Suzy Barkley

I'm from Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh and I went to work with the Herdmans in Strabane where I was very interested in dressage and eventing. Then I went to Holland for an extensive six to eight months dressage, but came back to Strabane and they asked if I wanted to take over the yard and run it as my own. That's where the racehorse thing came in because I got a lot of people wanting me to break horses and some local trainers sent me some thoroughbreds to break. I had never had anything to do with thoroughbreds or racing, so I obviously fell in love with the thoroughbred then. I started to break them and then I started to ride in races. I rode a few winners. I was riding some of my own horses and for owners, and I rode a bit for Syl Kirk who trained in Strabane. I rode in bumpers, a few hurdles and point-to-points.

Then I took out my trainers' licence and started to train. I've trained since 1996, I was a permit holder early on and then I turned into a public trainer. I adored getting the horses ready. My first love was dressage and I competed in eventing, but I put that into the thoroughbreds. My racehorses would have had that schooling discipline even going racing. I was in Strabane for probably 20 years in total and trained a small string of horses from there. I moved up here to where I live now in Donaghcloney and continued training for years. Mr Flowers won four races for me. He was a consistent horse right up until he won his last race, a chase in Down Royal at 14 years of age (in 2006). He was a nice horse. Chill Out won two point-to-points, a hurdle and a chase for me. I still have a small string, I always have five or six I train. I'm going to keep training, that is important and I love that side of it.

In the middle of training racehorses, I went over to America to train Bruce Springsteen's daughter Jessica Springsteen when she was a child. I went over there quite a lot when she was eight to 11, those years. It was amazing, they flew me over for weekends and long weekends, and I did pony camps and different things with her. I just flew over and back. I'll see them this week in Dublin. Jessica won a silver medal in the Team Jumping at the 2020 Olympics held in 2021 at Tokyo.

When the horses weren't good enough to race, I always had it in my head that there must be another life for them. I was always afraid to rehome them in case they didn't get a good home. I ended up with quite a few ex-racehorses who stayed here! About two and a half years ago, I met a lady called Monique Lyle who ran an agency called the British Thoroughbred Agency and she rehomed ex-racehorses to forever homes. I'm a director of the Irish Thoroughbred Agency and work with Monique. Our main goal is to find forever homes for ex-racehorses. What Monique would have done was rehome horses direct from the trainers. When I became part of the business, we opened it up that I would actually take all the horses in here from the trainers to assess them and get the good matches.

We pride ourselves on finding a forever home with a perfect match. We go in and rehome them again if it doesn't work out. That's where we stand apart from others doing this. We have rehomed over 200 Irish ex-racehorses in the last year. Most of them are from southern Ireland, we get a few from the north. I'd say that as soon as a trainer has a horse that wouldn't be suitable, they would call us now. Paddy Byrnes would go around collecting them for me and bring them up. He would be well known having worked for Gordon Elliott years ago. He would bring them up regularly. I would always have 20-odd here at any one time.

Before they arrive, the trainer has given me the lowdown on the horse. We bring them in and do a profile on the horse to see if there is anything physically wrong and if it has been training or not. Then we let them chill out for maybe a week to assess them and monitor them to really see what we have got. Then the process starts. I've a very good member of staff, Anna Curran, who is second to none. This business would not run without her, she is amazing. She has worked full-time for me for three years. She goes over and beyond. Her and I both assess the horses and she rides any of them that come in here. I video them exactly as they are when they come in and that video is sent to Monique and we both study it and decide how long the horse needs. Monique would have hundreds of people wanting horses on her list for matching. A lot of them want to put their own stamp on them, so we don't have to actually do a lot of retraining. They want to start them from scratch again. Then Monique writes a nice story about the horse and does the whole marketing side of it. I send her all the pictures and videos and she puts them up online. We keep retraining them until somebody comes along.

Then when Monique has talked to the person interested in the horse, they contact me. They send us videos of them riding at their place where the horse is going to be kept. Then we talk on the phone to see if the horse is a suitable match. If not, I can suggest another horse. Then we do a videocall on WhatsApp that entails everything from tacking up, riding and jumping. Usually after that videocall, most of them are happy to rehome the horse. It is a very quick turnaround because Ken Gamble International Horse Transport transports our horses and he comes in every week. We have to try and get a few rehomed every week in order to keep the other ones coming in. I do worry about the future as the whole thing is gathering momentum. I would hate to say no to any horse, I may need to build more sheds.

It is doing something I love and because we rehome them with a rehoming fee, it allows us to run the business. We have documentation, so there's a non-racing agreement and, also, if the horse is not suitable for whatever reason, you must come back to us. We help to match and rehome it again. People's situations can change. We have the traceability and we try to keep them in our lifetime care programme. Riviera Sun was trained by Henry de Bromhead (won eight races under rules) and we rehomed him. Angela and Sophia in Wales have taken two or three horses each. Angela took him and adores him.

I just love the racing industry, and the helpful and friendly people. Racing people would always do you a turn. If somebody wants to get into racing, there are so many sides to it. People are starting to realise that an eventing-type person is a big asset in a racing yard. They ride the horses like they are going eventing and the jockeys take over. If I had a massive big yard, I would have event riders riding them every day.