Equine obsession given the full rein
Working with horses takes a special kind of love, writes GLENN MITCHELL.
The race that stops a nation may be over for another year, but for those in the horse business, the show must go on. To be a horse trainer, John McArdle believes you have to be mad, going mad or an eternal optimist.
McArdle says he fits into the third category, but only just.
Given how tough the racing game is, McArdle's approach seems to be working because he has become one of Australia's top trainers in only his second full season.
McArdle says the road to becoming a horse trainer requires long hours, perseverance and an understanding of horses that can only be learnt through years of hard work in other roles.
McArdle, like most people in the racing game, grew up around horses.
His grandfather was a trainer and he himself was riding a pony at age four. He was also mucking out stables and soaking up as much information as possible on the art of horse training.
But his childhood dream of becoming a jockey was cut short in grade six, when he was told by his teacher that he may be a little tall for the saddle.
"I was five foot eight (172cm) at the time and by the time I was 15 I was six foot (183cm). Now I'm six foot three (190cm) and 115kg, so the thoughts of becoming a jockey died pretty quickly,'' McArdle says. So, at 21, he went overseas and worked for four years as a stallion handler at some of the top studs in Ireland and the US.
"I would recommend going overseas to anyone wanting to be a trainer, because the training techniques are so different from ours and you get to understand blood lines, and how to handle top-line horses,'' he says.
Upon his return, McArdle became the stable foreman in New Zealand for top Australian-New Zealand trainer Graeme Rogerson. He then became the travelling foreman for Tony Vasil, and was Lee Freedman's stable foreman.
"The best advice I can give to potential trainers is just to get as much experience working with top trainers as you possibly can,'' McArdle says. His day starts before dawn, watching his stable of 45 horses go through their paces. He works an 18-hour day, seven days a week, and says this is standard for most trainers.
He is constantly on the phone to owners and organising jockeys; or at sales; checking horses in the spelling paddock; mapping out training programs and managing the staff who run his complex near Mornington.
By Glenn Mitchell, The Daily Telegraph, November 9 2005.
