As far as school went, I fell at the first fence

MY SCHOOL DAYS: The most successful jockey of all time in Britain over one season, Irishman Tony McCoy didn't compete the full circuit at school - and even had a refusal at his second or third attempt

On my second or third day of school I can remember coming out the door of the house and then running down the length of the garden and throwing my schoolbag over the hedge and my mother going mad at me. I think she actually ended up getting the headmaster, who was a neighbour of ours, to come and get me and bring me to school - even when I was five or six - because I wouldn't go.

I just didn't want to go. The first day I went to Toome primary school in Co Antrim I think that was okay, then when I got to know what it was like I didn't want to go again. I thought when I threw the schoolbag over the hedge that that would be it, I'd be grand. I could stay at home then. I thought if I'd no schoolbag then surely to god I can't go to school, unfortunately it didn't work like that.

There must have been between 140 and 150 people in the school, so it was a reasonable size. I remember the teacher I had in primary - I used to fancy her a lot. Her name was Mrs McCann. She would have been quite young at the time and I got on very well with her. She was my favourite teacher. Unfortunately, I was only six or seven years old at the time.

I never really got to like school, but I started to realise that I had to go. I was just made go and that was it. I didn't like the books - I liked sport and that was about it. It wasn't so much the horses in primary school; it was more the football, soccer and Gaelic, that were my sports.

For secondary I went to St Olcan's in Randalstown - it was about six or seven miles from home. All the rest of my family went to Patrick's in Maghera. I always remember their school always took more than a half an hour to get home from, whereas mine only took 15 minutes.

I wouldn't have been intelligent enough to go to the school the rest of my family went to, but I didn't want to go anyway. The way the two school bus times were, the St Olcan's bus came in at four o'clock and the one from Maghera came in at half four. So I thought I was better off going to the school that got me home at four o'clock. Four people in my family went off to Maghera, I think the only other one who went to Olcan's was my brother, but I would have been gone by the time he got there.

In secondary school again I was out playing the football, Gaelic and soccer, and then I started getting into the horses a little bit. I started doing a bit of competition but only on ponies and to be honest I found that really boring, so I gave it up after a while. I had no interest in the books in school. I couldn't wait to get out of the place - I absolutely detested it. I was okay for the first couple of years - I sort of half accepted the fact at that stage that I had to go no matter what. I don't think the school was any tougher than the rest, I just didn't want to go to any school at all.

I got on well with a few of the teachers. My maths teacher was a fella called Francie Scullion and I got on well with him and my PE teacher. He was called Packie McGuckian. He was quite into the horses and he always knew I was into the horses a bit too. He was the sort of fella who liked to go into the bookies on a Saturday and have a bet and at that stage I was too young for that, but near the end of my time there, as I got older and more knowledgable, we'd chat a bit about it.

I never wanted to go to school, so I never went. When I did go to school, I didn't want to do anything - I had to be forced to do it and it would break my heart. I'd come home at night and as soon as I'd get in the door I'd throw the schoolbag in the corner and I wouldn't even attempt to do any homework. I'd think about it the next morning on the bus on the way to school, but I just hated it.

In the end, I went back for the first month of my fifth year, and that was it, I never went back again. I went to live in Kilkenny and became an apprentice in Jim Bolger's. I just left school and obviously the attendance officers and everyone had been getting on my mother's back and she was getting in right trouble, but I was gone away from home at that stage.

A young fella called James McLoughlin down the road from me didn't like school that much either and he thought the last year or two that he was in school he'd get away with not going. He couldn't understand why every time he didn't want to go to school, he be hauled back in. All he ever used to say was, "How come McCoy got away with it and I can't get away with it?" He wasn't very happy with the fact that I got away with it - but I suppose I was living in southern Ireland, so there wasn't much anyone could do at that stage. But he was gutted at the fact that he had to keep going to school and I didn't.