RETIRED from race riding but still involved in the sport, superbly gifted jockey Nina Carberry rides to the rescue again, this time of hard pressed home schooling parents.

Nina will be joining the RTÉ Home School Hub next Tuesday, February 23rd on RTÉ 2 from 10am. Nina will share her experience growing up surrounded by horses and what it was like to be the first female winner in 18 years at Cheltenham. She will show the students the different parts of a jockey’s gear and the racing saddle she used when she won the Irish Grand National.

Nina commented: “Cheltenham is a massive thing in our sport. It’s the Olympics of our sport, it’s the pinnacle of our season. I was very lucky to ride seven winners around there. There hadn’t been a woman rider to win races there for a long time before I rode the winner there in 2005, so I was very lucky to get the spin around and to ride the winner. It was my dream to go there every year since I was a kid.”

The best thing about riding horses: “Going fast and feeling free. You leave all your worries behind when you’re on the horse and you’re thinking about jumping your next jump or you’re going over a river or something like that. It’s so nice to go out and have a bit of fun.”

The hub is a cross-platform teaching initiative for primary school kids which is fun and educational and airs from 10am-12.10pm, Monday-Friday on RTÉ 2.