father of jockey, Bobby) also has a wealth of experience to call upon.

I am confident that we can make a success of this business and am really looking forward to the future for the Irish Equine Aqua Centre.

Robbie Osborne was in conversation with John O’Riordan