00:02 My name is Marita O'Loughlin, I'm an equine lecturer, I work for the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise.
00:10 That involves teaching people to do with horses, to do with equine and the equine and the equine industry in, in Northern Ireland. So I deal with people in industry or if they came out of school or university and have qualifications and they sort of wish to come and work with horses but for personal reasons or family reasons can't come to college full-time, so they do distance learning or part-time courses through us here and gain equine qualifications which can perhaps lead them into a job within the equine industry.
00:44 I was one of these kids who was always mad about horses and sometimes sitting in school dreaming about horses and I had ponies and went to pony club and it's all I ever really wanted to do cos my mother was a teacher so it's sort of, I always wanted to teach so I got my instructor's qualifications when I was eighteen before I did my A levels, so it's just always something that I enjoyed. But they weren't particularly horsy, yes they came from farming backgrounds, but I think I was just born with this innate love and passion for horses. And I spent all my weekends in the local riding school and anybody around who had a pony or got stopped anywhere where there was a pony's head sticking over a wall, that's where I was, so.
01:26 I found it difficult in school because I always just wanted to be out, helping people like teaching and actually working with horses, so I found it hard to come into the classroom every day and look outside and se grass and see trees and to see the place that I wanted to be and to actually sit down and discipline, be disciplined and be focussed.
01:46 I had seen an advertisement for um a Higher National Diploma Course in Enniskillen College so as soon as I went that was it, I was for going there so I did an HND, went on, did a degree in equine studies, bachelor of science at the University of Ulster degree and I totally loved it and it was, I worked hard because it was what I adored.
02:09 I left college, you know, I travelled, I worked in Germany for six months with horses in an equestrian yard, I worked in America, I worked in Canada, I flew with horses around the world. I did a lot of practical jobs um because I had obviously the experience and the background and I worked in a couple of different yards as well, too in both the south and the north of Ireland but then I seen this job for a lecturer advertised and I just knew it was what I wanted so I'm very lucky that I get to work in what I love and what I enjoy and it's great to be able to do a job like I enjoy the office side of it, I enjoy the research side of it, I enjoy the study side of it, I enjoy actually going out and teaching, but yes I can go home and actually be with horses myself which is what I love as well.
02:59 Yes, yes of course mummy would have loved me to have gone to Queens of gone somewhere to do maybe, I had thought maybe about doing like social work or sociology or some of those things. So yes it would have been, mummy would have and daddy would have preferred me to have gone on and done something like that but now I'm sitting here and I'm a lecturer, so I have got what I always wanted to do and I have achieved, even though when I was younger and at school I found it hard to focus, I've still achieved, I've still got a good job, so there's no point in picking because you think it's going to make you more money, it's going to give you a good standard of living, it's going to look good on, on a piece of paper because you're not going to study something that you don't really enjoy doing, whereas if you do something that, like pick subjects that you like, there's more chance of you being successful and being happy.
03:49 END
Marita O’Loughlin
Marita O'Loughlin
My name is Marita O'Loughlin, I'm an equine lecturer, I work for the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise.
That involves teaching people to do with horses, to do with equine and the equine and the equine industry in, in Northern Ireland. So I deal with people in industry or if they came out of school or university and have qualifications and they sort of wish to come and work with horses but for personal reasons or family reasons can't come to college full-time, so they do distance learning or part-time courses through us here and gain equine qualifications which can perhaps lead them into a job within the equine industry.
I was one of these kids who was always mad about horses and sometimes sitting in school dreaming about horses and I had ponies and went to pony club and it's all I ever really wanted to do cos my mother was a teacher so it's sort of, I always wanted to teach so I got my instructor's qualifications when I was eighteen before I did my A levels, so it's just always something that I enjoyed. But they weren't particularly horsy, yes they came from farming backgrounds, but I think I was just born with this innate love and passion for horses. And I spent all my weekends in the local riding school and anybody around who had a pony or got stopped anywhere where there was a pony's head sticking over a wall, that's where I was, so.
I found it difficult in school because I always just wanted to be out, helping people like teaching and actually working with horses, so I found it hard to come into the classroom every day and look outside and se grass and see trees and to see the place that I wanted to be and to actually sit down and discipline, be disciplined and be focussed.
I had seen an advertisement for um a Higher National Diploma Course in Enniskillen College so as soon as I went that was it, I was for going there so I did an HND, went on, did a degree in equine studies, bachelor of science at the University of Ulster degree and I totally loved it and it was, I worked hard because it was what I adored.
I left college, you know, I travelled, I worked in Germany for six months with horses in an equestrian yard, I worked in America, I worked in Canada, I flew with horses around the world. I did a lot of practical jobs um because I had obviously the experience and the background and I worked in a couple of different yards as well, too in both the south and the north of Ireland but then I seen this job for a lecturer advertised and I just knew it was what I wanted so I'm very lucky that I get to work in what I love and what I enjoy and it's great to be able to do a job like I enjoy the office side of it, I enjoy the research side of it, I enjoy the study side of it, I enjoy actually going out and teaching, but yes I can go home and actually be with horses myself which is what I love as well.
Yes, yes of course mummy would have loved me to have gone to Queens of gone somewhere to do maybe, I had thought maybe about doing like social work or sociology or some of those things. So yes it would have been, mummy would have and daddy would have preferred me to have gone on and done something like that but now I'm sitting here and I'm a lecturer, so I have got what I always wanted to do and I have achieved, even though when I was younger and at school I found it hard to focus, I've still achieved, I've still got a good job, so there's no point in picking because you think it's going to make you more money, it's going to give you a good standard of living, it's going to look good on, on a piece of paper because you're not going to study something that you don't really enjoy doing, whereas if you do something that, like pick subjects that you like, there's more chance of you being successful and being happy.
END
Marita O'lochlin is an equine lecturer at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise. She absolutely loves horses and always has done, so this is pretty much her dream job!
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