\u201cTo get that first win was an amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he has made a living riding for the best part of a decade, horses weren\u2019t always a part of Marshall\u2019s life and he admitted being scared of the animal until he moved in with his extended family as a child and followed his cousins into the saddle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was 10 years old, I was terrified of horses,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cMy cousins, who we used to live with, two of them are jockeys and one was an event rider. They are a similar age and they were always riding horses when they were younger. <\/p>\n
\u201cOut of stubbornness, I thought I had to get on one of these things one day and I overcame the fear and I never really looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marshall followed one of his cousins into a career in eventing before finding his way into racing, after losing his love for his initial pursuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have the money to financially fund myself, so I rode for a couple of big people in the eventing world,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause I didn\u2019t have the money to do it myself, I ended up looking over my shoulder the whole time and I ended up losing my top horse that I was riding so I hit a spot where I was not really enjoying it anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was riding out in a local racing yard at the same time and I was really enjoying it and one day I went \u2018let\u2019s give it a go\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
While his passion to pursue a career in racing was there, his weight was not, with Marshall having to lose a significant amount of weight to fit the mould of a jumps jockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very heavy, I was about 85 kilos before I came into racing, so I had to work very hard at getting my weight in order before I made the decision to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce I got that down, it was a no-brainer and I haven\u2019t looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he ticked the weight box and had plenty of experience in the saddle through his time in eventing, Marshall said he found it hard to gain rides in his homeland, having to compete with many fellow aspiring jockeys, with nepotism heavily prevalent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I had a decent background in being able to ride a horse, I never had the racing experience and it was a struggle to be able to get opportunities at home because there are so many jockeys who have been doing it since they were kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to get the opportunities and fighting against the jockeys that are related to trainers, you are never really going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marshall\u2019s former colleague and now good friend Brandon Holliday had moved to New Zealand and witnessing Marshall\u2019s struggles in England, he urged him to join him on the other side of the world to pursue further opportunities.<\/p>\n
With a pioneering mindset, along with the urgings of Holliday and spurred on by the recent loss of his best mate, Marshall elected to bite the bullet and try his luck in New Zealand. While still in the infancy of his move, he said it is one of the best decisions he has made.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite a daunting thought but I had a friend out here who I used to work with, Brandon Holliday, who has just turned into a jumps jockey, he was an amateur last season,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never had his licence out when he was in England and he could see the effort and work I was putting in at home and I wasn\u2019t getting anything out of it. He said I should try coming out over here because I would definitely get opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a lot for me to do it but eventually one day I just thought \u2018why not?\u2019 and I jumped on a plane and came over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was one of the best decisions I have made, just with the opportunities and being able to gain the experience and prove what I can do, which I wasn\u2019t able to do over in England.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great decision for me to come out and I am glad that he [Holliday] made me do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buoyed by his first win, Marshall is now looking forward to the jumps season commencing and he is particularly looking forward to continuing his partnership with Red Ned.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has beaten a good horse in Lord Spencer and hopefully he has got quite an exciting future,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cHe is a good jumper at home and he is definitely one I expect to ride for the season anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
A rider with a competitive mindset, Marshall has set his sights towards the top of his sport and said he would love to win a premiership in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has always been a goal of mine that if I am riding a horse, I want to be the best that I can be,\u201d he said. \u201cI would love to one day be a champion. If, for whatever reason, I could pull off a premiership in my first season over here that would be a big dream come true, but just getting opportunities and experience and hopefully giving it a crack next year would be pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
While riding is Marshall\u2019s main aim, he is also on a mission to raise awareness around mental health, following the passing of his best mate last year.<\/p>\n
In a bid to achieve that and generate a conversation about mental health, particularly among jockeys, Marshall has created a social media presence, @_stable_mind_ on Instagram and @stable.minds77 on TikTok, to share his message.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started an Instagram page where I am trying to help people that are struggling and if it helps one person then it is worth it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have done therapy a bit myself and I know talking about your problems, especially people in the racing industry, is nigh on impossible, but using things like the gym and activity and making sure they are eating right can be a big help because that can really affect how you feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always found that going to the gym has really helped me, so I thought if I could promote stuff like that it might start helping people feel a bit better and work on improving themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am trying to let people know that it is okay to be struggling, but it is how you deal with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe [jockeys] are not wired the same as a lot of people and there are other ways to make themselves feel better because when you feel like shit you lose all motivation to do anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you pick yourself up and go down to the gym and start eating a bit better, it helps you feel less shit about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a riding career and mental health message to push, Marshall is keeping himself busy during his time in New Zealand, which he said he is loving and he could see himself making a permanent move if he can forge a successful riding career here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really enjoying New Zealand at the moment, it is a brilliant place,\u201d he said. \u201cI will certainly be coming back next season and depending on how it is going I would consider it [staying permanently].<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we can pick it (jumps racing) up again and put it on the map and there will be a long life to the sport that would help me to be able to stay over here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTo get that first win was an amazing feeling.\u201d While he has made a living riding for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4734,17466,11783,93562,11908,1888,4999,12632,14568,121619,12815,17090,5836,69278,3259,111,139,69,3512,8213,110762,60971,1962,213,61,5839,8982,1316,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-387050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-angel","9":"tag-billy","10":"tag-brought","11":"tag-dedicates","12":"tag-english","13":"tag-first","14":"tag-friday","15":"tag-friend","16":"tag-horse","17":"tag-hwera","18":"tag-jockey","19":"tag-jumps","20":"tag-lost","21":"tag-marshall","22":"tag-milestone","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-newzealand","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-racing","27":"tag-recorded","28":"tag-saddle","29":"tag-shoulder","30":"tag-special","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-to","33":"tag-tragically","34":"tag-victory","35":"tag-when","36":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}