Football

‘It feels a bit surreal’ – meet Jay Tabb, the footballer who now rides horses


It is 9.30am and Jay Tabb is shuffling around stall No 13 inside the horseshoe-shaped stable block at the Northern Racing College, tacking up Coombe Hill, his second of four lots, before leading the 18-year-old thoroughbred out to the seven-furlong woodchip gallop. His day began more than four hours ago, as it does every morning here during a 12-week foundation course, which he has nearly completed, by getting up to go for a half-hour run in a sweat suit to ensure he meets the 11st weight limit – inclusive of skullcap, body protector and boots. Tabb, a professional footballer in his previous life, jumps on the scales in the offices to double-check. “I don’t want to not ride basically,” he says.

On a sunny day in south Yorkshire, in the grounds of Rossington Hall and where peacocks roam, the 5ft 4in former Reading midfielder, who retired three years ago, explains swapping shin pads for saddle pads with a smile. The chipper instructors, former jockeys Philip Varley and Lee Swift, chivvy the students, including Tabb – whose hands are weathered and blistered from mucking out and “being keen as mustard” to sweep the yard during his first days on the programme – as he wraps tendon boots around the horse’s legs, having applied the bridle, girth and stirrups.

“It’s crazy how quickly you progress,” he says. “I knew nothing. I couldn’t pick a horse’s feet; I couldn’t put a head collar on or anything like that. I did a bit of research online, came up here for an open day, an interview, and it went from there. I get stuff right and I get stuff wrong every day but the main thing is I’m learning. It sounds a bit soppy but when you first stroke a horse, it’s just a really nice feeling.”

For Tabb this is not about becoming a jockey – “the reality is I’m 35 and coming into it very late” – but he is serious about working in racing and trading life in west London for the Somerset countryside. Tabb, who graduates from the college this week, has been accepted to work at the trainer Philip Hobbs’s yard in Minehead, where he will begin his level two apprenticeship and, down the line, he hopes to ride in a charity race.

“When you watch racing, you think: ‘How has he not won there? How has he fallen there?’ But, until you sit on a racehorse yourself, you are never going to respect a jockey like you should do because they are putting their lives on the line and they have to be a lot fitter than you think. People look at jockeys and see them as being small and skinny, and think ‘Oh, anyone can do it’ but it is really hard to give a horse a good ride. My respect levels for jockeys have gone through the roof.”

Jay Tabb on the gallops. Does he miss football? ‘No, in a word.’



Jay Tabb on the gallops. Does he miss football? ‘No, in a word.’ Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

Since Ben Turner, a former roommate at Coventry City, piqued Tabb’s interest by putting racing on TV after training, his love for the sport has snowballed. They co-own Mister Miyagi, a 10-year-old trained by Stuart Edmunds that has twice won at Cheltenham, giving Tabb a taste of the winners’ enclosure. “I’ve been there and soaked up the buzz so that’s why the dream would be to ride in one of the amateur races at the Festival. It’s unreal; it’s such an amazing place. There are hundreds, thousands of amateur jockeys across the country and if you said: ‘What would you like to do?’ I bet they would all say the same thing. It is not just something you go and do. I am right at the bottom of the pecking order at the moment in terms of who deserves it as well, but you never know.”

Between retiring and racing college Tabb played rugby with his brother, Harry, and worked as a labourer with his father, Tony, fitting bathrooms and renovating houses, as well as caddying for Lauren Horsford on the Ladies European Tour. But all along he was keen to pursue his passion for racing and when his mother, Sharon, died, he became more reluctant to let the grass grow under his feet.

“I’m glad that I have come to learn how to ride a horse, because you can put things off. I just thought: ‘Life’s too short, I’m not enjoying football, I do have other interests,’ so it was the right time to do it. My mum would have been exactly the same as my auntie, crying her eyes out if she had seen me on a horse. Even when she came and watched me play football, if someone hit me too hard she would be really annoyed and be like: ‘What are they doing to my baby?’”

Eight years ago last month Tabb was preparing for a Championship play-off final and although he loved his career, especially when Reading beat Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United at Old Trafford, his appetite for the game faded. “I always kind of thought once I finished, that that was one of sort life and now this is a different one,” he says.

Jay Tabb in action for Coventry in the FA Cup against Blackburn in 2008.



Jay Tabb in action for Coventry in the FA Cup against Blackburn in 2008. Photograph: David Thompson/PA

Does he miss football? “No, in a word. I do check the results – I know who’s struggling and who’s not – but not every Saturday.”

After hours on a simulator and in the indoor school, Tabb is leading the string out on the gallops, gliding through the gears – from a walk to a trot and a controlled canter, between 15-20mph. Swift, who travels parallel to the horses in a Jeep and speaks to the students via radio, likens the latter stages of the course to “taking the stabilisers off the bike”. Tabb is wearing a star-patterned helmet, awarded to the student of the week.

Instructors have been impressed with Tabb’s horsemanship and his discipline on Daaweitza, his next ride. “The set-off is going to have to be spot-on, the contact is going to have be right,” he says with a zip in his voice, brushing down a horse that earned almost £100,000 in its heyday.

“He likes having a fight – but there’s only one winner. He’s the boss, he’s in charge and it’s a testing ride, but it’s nice they put a bit of trust in me to ride him. It does feel a bit surreal. It’s like: ‘Is this actually me doing this?’ At the start of January I was at my local riding school in Wimbledon with someone leading me round on a rope.”

Jay Tabb says: ‘At the start of January I was at my local riding school in Wimbledon with someone leading me round on a rope.’



Jay Tabb says: ‘At the start of January I was at my local riding school in Wimbledon with someone leading me round on a rope.’ Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

After bringing Damien, a half-brother to Daaweitza and his final lot, back into the yard, it is time for a brisk salad before round two of grooming, mucking out, washing down and feeding the horses. What do his former teammates and managers make of it?

“Wally Downes, who gave me my debut at Brentford [in 2001] messaged me saying ‘well done’. I think most people didn’t think I would actually do it so they just say ‘fair play’.

“In a way, you have to just pretend to be confident, or pretend to think: ‘This isn’t a racehorse that could just take off at any minute and I wouldn’t be able to stop it.’ As soon as I got here, I said to myself: ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to learn how to ride a horse, how to muck out.’ I’ve just faked it a bit,” he adds with a broad smile.



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