Anthony Honeyball: I kept my ears and eyes open and my mouth shut

I started going into Richard Barber's yard when I was 15, did a bit more when I was 16 and worked properly from 17 when I was just getting going and I learned a lot. I was there until I was 21, then I went to Paul Nicholls to be a conditional for a year and learned some more about the job before I went back again to Richard for another stint, so I did probably five or six years altogether off and on.

Richard Barber: legendary figure in point-to-point community who won Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham four times in eight years in the 1990sCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

He had some serious horses then – about 45 point-to-pointers. This was the era just after See More Indians and See More Business, and he had horses like Fantus who twice won the Foxhunter at Cheltenham.

I was aspiring to be a jockey at that time and I was one of his amateurs, and learned the ropes there. I was lucky enough to ride lots of very nice horses, both at home and on the track, some lovely young horses who were going through to Paul Nicholls.

He just had a very effective, simple routine and I learned about interval training and things like that. While I learned a lot from the way he trained, I also went to the store sales with him in the spring and just watched: I kept my ears and eyes open and my mouth shut, and I saw what types of horses he'd buy. He bought Rock On Ruby and See More Business – for not a lot of money – so it's not a bad place to start when you're with a man who's bought a Champion Hurdle winner and a Gold Cup winner.