Equestrian Inspirations: Wayne Hamilton
From a non-horsey background, Wayne has worked hard and is now close to getting his BHS Stage 5 Performance Coach qualification
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My Straight from the Horse's Mouth podcast interviews to date have been predominantly with females, so I thought it was time to add a bit of balance.
I have a number of male equestrians to chat to, the first of whom is Wayne Hamilton, who is based in Castlewellan in County Down.
I had a lengthy and very entertaining chat with Wayne, which highlights the dedication, determination and tenacity required if one wishes to progress through the British Horse Society exams.
Wayne has stuck with it through thick and thin and is close to achieving his Stage 5 Performance Coach qualification.
I hope you enjoy our chat.
Are you from a horsey background? Do or did your parents ride or have horses?
Actually, no. I'm actually originally from Banbridge. Good old County Down, or whatever way you want to call it. We lived in a cul-de-sac at the edge of the town and the only horsey relation I ever had in my family was actually my uncle, Mickey Devlin. He was a farrier, so he was, for years.
He would actually be quite well-known in the horsey industry, maybe slightly more with the older sort of generation, not to be rude or anything, but he's actually retired a good while; he's got poor health now.
So that was the only horsey connection that I would have and for years, every time he came to see my daddy, he always told me to literally give up, to get away from them, because he just used to tell me how much my life would be difficult and I'd have no money and this and that, but sure I stuck at it. I didn't listen to him in the end!
So, who introduced you to horses then?
It was actually through high school. I cried because when I left primary school, I wanted to go to Banbridge High School.
My mother actually wouldn't allow me to, which looking back, was probably the best thing that ever happened.
I don't know if you've heard of Newbridge Integrated College. It was the first integrated school that was about at the time, back in the day, if you want to call it that.
So she wanted us to go to an integrated school, just because our family was kind of like mixed religion and that was her ethos.
So, it was actually through school and it was just in first year, so I was probably about 11. They did an Equestrian Club and I signed up for it.
I don't know why I even signed up for it, but I did and I still remember going on a winter's evening… It was like my first lesson, to this yard and you're in the school bus, as you do and it's freezing cold.
But I always remember my first lesson on a pony called ‘Scruffy’. And I think then actually going back, I think lessons were six pounds then.
So that would have been what, 21 or 22 years ago, I would say. Yeah, so I'm 33 now, yeah. So they were six pounds then, so they were.
I didn't actually know the name of the yard, that didn't really resonate at the time. I just went for these lessons on the pony thinking that I was just going to join the equestrian club, but sadly it only lasted for about three weeks, because it was actually no good, so it got pulled. It didn't happen again for another two years, until a couple of the girls in my class wanted to go back and lo and behold, it was the same place, same person and that's where it all started from. So it was actually a yard at the time called Barkston Equestrian Centre, which was just outside Newry.
And the lady that ran it at the time, she was called Lorraine Hutchinson and we're actually still really, really good friends to this day. She now runs Free Spirit Equestrian up in Bessbrook, because she moved a few years ago.
Very good. Yes, I'm familiar with Lorraine's name and I'm familiar with Free Spirit as well. That's brilliant. And what a small world that you're still able to keep in touch with her.
Yeah, absolutely and I still see her at shows and her daughter Jocelyn's doing really, really well for herself and there's a lot of support there, it's lovely to see. I always joke with Lorraine, to be honest with you, because I always say to her, she still hasn't aged…
For some reason, I still think she looks the same from when I remember at 11 until now!
Oh, how lovely. I'm sure she's delighted to hear that!
Oh yeah, she's a good old worker, so she is, you know, she just gets on with it.
And how long did you ride at Barkston then?
I would have gone back to Barkston when I was probably about 13. I would say probably the latter age, 12 or 13.
And lessons were £8 then, I remember that. And actually, mummy and daddy never knew anything about it, because I didn't tell them.
The only way I could afford the lessons was actually my dinner money from school.
Oh my goodness!
Back then, you used to get… Mum and dad used to give us a tenner a week for our lunches in high school. And you used to have to load it onto a card, so I don't know how I ever survived on £2 a week, but I did.
And then the lessons went up to £10, so I was pretty snookered at that point…
Oh, no!
I wanted to carry on [with lessons], so I did have to tell them eventually and they were quite supportive. So they actually did pay for it after that, but thinking back actually, they didn't have a lot of money at the time, especially because there were five kids in the family and daddy was working out on building sites and all and it was a lot of money for them in the day and you didn't realise then… A tenner's nothing now, but everything's increased over the years.
My goodness, you must have been so dedicated to give up your lunches in school just to go for a riding lesson once a week! That's really impressive.
Actually, this is as true as God, and you can ask Lorraine Hutchinson this.
It was only years and years later, she said to me, usually people go for lessons and it's a bit of a facade… You know, it's a hobby.
They get interested, something happens and then they give up or other things... most people generally didn't stick at it in the riding school.
There was always a small number that did and some people were really, really good and quite natural. And she would tell you this to this day, like she said to me, Wayne, you came every week, but you were so bad - she actually said to me that she prayed every week that I’d stopped coming.
And then... for some reason, I kept coming back. And she says, you just kept coming back. And she always said I couldn't canter.
She said, I could not get canter. Like I just couldn't get the concept of canter back then. It took me a whole year to learn how to canter.
And she's like, Wayne, it was just awful. She said, I just prayed that you just didn't come back… and you were still there!
But she says, one day it just clicked and that was it. But she says, a year of learning how to canter… she taught me to jump first before I could canter because she was like, well, if I teach you to jump, you'll maybe learn to canter as you jumped.
No, it still took me a year.
But everybody else accelerated and I was rubbish and managed to keep coming back.
There’s hope for us all then!
Yes, she never told me to give up now. I'll give her that.
I think quietly she wanted me to give up, but I didn't.
Oh, my goodness. Well, you've clearly made up for it since.
Yes.
What age were you then when you got your first horse or pony? Did you have any pony access as a child other than your riding lessons?
It was actually Lorraine. I was probably there about... I’m gonna say I was about 15 or 16 at this point and she used to do loan ponies over the summer and there was this little 13.2hh… He was grey, but he would have been like a dapply grey in his day, but he was a light grey. He was older pony called ‘Smokey’.
Back then, you could loan the pony for £20 a week, so obviously I had to go tripping back to mummy and daddy, crying on my hands and knees for this extra £20 a week to loan the pony. Mummy willingly obliged, somehow I don't know how… I think she just didn't tell daddy these things sometimes you know, but yes I loaned ‘Smokey’ for an entire summer, but I remember he was only 13.2hh or 14 hands. I was always quite tall; I'm just under six foot now, but I think back then I was tall enough for the pony, but I was quite light - I was only about six and a half stone then. Lorraine did say to me, you'll only get the summer out of him, because you are a bit big for him. And that was fair enough, but I obligingly paid the £20 every week, got to the end of the summer and cried the week I had to hand him back.
And then Lorraine turned around and she says, because we were there every day in the summer helping her… Back then, you would have mucked out and you might've got a wee lesson here or there. It was quite a nice way to learn, as you went along. Obviously, that's very few and far between nowadays, but I was crying because I didn't want to give the pony back.
And she just said to me, if you come up after school three times a week, you can keep him free of charge and just work in exchange. So that's what I did for the next six months. I got a year out of him and then I moved on to something else.
I did move on to two wee ponies in between actually, but they were more like wee project ponies. It was the naughty ones, if you want to call them that.
I actually moved on to… Lorraine had a lovely, lovely horse called Floyd, who was about 16.2hh chestnut, absolutely beautiful, stunning horse and I just found love… one look and that's where I probably learned to ride really, later on, because that horse just was one of those horses… He wasn't difficult, but he kept you on your toes and he upgraded you a little bit, so that's where I moved on from that and I just religiously would not leave the yard. Every day after school I got the bus… I used to have to lie my way onto the Newry bus, telling them I lived in Newry to stop at the junction past the Sheepbridge on the bend.
They never stopped there, but I had to beg, but more times than not, I had to get off at the Sheepbridge and walk up to the yard from the Sheepbridge… and that was quite a wee trek, actually! Lorraine used to come and lift me, she felt sorry for me.
Oh my goodness, that's fascinating. Did you do Lead Rein or anything then or were you able to go to shows or did you just ride at the equestrian centre?
Lorraine would have taken us to Newry Show every year. It was like you worked the whole year to go to this one show and I still… I don't think I have the picture, mummy might have it… I still probably have the picture of me and ‘Smokey’ at Newry Show at a very young age and a velvet hat and a huge show jacket and a blue shirt and a tie, or something, you know, all hand-me-downs and stuff.
But it was still the fact that you went to the show. So, like, she generally always gave everybody the opportunity. She was very, very supportive like that.
Looking back, actually, she gave us a lot more than we realised. Like, she definitely gave us a lot more than what you would generally get out of riding schools now.
I think not all of them. I know some of them… depends on location and stuff, but she generally did always provide something for you to sort of try and progress. I actually found it very hard to break away from the yard when I was getting older and I tried two or three jobs in between and I just… You know when you're in one place for so long and you can't adjust, so you go back and it was a very strange dynamic, because I always felt like I missed the yard. I wanted to be there, but I knew I had to move on then when I was about 17.
I think I was 16 and had a moped, because I needed something to get around, you know. But then eventually, I just went to CAFRE at 17.
I took a year out after high school and just worked with Lorraine for the year and then went to CAFRE and that was probably the first time I ventured away.
Yes, I was going to ask that, you know, what about your educational background and what stage you left school and so on. So at 16, you went and did work just for a year at the riding school?
Yeah, like I was in the riding school and I think I had a part-time job in Halls Mill lifting glasses, just to get a bit of money, you know.
It was kind of like that year, I didn't actually go straight to CAFRE from school, everybody left high school and went straight to tech or college.
I actually didn't. I took a year out first, so I just sort of lingered around the riding school and worked a wee bit and it was definitely that transition from Lorraine's, because I remember the last show I ever rode at was a show jumping league she had that week on Floyd.
But it was funny, because I remember her saying to me, ‘oh, you can warm them up if you want’.
And I went, what? She was like, ‘you can sort of teach them a wee bit’.
And I thought, me? Teach? Like I was afraid of my own voice and could barely speak a word, you know, like I was a very, very quiet person when I was younger strangely enough - most people wouldn't say that now! So it was definitely that transition I just didn't go straight to college, I took a year out first and then went and then that was it.
What jobs were you doing in the riding school during that time?
Same thing, just going up and helping her and just basically trying to keep my riding up to standard - back then you think you could ride when you could sit on anything and sort of put its head in a bit of a shape and look pretty… But you get the shock horror when you went to college and you went oh my God, you realise that you know very little, but there's so much to develop then, but everything's a foundation no matter what way you look at it. You're always adding on to a skill that you've learned and it's that instructor/teacher/coach position where you have to be told what to do, then you got to teach the skill and then you coach it to develop, so it all comes in a circular motion you know.
And what made you decide that you wanted to go to CAFRE then and what course did you study while you were there?
I think I kind of deep down knew that I had to do something, if you know what I'm saying. I can't even remember to be honest with you, I can't even remember how it came about, but I remember applying and I remember my mummy driving me to Enniskillen… And back then, Enniskillen was still on the single carriageway - it was like a three-hour drive; it was like the longest drive in the world.
And actually, I'd never really left Banbridge and Newry all my life, I'd never really been anywhere else. And, yes, you hear of all these places. But, that was like a wild adventure for me to go down to Enniskillen with my poor mother to drive me down.
I remember the interview day. It was roasting hot; a lovely summer's day, you know.
I did the National Diploma. It's a BTEC. It would have been like an A-level equivalent. It was a two-year course.
The college still had Necarne then, so you got opened up to all that. I was so lucky in college with it. The four years that I did there, on and off, I got three years in Necarne. I got to live in Necarne for a year.
That's where I met my really good friend, Kyle Hayes, who owns Aldertree Equestrian and myself and Kyle became friends very quickly.
The ND was just the natural thing that you did when you left school, I think. And that's probably why I did it. It was a good foundation.
And then, if that was a two-year course, what did you go on to do then after that?
So when I was at CAFRE, there was a lovely lady in the college at the time who lectured, called Catherine Crowley. She's still there, actually.
Me and Catherine would still be in contact quite a lot to this day, actually. It was actually Catherine who... I'm going to label her as my ‘equestrian mother’, I'm going to say this. She was one of the people that was very supportive… I would have been, to be honest, in college quite a lost person for a long time, with other things going on and she was just kind of always there. It was kind of nice because she always supported you like - she was pushy, but she'd do it in the right way. I was able to take the pushiness, you know - I got to where I am now because she was the first person that pushed me and then you meet everybody else along the way.
For some reason, in my head in college, in the two years, I just kind of knew I wanted to be a riding instructor / coach, whatever definition you want to use. But I didn't really know where to start. And it was Catherine that then told me about the British Horse Society. And then I'd have been in the library and I found the books and then saw the [BHS] system and I started to learn about it and the ladder and the scales.
I did my two years and it was absolutely the best two years I could ever wish for in college, like I would not change them for the world. The friends that I made, the opportunities, the educational level that it gave me, theoretically and practically. It was absolutely like, money couldn't have bought it and I remember graduating going “oh my God, what am I going to do now?”
Just before I graduated, actually, on my second year, I did go and do my Stage one exam and my riding and road safety. So I did start the BHS system then.
Very good.
And I had, actually, ironically, booked the exam, which I still remember being £145, which was a lot of money then, it’s definitely not that amount now. Again, going to mummy and daddy crying. I think I used part of my student loan. I think I was still in an overdraft at this point because... Or not a loan, it was a grant you got at the time, but it didn't really cover everything. But you know yourself, you rob Peter to pay Paul, a wee bit.
As you do.
As you do. But I graduated and I just knew that staying in Northern Ireland or Ireland was not going to get me any further with the BHS.
Okay…
Because I wasn't really sure where to go. And I just thought like, okay, I've done my two years. I've got a good setup theoretically and I started looking in Yard and Groom for stuff. And actually there was a yard in London that popped up and I applied and got an interview. I’d never been on a plane in my life. I didn't even have a passport at this point. And actually, I think I remember coming home telling mummy, “mummy, I need you to leave me at the airport”. And she was like gaunt white going, oh my God, where's he off to now? Because once I left home at 17 to go to college, that was me. I never really went back, to be honest.
Oh goodness!
Banbridge is my home… I have to say that really, but I don't really, don't ever really feel like I belong there sometimes, but mum and dad are still there. So I have to go there to see them and that's it. But once I was gone, I was gone. If you know what I'm saying, that's pretty much it.
Once I got the taste for what else was out there, I wanted to go then and explore other stuff, you know? So I went to this yard in London and basically, I told Catherine about it. And like the first words out of Catherine's mouth were: “you're going, you're not coming back next year. You're going to miss a year and you're going to get your AI.”
I exactly pretty much did that in the year.
Wow!
Yes. And again, she (Catherine) was always there, offering advice and she actually has her intermediate; she has her stage four and intermediate teaching. So she was quite up on the BHS system. So she was always there for structural advice and reassurance all the time, you know.
Oh, that's brilliant to have that support.
I did go to this yard in London, flew over. I remember my ears popping on the plane and had a sore head for three days, because I had to do a three-day interview! Well, I was absolutely mesmerized and gobsmacked, because I had obviously never left Northern Ireland.
Mind you, leaving Northern Ireland to go to London, I still thought I was in a foreign country. So, mummy's advice was “don't speak to anybody, because they'll think you're funny and you might do something to them, to put it lightly”. I got lost in the underground, was shoving my Northern Irish money into the machine to buy a ticket for the tube, which wouldn't work. And then obviously had to open my mouth to the man and show him my Northern Irish money, which I didn't realise didn't work over there. And they all thought it was fake and funny. So that was my experience!
Yeah, I've had that experience too!
Yeah, so I thought, “oh God”, this is really strange. This is still sterling, but hey-ho, there you go. Eventually made it to the yard, got there, did my three days. And I actually remember meeting Mandy Luesley then; I actually met her in the first… it was actually that interview. I was very, very privileged to be able to meet her. She's actually now a Fellow of the BHS and she was another little support network that came later, along with Donald Kear, who was another support and you just meet these people who help, you know?
This is a funny story actually, but anyway, I'll tell you! So I went to the interview and they said to me, “oh, can you ride?”
So basically, my motto with working in yards over my life has been, I always told little white lies, which basically means I always told them I could do less. And I would always be like, “oh no, I can't really ride. I have my stage one. I learned in a riding school”, like I always put myself down, because I always like to stand back and watch… I always felt like, if you come in and say basically you're this, this and this, then people have a preconceived expectation of you immediately. And I didn't like that. You know, I probably wasn't confident enough to be able to do that anyway. So that's what I did.
I remember meeting Mandy and she was like, “so what have you done?” I'm like, “nah, just done my stage one, can barely ride”. So I was letting on that I couldn't ride, but I could ride well enough, you know. So I generally let them try and figure me out a little bit, rather than them thinking I'm this person from Ireland and, yeah, that was the other thing… I didn't realise I was more Irish when I left the country than I was in it all my life! People couldn't understand me either, which was another thing, but anyway.
But the funny story is, anyway, I got the job in this yard. Rung Catherine, she's like, great, go, do not come back this year. So I deferred… Well, technically I didn't defer college for a year, because I just didn't reapply that year if you get me, to go and do the foundation degree.
Yes.
So, I went and took this job and I did six months in this yard in London. And I was there the first week and basically, I think I landed on the Tuesday. I think I was only there three days, again, to which I told everybody that I couldn't ride, but I just carried on and did my thing, as you try your best. And a lady on the Friday got bucked off this horse in a lesson, who had her stage two booked on the Monday, but then decided she didn't want to do it.
And then they turned around and said there's a space available on the Monday for the stage two. And I turned around and I thought, oh my God… This was like Friday. So if I didn't book it that day… I had minus £800 in overdraft leaving college after two years. I had only started the place a week and I was on a student wage, to be honest, I think it was only like £65 a week then. It wasn't a lot of money. So I didn't even have enough time to gather up the funds and stage two cost £165.
Well, I was absolutely like, oh my God, straight onto the phone to mummy. Crying down the phone. I make myself sound like I’m very spoiled here, but I'm not. Mummy was the type of person, she'd always help you out when you needed it, not when you wanted it - she was very literate like that. There was stuff she would have trained us over the years, money-wise and things, just little habits, but anyway it carries through, you know same idea. So she stumped up the rest of the money and put it in my account, paid for the exam.
Well, I can tell you, I had two days to go through all the theory - now bearing in mind, the one thing I was more worried about was failing the lunging, because, let’s be honest, I barely think I'd lunged at all, but the riding I was like, ‘if I pass the riding, I'll do all right’, because at stage two you have to jump a small course of show jumping fences for the first time. So I landed in on the Monday to do this exam, again in my used show jacket, which somebody donated to me for doing a job or mucking out stables, you know.
I kind of had an idea what I was going into, but long story short, got through the ride no bother, still remember the big skewbald cob that I had to carry around the show jumping course, but anyway. I got through it, got through all the care, but let me tell you something, hadn't I went to the college for the two years, I would not have got through the care side of it at all, because actually, the college gave me all the theoretical knowledge to get through that and that is what got me through it so quickly in those two days, because it was already there.
Excellent!
So I have so much to be thankful for in the college and I did take note in college. I wouldn't have been a total academic, but I would have absorbed as much as I could. I was more worried about the lunging and I swear, absolutely swear, I went in to do the lunge and, remember, the BHS system was very much then ‘don't do this, don't do that’, and you must do it a certain way etc etc, but that was always the ‘BHS way’, as everybody calls it. If you did it wrong, it was just a fail back in those days - you had to pass the whole care section to pass the care. You couldn't resit a unit like you can now, so there was more pressure.
Yeah.
But I was so lucky, by the grace of anything. I got this little cob and I had my lunge line, I wouldn't even coil it up, because I was afraid of it getting twisted. So I looped it over my hand, so it just fell out. Well, this little cob took out onto the side of the boards and it was jammed, stuck to the boards in the arena. And I swear to God, I couldn't lunge for the life of me, but this thing made me look like I could lunge perfectly confidently, you know?
Oh, brilliant.
I passed.
Excellent.
I passed, honest to God. I thought, oh my God, like you couldn't have wrote that. So anyway, there you go. So not even a week and I had my stage two.
I was going to say, so that was within a week of you getting to the place? Oh, Wayne!
Yes, and me telling them I couldn't ride!
They must have been well impressed.
Well, to be fair, once you're stage two, you can start teaching. Literally, I was teaching within two days of getting my results. So, in that particular yard, you would’ve upgraded to being able to be a student instructor then. So talk about teaching hours? Well, I swear, honestly, I never taught so much in six months of my life. I think I was taught out by the end of it!
I'm sure that was a great experience for you.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. But like, purely commercial environment… It was very strenuous mentally, to be honest with you, I was pretty much fatigued mentally and physically after six months working six days a week, 12 hours a day. It was a hard job, but there’s a lot to be thankful for it and just before I left actually, I took my stage three riding, passed it first time and I took my PTT two weeks later and passed it, so I left within six months of leaving college with nearly my A.I. and the only thing I had to take was care.
Wow, oh my goodness!
I just got on with it, I just tried my best and got on with it. Now, I was able to save a bit of money and fund that myself then eventually. But again, you know, mummy had to help a little bit. But like, honest to God, mum and dad didn't have much, but I think deep down they knew it wasn't wasting money, it was for a good cause. It was for later on in my life. These things are expensive and that's it. I've still a lot to be grateful for mummy and daddy then really, you know.
Oh I know, what would we do without our mummies?
That's it. That's it.
Oh, that's brilliant to have that support network behind you, though. And so are you coaching full time now?
Yes. Predominantly, yes, I would do a lot of coaching, albeit I've had to have a little part-time job in the background sometimes. But it's just more weather dependent, you know, obviously the way the weather can be here sometimes. I've always had to have a safety net somewhere. But generally, it's horses every day, five days, seven days a week, eight days a week, whatever way you want to look at it!
I think when you start out, you always end up taking people just for the sake of taking people. But, as the years go on, you end up, people want to then sort of follow you a bit and people come and people go and it changes. Predominantly, I'm quite a lot of dressage. A lot of my clients now, I still would teach jumping, but I do that… I blend the dressage with the pole work and the jumping a little bit. So I try and bring a different viewpoint on it; I try and make it that little bit different to just being predominantly… I don't want to say I'm a dressage coach, because I'm technically not. I am an all-rounder and I was quite a show jumper in my day, if I want to say that. The story continues from London, let's be honest, to two other places and hunting and polo ponies, you name it. There's a lot more to add in there, you know.
Well, tell us more.
Okay, so I'll give you a quick rundown. So I came back from London after the six months, came home because I just wanted to come back home and worked in a yard in Armagh for six months, but because I'd met Donald there, it was actually Donald that put me in touch with another yard in England. So actually, I think I went back to FDC and then went to England again, but I can't remember the time frame in my head roughly. I'd need to go through it, but I know it was 2011, so it was probably the start of FDC1. A gap year in the college was about a year and a half… It's quite a strange the way it works, because you get the summer, then the year, then the summer. That's what it was. I was able to go to London, work in Northern Ireland for a couple of months and then go back to Dorset and work again, right up until literally the day before I went back to start my foundation degree. So it was Donald that put me in touch with this lovely lady and I actually got in touch with her. I just needed to do my Stage 3 care. That's all I needed to do to get my BHS AI at the time and she willingly took me, paid me a really good wage, gave me accommodation, lifted me from the airport.
This woman is actually was the one that inspired me to do my BHSI later on in life. She was probably the first person that sort of inspired me, I want to say. And sadly, she's actually passed away now. She passed away a couple of years after I left. She was quite young, I think she was about 54 or 55. She wasn't old at all.
Oh dear.
And she ran a really top-renowned BHS yard in Dorset and, don't get me wrong, it’s quite funny now when you think back… She and I didn't get on actually for the first three or four weeks when I came, I don't know why, but she just could not get my sense of, not even humour, just the way I got on. I don't know why. There was actually another girl, Anna, there from Northern Ireland too, but Anna had been there a bit longer, so I don't know whether… I'm not exactly the hardest person to get on with, but we just, for some reason, couldn't gel for the first four weeks. It was a really strange dynamic, but I stuck it out. But she was severely hard on me.
This is where the lunging story comes back, because I remember her saying to me, “oh, you have to do your lunging for your stage three, let's go lunge”. And I remember the first lunge lesson, I think I was out two seconds and she turned around and she was like, “that's absolutely rubbish. How the hell did you pass your stage two lunging?” And I was like, “with luck”!
In a general sphere, that woman pulled me apart like Lego, as a rider, from lunging… She literally crushed me to the point of… I think I was weeping most of the time after it, for about another four weeks. But you know what? It was all for the bigger picture. And then just within that time, we just got on. Do you know what I'm saying?
The relationship changed and then I started to get onto her way of thinking. I just think she had a way and I just couldn't seem to blend in with that. And she just didn't like anything different, you know, so.
Maybe she was just trying to find out what you were made of!
Maybe she was, but she severely put me under pressure like, but she did it in such a way that actually, when I finished my foundation degree, I went back to England again. I jumped in and out of years (at college), because I kept going to do my BHS exams. When I went back to England… I did my first year foundation then went back again and I actually stayed for a year, nearly two years… whatever the gap year worked out, in another place in Basingstoke and I did my stage four, my intermediate teaching test at 21, with very little training, but the thing was, it was actually because of Helen.
It was actually Helen that got me to that place without realising it, that it made it that little bit easier to go and fire on a little bit. And the hunting yard I was working in, a hunting yard and riding school… God, there was everything going there. It was absolutely amazing. We were hunting every week. You name it!
Again, Catherine in my ear telling me, don't come home until you get this, you know? And I'm like, ‘oh my God, Catherine’. My boss paid for my stage four riding, gave me holidays, paid me a wage, put me in a house. I thought I was like royalty, never had anything like it in my life, brilliant. But yeah, they were very supportive bosses. But the thing with them was they'd always said you know we can't provide you with the training you need and we're more than happy to fund that and the deal was, they paid for my stage four riding exam. I had to work a year from that date and then I owed them nothing back, because that way they knew I would do a year's service with the company. And if I left halfway through, I paid half back and vice versa you know.
And very, very supportive. So yeah, by the time I done that whole year after Helen, but actually Helen had passed away. I think I was just back home not long after that and she had passed away not long after that, actually, unfortunately. My plan was to go back to college, finish foundation degree level two and then go back and stay with Helen for a couple of years. That's what I wanted to do, but unfortunately that didn't happen. So I graduated CAFRE in foundation degree two with my stage four riding and my intermediate teaching test.
Brilliant, and what age were you?
Probably about 22, 23 then, about that, so I just kept going. And the funny thing is, I always said I only ever wanted my PTT, and I did my PTT, and thought, ‘oh god, I'll do the next one’, and then I got that, and ‘I'll do the next one’. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't pass my stage four care the first time, but that's okay, a couple of years of not doing exams and you wait a wee bit later on. That's life, you know, but failure is always very important for success too, even though it's not a nice thing to happen.
It can teach you a lot though, can't it?
Absolutely and you know, I say this to a lot of people, I generally feel some people will go and they'll get just what they think they need, just to get the insurance or whatever. Probably the only reason why I kept going was because I was in the right place and I had the support. But also in the back of my head, I kept saying, the paper doesn't define who you are. It's all in the journey. It's actually the journey from the start to where you want to get to, is actually the most important bit. The piece of paper is the recognition of the journey.
I think we can all get very lost in ‘I have this level of qualification’. You're like, that's great, but you’ve got to keep learning. It's the journey that teaches you rather than qualification and actually, sometimes you learn more after the qualification, I think, because you don't have that pressure on you or have an assessment all the time. But especially for me now, because I'm very, very close to getting my full stage five performance coach BHSI qualification now, but it's the journey, it's the friends, it's the people, it's the places, it's everything, that's what it is. When I get that certificate, I will look at it, it's CAFRE, it's the journey it's the friends and that's what it is.
Yeah, stage five, though, that's fantastic.
Yes, it hasn't been easy either.
No, I'm sure it hasn't.
It takes a lot of hard work. Especially here in Ireland, you know, like north-south, and I refer to that as the whole island, because you know, there are very few BHSIs here in Ireland, and it's also about accessibility to training and horses and venues. There are a lot of things that have to be put in place for you to get to that level, and I'd have been quite ignorant when I was a bit younger because I wanted to do my BHSI quite quickly. I always said I wanted to do it. Once I got my intermediate, I was really focused on it and I had a lot of setbacks for years and I found it very difficult, I'd asked so many people to help me and I couldn't get help. I just felt like I was hitting a dead wall all the time, so I sort of gave up a wee bit and put it in the back of my head and it wasn't really until Covid hit that I had time to start thinking about it and then people were available then and it sort of folded a bit better. But the mistake I probably would have made in my younger version of myself was I wouldn't have had enough life experience for it then, so I can understand why I was probably not so forthcoming to get it, I was probably quite limited in some training and different things, but that's where I was. So years later it was life experience that sort of got me into that decision then, which helped. But the support here at that level it is very difficult and I had to then go and find channels to figure out that support. And again, Catherine standing in my ear yet again, pushing me hard the whole way. And I eventually figured a way out financially and time-wise. I got the Jeffers Scholarship, actually. It helped towards it later on, but I was able to fund my stable manager's exam on my own. And I think I totaled about three and a half thousand in the end.
Oh, my goodness.
And I was actually working part-time in a golf club at the time. And that's kind of partially what funded that. So as I say, the safety net always helped.
Yeah.
It was always there for a reason, you know.
Yeah.
And then the Jeffers Scholarship, obviously, I got it.
And how did you get that? What was that for?
Well, the Jeffers Scholarship is actually, it's not a BHS. The Jeffers scholarship is for any coach, like anybody that wants to develop but obviously you have to work in the industry full-time and I am working in the industry full-time, I still was working in the industry full-time and had to have a safety net in the background somehow. It was maybe only one day a week but it was still something, it wasn't a lot of money but it still got me through and helped me you. But you had to apply for it. So you had to submit a CV for it, they have a website. And I was quite lucky at the time because they're actually quite inundated now. And they've actually stopped taking applications for a while because there are so many people now applying for it for support.
And you had to submit a CV and a picture. And then they put you through a panel. And then I got an interview on the phone. And I did that and then I got awarded. Then I had to pick a center that I wanted to go to and two coaches I wanted to train with. So then I thought the only place that I could really go to that's going to really help me was Ingestre. So I obviously put Ingestre down and I had met him here doing a BHS camp and he did my assessment for that. So I had to drive my horse down to Enniskillen, do a riding assessment and a small interview with him. And then obviously I was awarded the scholarship after that. So I suppose that just opened the rest of the door for the BHSI then.
And then in the middle of that, to keep up with the riding, I had to again try and find somebody to keep me riding in the meantime and support me, so again I went back on the emails, back on the networking side of it and I don't know how many people I emailed and was like look I really, really need a bit of help a bit of help and support, and the only person that got back to me was Ross O'Hara in Dunbyrne Stud, Co. Kildare, and it was actually quite a funny conversation because he emailed me back the next day and wanted to have a phone call on WhatsApp. But with my signal, there was a delay on the phone. And there was this real awkward conversation happening. And I was like, oh my God, I want the ground to swallow me up right now.
Oh no…
So I had this conversation with him and he just said, come down and meet me. And I thought, well actually, I'm in Wexford next week because I was going down to do some training with Jillie Rogers. So it just worked out that I was on my way home, fell into place a whole lot, met Ross and I literally went to him and said I have no money, I can't afford this, but I will give you three days of my life every week for the next 12 months if you train me and help me for this exam. And he said, yes, no bother. And they actually put me in accommodation for two nights a week. And it's sort of a saying, I'm asking him for help. He wants something off me. And the deal was that I had to teach in the riding school all day on Sunday, but they actually paid me for that as well. So it kind of worked out nice, and because I'm self-employed, I could still keep invoicing them for that and I could still work aside from that, so it worked out quite well that he got the use of me and I got the use of him.
And I suppose the other bit I didn't say in this conversation was that my dad was actually a digger driver. That's what I wanted to do originally. It was literally in my blood, my granddad was too. And actually Ross has a lot of farm machinery and I ended up doing a load of digger work for them because throughout my years as well, being self-employed way before COVID, I actually used to build horse arenas as well. And I would have done a lot of handyman jobs around yards and different things. You know, I always had my fingers in a few pies. So that came in use later on, you know, for him.
Very good. I'm sure he got good value out of you then, Wayne.
Oh, yes, because Wayne had to go and strip the outdoor arena and fix that and do fencing, you name it. Like I didn't say it to him at the start, but just over time it just sort of happened and that was it. And actually to this day, he would ring me now and ask, can you come down and do some digger work, not ride horses?
You must have been pleased enough then.
No, it worked out great. Don't get me wrong, it was a year of driving to Kildare, twice a week, every week for three days, coming home, then having to work, then having to do everything. It was hard. It was seven days a week. It was religious, you know. And my partner was very, very supportive. I have to be very thankful for him because he put up with a lot then. He put up with me not being here as well and other things. But it was the best thing that ever happened. Me and Ross are very good friends now to this day. We talk quite regularly. I sort of would refer to him as my sounding board sometimes because he's a good ear to listen to, and it works the other way. So it's another sort of string in the bow, isn't that the saying?
Yeah. No, that sounds like you have met some really good people along your journey.
Yeah, I have. I've met a lot of people and albeit, yes, it's in my sort of field and what I'm comfortable with now and I'm quite content. So the only regret I had was that I wanted to go to Europe, it just never happened. So I've pretty much arrived where I want to be, although it was a completely different route that I never thought I would go down. So I've ended up where I want to be just on a different path.
Yeah.
So I'm quite grateful for that. And yes, again, met a lot of people. I like learning. I love listening. I will try very hard, it doesn't mean I always get it right, nobody's perfect. But I absolutely invested my heart and soul for a whole year and a half into doing my BHSI riding because it is a very tough exam to pass.
I would think so.
And actually, the funny thing about this story is I actually wanted to do the dressage coach route originally because I lost a lot of confidence in jumping after COVID, I think a lot of people would have been in the same boat, COVID didn't help anybody. I just never felt like I could jump the same as I used to; you know, your 17 year old self is a wee bit more, you bounce a wee bit easier, and you get older, and it impacts you mentally a bit differently, and I went through a real crisis of identity, I think, at that point. And I went through that with Ross, but it was Ross and it was Tim in Ingestre that sort of helped me through it. And Tim just advised me not to do the dressage route because I'm better being a bit of an all-rounder. And I thought, right. Because I'd had a bad fall and I just could never erase the sort of propaganda out of my brain. And I did, I went home and I started jumping my partner's horse. I got a good saddle, put my boots on, cracked on. And I think within six months I was jumping about 110cm at home quite comfortably and I was pushing on and actually Mark Robinson helped me out quite a lot in the middle of it, because I was able to use a bit of my scholarship with him and it worked out very nicely, the whole thing and he tortured me for a while. So, you know, again, you know, he was part of that journey too.
And yeah, I went and I did the exams with my very good friend, Marie-Leanne, and poor Leanne, God love her, I've never seen anybody work so hard for anything. The BHSI for her has been a completely different experience. She wouldn't be the most academic person, but she's not been successful in quite a few attempts, but she's got it now, which is great. And we actually ended up doing our riding together and there are only ever four candidates on the day, two in the morning and two in the evening and it worked out that it was me and her in the evening and it was a roasting hot day, unbelievable, and you weren't allowed to take your show jacket off because of new rules and all that, and I remember taking Leanne and I think I gave her the pep talk, the serious talk and Leanne passed and I passed, we both passed that day and I can replay the whole thing. I honestly don't think I ever felt so relieved in my life because the intensity of that, like I'm not going to say that I will ever experience childbirth. That's not what I'm capable of. But that was probably the experience that I would want to label it as. With an interview in the background, you know, as they always say, interviews and childbirth are the hardest things ever, but... It was not easy.
But anyway, I did it and I got it first time and I think Stephen will tell you I cried with joy, I was like thank god I don't have to do this again.
Well done.
And the experience was amazing, like I enjoyed the experience, the journey, again it's still part of the journey.
Yeah.
But the piece of paper doesn't define you at the end of it and I'm still progressing and learning and developing from that. That's just something that I've had to do along the way and I've done that and I have just my coaching left, unfortunately I didn't actually get it the first time, which is fine because there are a lot of positives that have come out of that and it's opened more doors with people, it’s again another direction and it's actually been probably one of the best things that's ever happened, failing an exam, because it just opened a whole other network for me which I never thought was there, which is great. But again, it's just very hard to get that support here in Ireland and you just have to do the best that you can.
But the best advice I'm going to give for the BHS system or the BHSI, the intermediate, the stage four senior coach, it's all been renamed now; is if you want it bad enough, you'll do whatever you can to get it. You'll move heaven and earth to do it, whether it's financial, time, anything. All of us that have been there would probably say the same. You have to want it enough and you will do it, although that we mightn’t get it all the first time, that's still okay because it's still just an expensive lesson. And yeah, me and Kyle actually worked in a lovely yard up in Portrush, sadly he's passed away now too, but Philip's wise words to Kyle and I were always to treat it like an expensive lesson, and that's what it always was to us.
Yeah… But in the midst of all of your education and your learning, you have been coaching other people. So tell us a wee bit about that.
Yeah, I'm quite an open book, I sort of view myself like as in I'll help anybody that I can help and that wants help. I like to bring different ideas to the table, obviously everything's relevant to what's in front of you, but just over the years, I think I've met so many people over the years, especially just through coaching and it opens doors and you meet parents and people. And the irony of the coaching side of life is, and it's probably not just me that will say this, especially because I taught in a lot of riding schools along my journey as well, and that's just part of my journey, but it's not been all riding schools. The ideal life would be that I didn't have to do that, but coming from a non-horsey background, I've had to start somewhere. So riding school is the most obvious place. Kids, come up to me and they go ‘Wayne, Wayne, Wayne’. And I'm like, yes? And, you get complete nostalgia because I'm like I don't know you yet. You know, all the time this happens to me and I'm like, oh, and then they tell me who it is and I realise I taught them as kids, but they're grown up now. I don't know who they are, but they remember me. You know, there's always somebody you leave an influence on, whether you think you have or not. That's how you inspire somebody else.
Oh, well, that's nice. That's lovely if they're coming up and maybe sharing a story or whatever with you.
Absolutely.
So what levels of people are you currently coaching and how do you work at the moment?
Yeah. So I have quite a lot of regulars now. So I have people who want to do an intro test, people who are training up to Elementary, wee bit more Medium, and that's probably where I'm at at the minute. I have one client who is extremely dedicated, twice a week, every week on the button. Sometimes four times a week, five times a week…
Oh my goodness!
Absolutely dedicated. Yes, she's quite local to me actually. So her goal is to get to Elementary. She has a beautiful Cobb, which actually she gave me the privilege of riding at Balmoral this year. And we came fifth in Balmoral on this beautiful Cobb. And it was his first time at Balmoral. I rode at Balmoral years ago for the college in Old Balmoral. So it was my second time at Balmoral, years and years later. But yeah, they had a bit of a parting of ways. So she's been the one that I've been supporting the most.
I've been doing a bit of riding school in the middle of it. I've been doing pony club, riding club, a lot of BHS training actually. Stage three, stage four. So I've had one candidate for stage four sign off. I've been doing PTT, stage three teach training, stage three coach training. Actually, I've just done a stage three coach training just before our little conversation here tonight.
If you want to sort of put me more to a label, I actually do quite a lot of long reining and it's actually something that I'd be quite known for. I absolutely love it and I took a real interest in it years ago and I would get people getting in touch with me to ask if I can long rein their horses for improvement on the flat and lateral work and anything that I can do to help the horse's way of going to make it easier for the rider. I've had horses in our own little yard in the last two years for short-term schooling projects in and out. Yeah, I've done rides, my fingers have been literally in every pie. So it's not just teaching clients. It's not even just dressage. There's jumping, I've been in Ash Hollow, I did cross country for Monaghan Pony Club. It is absolutely varied and it can be from five years of age to any age, which is great because you're getting a good variety at everything as well.
Oh, excellent. And I imagine then it's every type of horse then as well if you're teaching all those different age groups.
Absolutely. Anything from part warm bloods to Cobb or your typical Irish horse, ponies, you name it, you see a lot of everything. And you have to have that variety with coaching, especially… I don't generally actively go and stick myself into the pony clubs, it’s usually if they come to me, I would do it. I just did a three-day pony rally there actually a couple of weeks ago and it was the best pony club rally I think I've ever done in my life. I enjoyed it so much.
Oh, great.
So you just get a lot of everything, you know.
And I believe you were nominated for a coaching award recently. Firstly, I need to say well done because it's really impressive for an equestrian coach to be nominated for a mainstream coaching award. Can you tell us a wee bit more about that and how it all came about?
Actually, I didn't know anything about that until somebody sent me an ad for a newspaper about this coaching award. And it wasn't the newspaper that I was more shocked about. The write-up was actually phenomenal. It was the pictures that were used that surprised me, because they actually used pictures of me when I was just graduating college. But I had blonde hair then, because I thought, typical Spice Boy era. Yeah, I was like, oh my God, I look ginger. It was actually one of my clients that nominated me for that award and that's how it came about. So I haven't heard anything about it in a while actually. I think it was like a nomination process and it was all over, it was Sport Northern Ireland, it was all categories, but I think the nice thing about that was actually the recognition of equestrianism, which was absolutely delightful to see because as far as I'm aware of, that's never been really sort of ventured with that. So I think it was the first time that equestrianism came into it.
Yeah, that was my understanding, Wayne, that generally it would be football coaches or boxing or just mainstream sports. So I was really impressed that any equestrian coach was included in that list of sports. So very well done to you for it being you.
Thanks. I did actually get awarded the BHS education award years ago actually as well, so I had got that previously, but it would have been something quite similar. But especially for Northern Ireland, I think the Sport NI one was a good statement for Northern Ireland and equestrianism and I think if it does anything, then I'm just glad that it's done that.
Well done for your name being put up for it. And what about your own competition career then? You have done very well in the dressage arena. How did you come to follow dressage rather than other disciplines?
I think predominantly, if I was going to be honest, I actually deep down, would love to event. I think that's what I'd love to do deep down. I just didn't have the setup for it really. Like me and my partner, we have a small yard and the functionality of what we have, I looked at it and went, well, to event, there are things missing that need to be there and we just weren't ever going to really have that. So I just sort of decided that that was just a slightly longer road to go and maybe a struggle. Whereas, I sort of got more of a bug for the dressage and the flatwork side of it as the years went on and I just got a little bit more graspy to it and I wanted to do better.
And obviously by the time I was doing my BHSI, you know, when you start learning how to ride half-pass, travers, renvers, all these more advanced movements, it's absolutely invigorating what you can teach a horse if you have the right sort of systems in place, and the right co-requisites.
But I just sort of stuck at it. And let's be honest, I'm only riding registered this year because I can afford to do it now. Like, I couldn't afford to do that before, but yeah, I rode unregistered up to medium and then eventually went registered. So I'm riding a wee bit lower down at the minute. And I'm riding my partner's horse, actually. He's not my horse because my horse decided that it wanted to stay on benefits and doesn't want to work!
Oh, no.
Yeah, that is my label for him, to which my partner always shouts at me because I keep trying to, like... not pawn him off as such, but he is an absolutely stunning horse for who he is. And he was part of my journey. It’s just unfortunate that I outgrew him quite quickly. And he just, he was bred to jump.
He has a bit of an injury. He's sound, but he just hasn't that desire to be a dressage horse. So he just wasn't going to do it for me, you know? And my analogy of Gucci is it's like riding with the handbrake half on, that's it. Unless you go in to do an intro test, which it'll do the most perfect intro test ever. Straight lines, it'll trot round, hold its head in, and look after your granny, I’d trust him with your life, you know, he's very good that way.
He walks himself onto the horse box, he bows, like, all the things I taught him over the years I stupidly regret, because he’s just a very gentle soul, and I will look after him until his last days in this world. But he's just my friend, that's how I look at him now. Unfortunately, Stephen's horse has been the nominated participant and it has to work harder now because it didn't join the party until it was 15. So he actually is only riding, in that way of going for the last three years and was the more willing participant out of the two of them. And albeit he has his quirks and he's a bit difficult in his own way, like, he just gets a bit hot.
So, yeah, I trained a 15-year-old horse to do half pass and pretty much ride up to medium in less than two years.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah, so he was my sort of shop window and that's what I'm sort of using him as at the minute. But he's also a teaching horse because he's still teaching me stuff all the time until the day comes where I have to sort of move on to something else. Plus, at the end of it… obviously is my partner's horse, but he's there to teach my partner. The way I look at it is with him, he is what he is. I love him dearly, he's been an absolutely stunning participant in what he's been asked, very willing, a great sense of attitude to the work; he struggles a little bit, but he's getting better and he's getting better, but if I can prolong his life through training and a variety of different things then I think that's a job well done for that horse at the age he is, so that's the way I look at it.
Well that's brilliant, and can I ask what's your favourite show to compete at?
I would do a lot of showing I've actually done it… well, I'm sure you've seen that I have been on the showing scene as well. And I do that because it is Friday for my horses who are not stuck between four boards all the time. And they're being asked to go around like machines, but yeah, that's part of the other side to me that I sort of try and bring across, and I've done quite well at that. And again, my partner has always been there and supported me he's been the groom and i do get him up, he rides, we share a little bit.
Very good.
So he has to ride sometimes because I keep saying to him that I do it all and he likes to watch, there’s dressage on this saturday and i want him to do it but he's not really forthcoming about it, but anyway…
So I'll ask you the question with two prongs then. What is your favourite show to show at and what is your favourite show to go and do dressage?
So showing has been Balmoral. Absolutely a phenomenal atmosphere, absolutely loved it. Not going to say that I'm never going to go to Dublin some day, but it just probably won't be right now. I think that would be a good stepping stone or a good aspiration to have. In dressage, Necarne… I'm just back from there, last week was my first time riding registered at Necarne and as I say, I spent three years in the college so I know Necarne well, it still smells the same, it's just ironic even though the college don't have that any more. Absolutely enjoyed Necarne. And Red Hills, I went to Kildare on my own the week before with the horse.
Okay.
Stayed over and I rode the Novice on the Saturday and the Elementary on the Sunday on my own and yeah, I absolutely loved that show. What I find about the registered shows is the atmosphere is completely different. It's a lot more, I don't want to say relaxed, but it's just different and it's nice. And there's a lot of really, really good unregistered shows as well. Hagen's Croft is actually another one, Gillian does an absolutely good job at running that and I absolutely love going to Hagen's Croft to compete as well.
Yeah, I think I've seen your name in the results there several times! So when you're competing, what would be your routine to prepare for a show in the weeks before or the night before or the morning of the show, have you got any wee tips for anybody or things that you like to do?
Yes, I think this is the top tip, although me and my partner disagree on this one. He has to leave the house half an hour before me on the show day because he stresses me out to the hilt and he knows that, but he's just a lot fussier than I am.
I would say you've got to do your preparation before it, yes. I would be quite laid back, actually. I tend to do things in bits and rather than trying to jam everything in at once. So, if I have a show test coming up, probably two weeks before or whatever time between my entry and the show, I'll do a wee bit of the test one day and I mightn't look at it for a day or two, but I'll be reading through it, and then I'll learn the next bit. I'll learn it in three stages and then I run it all together then.
But just before the show comes up, I actually don't stress. I'm actually nearly horizontal because I'm so laid back!
Oh, I wish I was more like you.
Yeah, I have the mindset that less is more sometimes, but I think over time now I've learned it's actually the warm up is the most crucial bit because if you don't get that right mentally for the horse and yourself and physically, obviously it helps if you can get it right, but then you've outside… external things that sort of affect the performance on the day, you know just from prams going past.
Yeah, or umbrellas.
Yeah umbrellas, you name it. But yeah, I would tend to do a lot of walking for the first 10 minutes and quite a lot of lateral work on the walk and then I would pretty much go into canter from there and then just work on the trot at the end and then pack my horse and go and do the best I can, but to be honest with you I never had any expectations I do the best I can on the day in the arena and I just leave with a smile on my face every time and that's it.
I think a lot of us could take a wee leaf out of that book.
Absolutely, I think the older you get, the more you start to appreciate that actually we have to examine ourselves more, it's never the horse. Position and mindset do have a massive influence on on how the horse is going to go for you on the day anyway and I am actually very laid back and it drives my partner mental but I just can't stress. I can't allow myself to stress because when I get myself in that state, then it's pointless for me, I forget, I'll just forget the test, it won't go right. I just don't have those negative expectations. I have the expectation that I want to do well, I think that's all I ask for. With that expectation, I seem to try and encourage the best experience rather than the best outcome. For example, I don't go out to win, everybody wants to win and would love to win and that's great. If you do win, that is excellent, there's no harm in that. I go out to have the best experience in the hope that I get something for it.
Yeah.
And that is my mindset.
Yeah. Again, I think a lot of people, including myself could take something from that. And who inspires you in the equestrian world, both locally and internationally?
God, that's a hard one. Well, locally I would say, Ross would be my biggest inspiration. He's out doing very, very well now with the stallion, Pompidou. Actually, I was involved in breaking him, so I look at him and I think it's nice, we sort of help each other a bit and chat sort over experiences, but he would be my local inspiration.
I think everybody either wants to say Carl or Charlotte inspires them internationally because from the dressage point of view, yeah I like all of it. I see a lot of these, international guys riding and I see bits in everybody that I like. I just think that I'd love to be Charlotte really, but there would be an extreme makeover in all departments there to get to that, nevermind my gender. I love to watch things quietly. I see different things in different people that ride different horses and different tests. I just think all of it inspires me and that's my honest opinion.
Yeah very good. And who has been the greatest help to you so far in your career both in terms of your family and externally?
Well my partner, he's had to put up with a lot. He's had to listen to a lot of woes and a lot of dramas and not even just mentally but physically, financially he has absolutely allowed me just to carry on and I have to be very thankful for him for that. Mummy does still help me a little bit. I hate to say it sometimes, but it's not actually through asking, I think it's more for the fact that she sees how hard I'm working and she just likes to send me random money sometimes!
Oh she sounds like a total angel.
So I just keep saying to her “You don't have to do that. I’m older now, I’m okay.” And she's like, no, I have to, it's all for a good cause and the bigger picture and all this. So she still helps out like that. As I say, I never ask for it. I actually do generally try and give back to them as much as I can sometimes but… so mummy's still there.
Oh, that's so lovely. And what are your ambitions in life, both with horses and beyond?
My ambition right now is to compete my partner's horse to medium. If I was to get to advanced medium registered, I'd be delighted with that. And I would take that as my first experience riding registered to that level on that horse. Obviously, I'll have to repeat the experience again, but learn from this one and take it into the next one and move along the systematic ladder and developmentally carry that on.
I have just my coaching to finish for my performance coach, my BHSI qualification, for stage five. I want to be an assessor for the British Horse Society. It's always been in my head. It's just one of those things I always wanted to do, more for the fact that it's a statement to say that anybody can push on and get to this level if they work hard and the right doors open. Also that I can try and be some sort of support network for anybody coming up through the BHS system or anybody that's even coaching. Just to be able to say that I'm there to help if I can. And being an assessor is probably a difficult job, but it's also a very rewarding job. It's another assessor for Ireland. That's where I would like to go with that.
I was just going to ask, are there any other assessors at that level in Northern Ireland?
Just one. There's only one other assessor here in the north of Ireland. And to date, I think there's three in the south of Ireland. So as a whole island, there are only four assessors currently that I know of. There are two other candidates that just got their BHSI in the last year or two. So whether they come on board, I don't know, but as far as I know there are only four.
And then with all of that in mind, where do you see yourself in five or in ten years' time?
Oh, that's like an interview question. Well, I know we're having an interview, but like that's a job interview question that everybody hears and goes “oh my God!” I actually think that's a very hard question to answer, but from the job perspective. From this perspective, in five to ten years' time, my goal is to get to Prix St. George.
Very good.
That is my goal, to address that. Tails, PSG, have my BHSI, become a BHS assessor, train anybody that I can help along the way and hopefully get a wee bit more financial security in my life for me and my partner because we would like to try and buy our own property or have our own security later on at some point and think ahead a bit more for later life… Which sneaks up very quickly.
Yes, time flies by very fast. And if anybody wants to contact you, Wayne, about your coaching, where could you be found?
Facebook. Well, obviously Facebook's the norm usually. And I do have a little website set up. It's actually on my link on my business page, which is just WH Equestrian or you can get me through just Wayne Hamilton. And there's a little link there and there's a little website set up through square, and it just gives a bit of information. It's nothing fancy, but it's just something else to have going. I am very open-minded, I do a lot of BHS training. I do a lot of sign-off. I do a lot of training and I can train and support anybody up to their stage five as well. I can sign off up to stage four and obviously once I've asked my coaching assessment for the BHSI, then I can do the coaching part of the four, but I can do pretty much all the ride, all the care, all the lunging, all the teaching up to stage three. Can still train for the stage four coach, it’s just the sign-off at the minute, but that's work in progress.
Brilliant. That has been such an interesting conversation. Thank you very much for spending your evening chatting to me. I've really, really enjoyed that. And I hope you have too. And I hope the listeners do.
Absolutely, thank you for asking me to come on. And I think there's more, honestly, I'm a real chatterbox, unfortunately. And I think one of my comments in my coaching exam was stop talking so much. I was a real introvert when I was younger, I'm not so much now but depending on the situation, I can be, I can hide a little bit. But listen, everybody has stories to tell and as I said earlier, it's the journey. It's what you want to do. It's not what you see somebody else doing, everybody's an individual. The horsey world is a very big community, but it's also a very small place. Ireland's a small place you know like I amaze myself when I go even working in the UK, which for them three years that I did, the amount of Irish people that I met that probably knew somebody down the road from where I lived, or somebody of somebody, it is a very small world.
It really is, yeah.
The contacts I've made over the years… I am actually starting a new job very soon so hopefully it'll lead to a permanent position at some point, so I'm looking forward to that and it is horses, it is equine full-time and hopefully with opportunities.
Excellent.
So I think the best advice I want to give to anybody is just if you want it enough you'll find a way and that's it and just take it on your stride, there's no point in stressing and worrying if things don't go the way you want them, something else will fall in place and it'll happen, maybe just not the way you want it to.
Yeah I know, life constantly throws you surprises but you do, you get where you need to be at the end of the day.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, all the very best with your new role, I do hope that that allows you to continue with your coaching, because I'm sure all your clients will be very keen to keep coming back to you.
Yeah I know, I have to squeeze them in now, one day a week, all of them.
Oh my goodness.
And still make time for the other half.
Yeah well you'll have a busy time, but hopefully it'll be a good time.
Yep. And thanks very much. Thanks for the opportunity. And I just want to add in there. I ran my adult camp this year up at Maggie's Croft and it's on my Facebook. So I'll probably do one a year. It's a spa equestrian retreat, if you want to put it like that. And this was the first one. It was absolutely brilliant, everybody loved it. It was good training over a couple of days, with a jacuzzi and a sauna, beautiful accommodation and beautiful scenery. So if anybody is looking to have a bit of a horsey holiday with all the benefits of relaxation, it'll be available again next year.
Sounds like heaven. We'll all be looking out for that, Wayne, thank you very much.
No bother. Thank you very much.
I think Wayne has just proven that you don't need to come from a horsey background to follow an equine path.
You just need a bit of luck, a really good mummy and a great work ethic.
I wish Wayne every success with his remaining exam and his future coaching and riding career.
If you want to contact Wayne to discuss coaching, you can find him at WH Equestrian on Facebook.
Stay tuned for the next Straight from the Horse's Mouth podcast on Horse and Field. Thanks for listening.