DAD always had an auld driving horse at home [in Dingle, Co Kerry]. Around the age of four or five, I started riding the driving horse around the paddock he lived in. A year of two after, dad bought me my first pony. Jack and Paddy Kennedy would have grown up just a couple of hundred yards from my home place. Jack had started pony racing at the time, so I ended up riding out with them; giving them a hand with the ponies. After I got going, my father bought me a bigger pony. I began hunting with the North Kerry Harriers. Then when I was 13, he bought me a horse to go flapping with.

I was flapping the season before Covid. I had one winner just before Christmas. Shortly after, Covid hit and, that put an end to my flapping career. When the early restrictions were lifted, I spent three weeks riding out for Tom Cooper in Tralee. I rode out every morning. It was the first time that I had ever worked in a proper racing yard. I came up to the Kennedys’ place in Monasterevin that same summer. Jack and Paddy had bought their own breaking and pre-training yard, so asked if I’d like to ride out for a week. The Kennedy family have always been very supportive of me and, I am very thankful to them. After I came home, I tipped around with half-breds, cobs and hunters. I was always buying and selling a few horses. At 16, I left school and, joined Sam Curling in Tipperary.