This week, we caught up again with Zania Slabber, one of our 2026 Irish National Stud Scholarship recipients, to hear more about her experience abroad and what she’s been up to since beginning her journey at the world-renowned Irish National Stud.
'Since the last blog, time has absolutely flown by. It’s been all go on the yards with peak season in full swing, foals hitting the ground, mares coming and going for covers, and young foals running around everywhere.
At the beginning of March, we had the chance to visit Bansha House Stables, a pre-training centre built by Con Marnane. It was incredible to see what he has created from the ground up. His approach is refreshingly simple, working at the horse’s pace while steadily building its education. By focusing on these fundamentals, a huge amount of preparation is already done before the horse even reaches the trainer. It was fascinating to see how such a straightforward system can consistently produce top-performing horses.
Back on the yards, I’ve mainly been rotating between nights and the Kildare yard. The first few weeks were still quite cold, with a handful of snowy mornings. There was something pretty special about watching the young foals experience snow for the first time. During one of my night rotations, I was lucky enough to take part in World Horse Racing documentarystyle video, which captured one of our foalings and gave an insight into the Irish National Stud’s foaling unit.
After nights, I returned to the Kildare yard, working again with the foals I had helped bring into the world. It’s always such a rewarding feeling seeing them find their feet, grow in confidence, and start to explore everything around them. Alongside this, I’ve been learning a lot more about scanning, treatments, and the overall process of getting a mare back in foal, as well as understanding the reasoning behind each step.
I also spent a week on stallions and in the covering shed, which was a definite highlight. It was a completely new experience for me, and I learned a huge amount in a short space of time. One of the standout moments was meeting the legendary Invincible Spirit, who has had such a major influence, particularly through I Am Invincible in the Southern hemisphere. Other favourites included the first-season sire Arizona Blaze and the striking Phoenix of Spain.
For one of our field trips, we headed just down the road to Kildangan Stud, home to the wellknown Blue Point and Night of Thunder. We were given the opportunity to see all areas of the farm, learn about its history, and gain an insight into how everything operates. What really stood out was how thoughtfully the entire farm has been designed, built with both function and the horse at the centre of it all. Every unit flows into the next, each with a clear purpose, creating an efficient system that supports both the horses and the people working with them.
More recently, I had the chance to attend the final National Hunt races at the Punchestown Festival. On the Saturday, I spent the day with the Clerk of the Course, seeing race day from the other side of the rail. It was great to watch how everything comes together behind the scenes, as well as getting up close to the horses. We also had two fellow students riding in the Punchestown Kidney Research Charity Race, and it was brilliant to support them while raising money for such a good cause.
The weather has finally started to improve, and while things will gradually begin to quieten down, exams are just around the corner, so it’s time to put all the practical work and knowledge we’ve gained to the test'.
