THE next four months are particularly busy for those involved in consigning young National Hunt stock to the sales.

November sees Tattersalls take centre stage, while the following month Goffs hold their annual December National Hunt Sale.

As manager at Ballincurrig House Stud, I am responsible for ensuring we remain at the top of our profession by continuing the stud’s excellent record, which saw us named leading vendor at many of the aforementioned sales.

I was a relative latecomer to the world of horses, with my interest only developing in my first year in secondary school. I lived in Carlow

town and aside from a trip to the stables of Paddy Mullins as a young child, I have very little early memories or contact with the animals.

However, after a group of friends decided to take riding lessons in our early teens, I was bitten by the bug and never looked back.

Soon after I got a pony of my own and that led me down the usual route of pony clubs, hunter trials, hunting and one day events. Later I moved on to teach riding classes at the school where I originally learned myself and that was something I really enjoyed.

I continued with those classes right up until the end of secondary school, by which time I had already decided that my future lay somewhere within the horse industry.

horse management

After finishing my Leaving Certificate, I spent two years at Pembrokeshire Agricultural College in Wales. The first year I received a National Certificate in Horse Management, while in year two I gained a National Diploma in Equine Science and Farm Management. Having passed the BHS exams in my first year, I was qualified to teach as a riding instructor, so I gave private classes at evenings and weekends.

Following my graduation, I spent a year working in an eventing/point-to-point yard in Wales, before returning to Ireland in 1996. I spent the next three years working for Jessica Harrington, where I was employed as a work rider and lorry driver. I got to go racing a lot and shared most of the travelling with Eamonn (Leigh).

Although I primarily drove the horses around Ireland, I went to Cheltenham in 1999 and enjoyed one of my greatest days in racing - leading up Space Trucker, the Grand Annual winner. In this industry having any involvement with a Cheltenham festival winner is the pinnacle of one’s career and I was delighted to be involved with such a horse.

SALES PREP

In 1999, I moved down to Cork and married Niall and it was through my husband that I met Josie Moore. She was looking for someone at the time and he arranged for me to spend six weeks with Josie and Michael (Moore) at Ballincurrig House Stud, preparing the horses for the November Sale.

I enjoyed the role so much I remained on after that initial period and 17 years later I am still here! I live only 15 mins away from the stud, with Niall and our three children, so life can get quite hectic at times.

The first year I was here we had 10/12 yearlings and about 20 foals for the sales. I was employed to lunge and hand-walk the horses so that they were ready for the ring that November. We board about 20/25 mares at the stud so from January onwards the mares start to foal - an experience I had little knowledge of before I came to Ballincurrig, apart from a few weeks’ work experience in the National Stud when I was in college.

Josie thought me so much during those early years and I have so much to thank her for.

From April to August we are full of three-year-olds, prepping for the bumper and Derby Sale and the August Sale, and after consigning a handful of flat yearlings to the September/October sales, the wheel comes full circle and we started all over again in November.

STUD MANAGER

The business has really grown over the years and this season we have one of our largest consignments to date. We have 50 foals and six or eight yearlings for the NH sale in Tattersalls, while there are 20 booked in so far for Goffs in December.

Although primarily a National Hunt stud, we have a couple of flat broodmares on the farm and send their offspring to the sales, alongside a few foals privately owned by UK clients.

I inherited the role of stud manager in 2011 following the sad death of my mentor, Josie.

I had little or no experience of all the admin work and entries that went with the job but I learned as I went along and eventually got there.

The success of the stud is a real team effort and in that respect we have a very close knit tight workforce. Michael is a great boss to work for and has been very supportive of me throughout my time at Ballincurrig House.

In March, Michael nominated me for the Godolphin Stable and Stud Awards and in April, I received the award for Stud Employee Of The Year at a function in the Dunraven Arms in Adare. This was a fantastic recognition of not just my work but that of the lads in the yard.

Willie Dineen and Darius Dlugon are invaluable members of the team, as are Sean and Nora who work part-time with us. I must also give a big mention to Betty Moore (Michael’s mum) who feeds us all everyday - no matter who is in the yard she puts on a meal for them.

Finally, I have to thank our owners and breeders for their continued support in returning to us year after year. Without them we wouldn’t be able to do the job that we do and enjoy the success that has come our way in recent years.

Nuala Healy was in conversation with John O’Riordan