'It sounds really corny but it’s given me that lease of life'

In October, another group of students undertook the first stage of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s Entry to Stud Employment Programme (E2SE), a free nine-week training course at The National Stud before embarking upon a six to nine months paid placement at a UK stud farm.

No prior experience with horses is required for the course, which is designed for those who feel they might lack the skills for a job in the industry, and attracts applicants from a huge range of backgrounds. We caught up with two of them to hear their stories.

Debbie Brodie, 48, placed at Darley Studs

Yes, I had a pony when I was little but it was more that I was brought up in a family where that wasn’t considered a job, a career. I’m not blaming my parents but it was a case of being steered into the corporate world, stocks and shares.

Me being me, I later decided to do something a little bit different, I became a trampoline coach, but I’ve always had this pull towards horses, I just love them. Funnily enough this came through my partner Steve - we were both unhappy with what we were doing and he has always been interested in racing.

I’d sit and watch the races but I liked looking at them in the parade ring, wondering if I could work out which one would win that way. Steve got a job on the E2SE course, he had a placement, we moved to Norfolk and were living on site. Every single day pained me to watch him doing what I absolutely desperately wanted to do! I was a nosy neighbour, constantly at the blinds, watching and pestering him. He said 'why don’t you do it?'

"I thought I was too old, they wouldn’t want me, but he said they needed people in the industry who had that passion. To be honest, I was a little bit emotional in my interview - I was a bit embarrassed that I sort of opened up and tried to show them how badly I wanted it. I can’t stress enough how lucky I felt to be on the course.

I’ve loved every bit of it, to the extent that I was working out in the field, replacing posts and rails, and said to the instructor 'I can’t believe I’m getting paid for this'. The course also taught me things about myself, confidence, things I’ve wanted to do in the past, it was fantastic through and through.

Debbie, with Darley's Sam Bullard, passed through the training section of the course at The National StudCredit: Dominic James

When they told me my placement was at Darley, I thought they were joking! Maybe I just need to believe in myself a bit more. I’d had no contact with horses since I was a little girl, I didn’t even know about picking out feet or putting a bridle on again, but I’ve learned so much.

I’ve been on a yard with barren and maiden mares, I’ve been teasing, doing poultices, bandages, learned how to pull manes. They’ve taught me everything and been so encouraging, never minding how many questions I’ve asked.

I’m head over heels with it now. People have said it’s a hard industry to get into, that it has been very closed for years, but recently my stud groom asked 'did you say you hadn’t had much contact with horses?'

When I replied no, he said, 'You wouldn’t know it'. Yes, it is tiring and you’re not playing pretty ponies, they’re not pets, but it feeds that need for me to be around horses. It sounds really corny but it’s given me that lease of life.

Callum Bartram-Bell, 21, placed at Newsells Park Stud

I was at university doing politics and international relations, and had pretty much been applying for jobs and nothing was coming in. I was interested in racing but it really took off when I joined the Owners Group, and I bought a share in Pentland Hills. I still remember being sat in the library watching him winning the Triumph Hurdle. That sort of sparked it, I went to the National Stud for the tour, they told me about the training courses, and I looked up the E2SE course online.

I went to my first raceday when I was 15, I went to Newmarket Nights with my mum. She really loves her 80s music so we’d gone for the Spandau Ballet concert, not the racing, but the racing was what I really got into. We’d go to the Champions meeting in October, the Guineas Festival. My uncle loves the National Hunt and I have a cousin who was a work rider for Chris Gordon so there were links but for me specifically, there wasn’t anything to it. Riding was never an interest, I didn’t take it up.

Just in the nine weeks at The National Stud I learned so much, and everyone at Newsells, the staff - you can ask as many questions as you want and they’re happy to answer. Working with foals has been brilliant - waking up and walking across to find out that so-and-so has had a foal during the night. Now you can start following them up through the ages and hopefully seeing them win on the track. The horses they have here, looking at the the pedigrees, it’s just insane. I’m so lucky.

Former politics student Callum Bartram-Bell has been getting to grips with the practical side of the industry

My confidence has definitely increased, I remember on the second day at the National, feeling a bit shaky when holding a horse - standing next to them for the first time was a hell of a shock. Nowadays, you’re so used to it, you just get on with it. It’s amazing how quickly you can pick up these skills.

I couldn’t fault the course or the social life, meeting so many people from different age ranges, seeing how we’ve all tried to get into the industry. To have the funding from the TBA and the Racing Foundation and for it to be a free course is just amazing.

It was always politics I wanted to get into but now I’ve got into horses instead. It was getting to the point that I’d been studying politics for five years and needed to think about trying something else and see how it went.

Now I’ve done more research into the politics of racing, the TBA, the BHA, the British Horse Council. Some day I’d like to be able to combine the politics with racing but at the moment I’m keen to get the experience hands-on, I want to be able to see the industry that I’d like to try to represent some time further down the road.

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