Caroline Walsh and David Walsh October

IRELAND, OCTOBER 2013

It is hard to believe that we are already coming to the end of our first phase. To say that we will miss Ireland is an understatement. The last five weeks have been challenging but very rewarding.

During our time at Kildangan we assisted in breaking yearlings every morning. We were incredibly fortunate to have been given the opportunity to learn from the very talented horse people at Kildangan Stud. The breaking experience is one that will no doubt stand to us all in our future careers and we are very grateful for the time and effort the farm staff dedicated to our progression.

During the second half of our Irish phase we were fortunate enough to visit some of Ireland’s top thoroughbred industry leaders, businesses and associations. Trainer John Oxx kindly hosted us at his impressive operation Curragbeg where he talked us through some of his training methods and discussed some of the highlights from his career to date. We visited Troytown Greyabbey equine hospital where we were very much ‘in the right place at the right time’ and got to witness a full colic surgery performed by Warren Schofield MRCVS. The trainees found this very useful as it was relevant to lectures on colic that we had previously received on our Equine Anatomy, Physiology and Reproduction module at UCD. Brian Kavanagh hosted the trainees at Horse Racing Ireland and gave us a very valuable overview of the Irish racing industry. This was a vital lecture for the trainees to learn about the structure of the Irish industry and its place on a global scale. Pat Kelly, the manager of The Curragh training grounds, gave us a ‘walk and talk’ lecture on the organisation and maintenance of the facility which the trainees thoroughly enjoyed. Henry Beeby hosted the trainees for an afternoon of questions, answers and discussion at Goffs which the group found very beneficial. During the Goffs Orby Sale all of the trainees accompanied purchasers, consignors and bloodstock agents. This experience inspired our questions and discussion with Henry. We are very grateful to all of the professionals who afforded us the opportunity to learn from them during the sale.

Two of the highlights from this phase included stud visits to Coolmore’s base at Fethard, Co. Tipperary and The Irish National Stud, Co. Kildare. We were privileged to be given a stallion show at Coolmore which included the legendary Galileo. We were invited to view The Legacy Gallery was one of most impressive collections of thoroughbred industry history that the trainees had seen. Sally Carroll showed us around the Irish National Stud and all of the trainees were really impressed with the display of hospitality and horsemanship.

We rounded off our UCD equine anatomy, physiology and reproduction module lectures and successfully completed our final examination. We also received some great lectures from a wide variety of industry professionals such as Harry Sweeney MRCVS who gave us a fascinating lecture on Japanese racing – a huge hit with the trainees. Meta Osborne MRCVS was kind enough to tailor a lecture based on areas that the trainees felt that they needed to learn about. Shane Horan, Group Bloodstock Manager for Darley, gave us a lecture on pedigrees which will prove to be very useful to us in gaining knowledge to build upon in our future pedigree research.

As part of this phase of the course the trainees hosted a thoroughbred industry lunch at Kildangan. This year the trainees presented a stallion show to the guests and gave them a tour of the Kildangan Gallery and Darley Flying Start training room. The lunch was a great opportunity to meet influential figures in the Irish industry and was a very enjoyable day.

Our communications assignment for this phase was a SWOT analysis of the Tattersalls September Sale at our first Darley Flying Start Conference. In preparation for the event Simon Kerins of Tattersalls Ireland gave us a talk on Tattersalls and the trainees attended the main viewing day for the sale. In pairs we analysed one of six key areas which we then presented to key members of the Tattersalls Ireland board. This was a great experience which showed us all what we are capable of when we put our heads together.

As we finish up in Ireland we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Sheikh Mohammed for affording us this amazing opportunity. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Joe Osborne, Clodagh Kavanagh and Yasmin Kenny for their time, energy and dedication in making this term in Ireland a fantastic learning experience. This marks the end of our time in Ireland, although we are sad to leave such a beautiful stud, we take with us some great memories and new friendships as we embark on our next phase in Newmarket. We now hand over to Dan Filtness and Melissa Jordan who are our team leaders for the UK phase.