Mike O'Connor

I'm 21 and from the village of Curraglass in East Cork. We had ponies at home and my father started me off on them.

When I was around 12 or 13 I started riding out at Jimmy Mangan's yard, which is quite near our place. I went there at weekends and during the summer holidays.

Jimmy was a great mentor to me and I also started to compete in pony-racing around that time. I spent three or four years pony-racing and I'd say I rode 60 or 70 winners. I was champion on the southern circuit in my final year and I was up against the likes of Shane Crosse, Ben Coen and Andrew Slattery, so it was certainly a competitive environment.

Pony-racing gives you a great grounding and you get to understand tactics and how to ride a race. My father drove me to all the meetings and has been a great supporter of mine along with my mother. I live at home and we still keep our own horses there, mostly half-breds and hunters these days.

I went to school at Blackwater Community School in Lismore and completed my Leaving Cert but I never needed to spend much time with the career guidance counsellor. From the age of twelve my heart was set on being a jockey.

Jane Mangan has been another good tutor of mine and she pointed me in the direction of Fozzy Stack who I joined as an apprentice when I was sixteen. I rode my first winner when Gottardo, trained by Fozzy, won over five furlongs at Dundalk and I enjoyed my time with him which I was able to combine with school.

When I got a bit heavier I decided to focus on jumping and I joined Henry de Bromhead's yard in 2019. I've had great backing all the way through from Henry and he's given me plenty of opportunities. I had a great run of things last season when eleven of my thirty winners were for Henry. I finished third behind Jack Foley and Shane Fitzgerald in the conditional jockeys' table.

Even though I didn't ride in point-to-points because I came through the Flat apprentice route, I've had the chance to do plenty of schooling on different horses at Henry's and also at Jimmy Mangan's yard. Henry's yard is less than an hour from home and I'm there five mornings a week. There are plenty of smaller trainers near me because it's an area steeped in horseracing and on Wednesdays I get a chance to go into some of their yards. Sean Aherne would be one trainer that I ride out for most Wednesdays.

With racing at weekends, I suppose it's a seven days a week job but, as they say, if you love what you're doing you never work a day in your life. My life certainly revolves around horses and I don't really have time for much else outside of them.

As regards notable horses I've ridden, Kilbarry Chloe is one as she gave me my first Graded success when scoring at Limerick in March and her owner/trainer Con O'Keeffe has been a great supporter of mine. I won a couple of hurdle races on Impervious for Colm Murphy and it's nice to see her developing into a smart novice chaser. I won a couple of novice chases for Henry on the Gigginstown-owned Cavalry Master and Life In The Park was a Punchestown festival winner for me in April.

Unfortunately in the very next race I had a fall and injured my shoulder. There was some damage to the ligaments which I needed to have surgery on, to basically tie the shoulder back into its socket. I was out of action for four months which was obviously frustrating but it's part and parcel of the job and you can't allow yourself to dwell on these things. It's better to have a date of return to work towards and I got great help in my rehab from a physio in Tramore and Dr. Jennifer Pugh was also a big help to me. Touch wood the shoulder seems fine now. I came back around the end of August and had a winner for Jimmy Mangan last month and one for Henry at Limerick on Saint Stephen's Day.

My agent is Garry Cribbin and the aim is to keep my head down, work as hard as I can and hopefully get a bit of momentum going again in terms of winners. I have a total of 38 winners ridden so losing my claim is still a fair way off and I don't have any issues with my weight, I can do light without a problem. Hopefully I can stay injury-free and get a steady flow of winners going again.

It's a job I love and every time you ride a new horse you're constantly learning about it. In that respect it's a game where you never stop learning and picking up on different little things about horses.