Trevor Ryan

It was great to record a double at Tramore on Tuesday, just three weeks after getting my first. That brings me to eight winners for the season, which is my best tally to date and it's great to be getting some return after slaving away for very little for a long time.

To be honest, after Punchestown last May, I was strongly considering packing it in. I'd only two winners in the previous 12 months and I was going nowhere.

It was only that Denis Hogan had a couple of lads get injured and he asked me if I'd come in and ride work. I said I'd tip away in the summer when I'd decide then if I'd go back to school or do something else. I got a winner out of there with Al Sakb in a maiden hurdle in July, and a few off Michael Hourigan and the ball got rolling then.

It is funny how it works out sometimes. When I came home from America a couple of years ago, things started well for me. My fiancée, Hannah Stewart and I work at James Grace's every afternoon now and it was James that helped me get going when I got back, thanks to the likes of De Benno and Mick The Boyo.

But I injured my AC joint in Downpatrick that summer and didn't even sit on a horse for six weeks. I got cleared the week before Galway but had no rides there so next thing it was eight weeks. Then I had nothing at Listowel because of the good ground and before you know it, I'm three and a half months and hardly getting a ride. You're forgotten about fairly quick then.

At the same time, the confidence is getting a fair kicking. I couldn't get on a horse unless it was 100/1 and I got jocked off a few others that won, after I had ridden them first-time out when they weren't fit. And people are saying, 'Why couldn't you win on them with a seven-pound claim?'

So I had to consider something else. I did my Leaving Cert but I never actually collected the results. I was working in Enda Bolger's at the time and he gave me the day off to get them. I celebrated them alright but I never got them. I had no real idea what I was going to do but it would probably have been something that revolved around horses. The head was a bit fried from racing though.

I'm 25 now and I've had a lot of experience and maybe being a little older has helped. I didn't ride as many winners as I would have liked in England and I got a bit sick of it. I thought it would be the answer to all my problems with more racing but most races only have five or six runners and you've the same five or six lads riding in every race so it doesn't leave a whole pile. But going to England made me grow up and introduced me to a different style of riding.

I went to America more or less for a holiday, to ride out and have a bit of fun. Paddy and Leslie Young put me up and they said I had to ride, and get a bit of fun out of that. I had a winner quickly enough and I ended up being Champion Novice Rider for the season and I was only there three months. That introduced me to a different style of riding too and the whole experience was brilliant for my head.

I wanted to come home to give it a real go and while the lifestyle is great in America, the season is short, so it made sense to me to commit to making it in Ireland. It took some time but it's taking off a little bit now hopefully.

I work very hard, and school horses in a lot of small yards, so it's nice to be getting a bit of a reward for that. But it was a little special to ride the double for Willie Austin in Tramore.

He was the first man to put me on a horse when I got my licence after coming home. I hadn't ridden in a race for six months. He hadn't any idea how fit I was but he put me up on a horse with a bit of a chance, none other than Highest Benefit, who won on Tuesday along with Red Lemonade, and we finished fourth in a handicap chase at Thurles in December 2017.

I'd been unlucky not to have winners for him before - I think I'd six or seven seconds and I should have won in Clonmel last year when I made a wrong decision coming down the hill but they stuck with me so I was delighted to give them their first double. Willie is training a long time and he has trained plenty of winners so I was delighted to be a part of that.

My own first double was only three weeks ago at Fairyhouse. It was brilliant to get it on a horse I really like, The Chapel Field, and probably one of my favourite horses in training, Witness Of Fashion. He's just a pure dude and at 13, was rolling back the years.

He's a stone better around Fairyhouse. You'd be riding him and turn to go up the side up the hill and couldn't get him going. When he gets out over the top of the hill, he sprints down. When gets to the bottom he won't go again. As soon as he sees the third last, he gives you everything up to the line, whether he's beaten or going to win. He's so good around there, he's cutting corners himself, he knows when he needs to fill himself up. All you've to do is keep him going.

Ken Whelan is my agent and it was a hard job for him for a long while when I wasn't riding winners. This country is full of seven-pound claimers and lots of lads that are very good to ride. Getting one winner is great but it doesn't do you a whole pile of good. When you get a couple together, people start ringing you that would normally walk by you and that's a great boost to the confidence too, especially at this time of year when there's going to be a lot of racing. Hopefully the job is a little easier now for Ken.

I have three rides at the weekend and people might think I'm mad but I think De Benno could run a very big race in the two-mile handicap hurdle (1.05) at Fairyhouse tomorrow.

He is 14, rising 15 and hasn't run since March. He wasn't going to come in this year at all, he was retired, but Conor Clarke is a young fella who was at James Grace's on work experience. He was mad to ride out so James said he could ride De Benno if he did all the work with him.

So he was a great lead horse for all our younger horses but when he started getting fit, when we were stuck for a horse to work with we thought we'd give Conor a bit of experience and that the horse would enjoy a day away.

We let him off in front and I presumed I'd pick him up and go by but I couldn't get to him. The next day I said I'd jump a bit closer and pick him up but I got to his girth and he pulled away again.

So we said we'd train him as he hadn't many miles on the clock. He has been galloping well, he's fit, he's well and loving life. On bottomless ground he could have a bit of a chance. It would be a fairytale story if he could run into the money but it wouldn't be the first time James has done it with a horse of his age.

Mick The Man was a very good horse with Noel Meade and James brought him in as a lead horse. He finished third of 24 runners at Navan one day at 13 years of age and he hadn't ran in four years. So don't rule it out!