its been a while but i thought i'd throw something together on a subject that seems to be on every punters lips & thats jockeys. now its obviously very easy to criticise jockeys from an armchair when you have no clue about how the job should be done in the first place and the first thing you hear when a bad ride happens are claims of skulduggery. firstly this is a job for these people, like others do day in day out. can anyone hold there hands up say they've never made a mistake at work? i cant i know that much. how many have actually sat on a horse? a fraction of a percent i'd guess. now there is obviously the side to it that these people are doing this day in day out so will obviously be better at it than those that have never sat on a horse, we know that. but when people sit there ripping apprentices apart you have to question these people. obviously nine times out of ten its pocket talk but if your lumping on an inexperienced jockey you should really have a long look in the mirror as thing game clearly isn't for you. if these young future stars of our game aren't given a chance how will they learn? or do people think that as soon as they get in a saddle they become lester piggot overnight? of course they don't and now i'll tell you a story. i have been in this game seriously for the best part of 20 years and as it got more serious i thought to myself "if these beasts are carrying my money day in day out i want to know how they work" so off i took myself down to a local riding school and booked a block of 15 lessons (instructor was attractive but that was bye the bye!) on my first lesson i arrived full of gusto thinking lets get this done & as they wheeled the horses out i thought yep that one will do.. no.. ok then this one.. no.. and on it went..now i'm a biggish chap, 6' 4" quite well built but jesus christ on a bike you should of seen this thing they brought out for me dear lord it made a shire horse look like a show pony!!! couldn't get on with a leg up had to use a step ladder i shit you not!! in fact this thing wouldn't have looked out of place on the set of jurrasic park! off we went nice steady walk thought whats all the fuss about to be honest.. the following week came about so off i trundled for lesson two, bit of trotting today ian? no bother i got this.. YEAH RIGHT! trying to be clever i accidentally gave him a kick in the belly trying to turn & holy bollox ive never shit myself so much in my entire life!!! reared like tonto the thing did dumping me in the shit that he'd deposited not two minutes earlier! right then we'll see about this i thought get me that ladder i'm back on! that was mistake number two... so this time i just sat for a minute trying to get the measure of this beast between my legs (hubba hubba!! ;-) that clearly didn't have plans to become my best friend. off we walked again this time my feet where not moving..in fact my whole body was pretty frozen with fear i wont lie. after dismounting i really did feel a bit shaky but was determined to get a handle on this. lesson three came around & off we went again this time we raised a trot..probably around 3 miles an hour if that. this was enough for me game over the horse had won & got the better of me. i think back to this when i see jockeys flying round at over 30mph risking life & limb and quite simply i find it very difficult to criticise. one minute there a hero thirty minutes later there lying face down in the turf, really is a tough game. when race riding if a gap closes on you at 30mph sometimes you just have to suck it and see..it doesn't make it a bad ride its just how things pan out during a race. having the door closed on me at 3mph was more than enough to make me change my pants so give them a break.. there trying to earn a living like the rest of us.
