Mark Sweeney was far from impressed when a family friend suggested to him that he might like to consider becoming a jockey. At the time he was a Northland teenager who preferred to go fishing rather than to school and he didn't take kindly to the idea that he had the makings of a jockey.

"I was your typical macho young guy," he recalls. "My reply was that only small people made jockeys - no way did I consider myself to fit into that category."

Another factor which went against the grain was that although he had grown up in a rural environment with plenty of contact with animals, Mark had never ridden a horse. For the life of him, he couldn't image in embarking on a career which required that very talent.

But the topic around Mark's Kaitaia home persisted and his ears finally pricked when someone mentioned having read about the money being earned by the country's up-and-coming jockey of the time, Lance O'Sullivan.

"I certainly became interested when they put it like that," he says.

Thus Mark took the initiative and wrote to retired Auckland jockey Norm Holland who in turn referred him to the Takanini trainer Colin Jillings. The upshot was that at age 16, he joined the racing industry workforce, initially on trial as a probationary, and then as an apprentice jockey.

Two things surprised him about his new job - how well he coped with the sometimes demanding hours of work, and how quickly he developed a love of the horses that were such a feature of his daily routine. "I fell in love with them and quickly got to enjoy the way of life, the people I was working with and the outdoor nature of the job."

Within a month of joining the Jillings stable, Mark was riding the quieter members of the racing team and a year later he had advanced to the stage that he was riding at trials. Raceday rides quickly followed, as did the ultimate buzz - riding winners. "It didn't take long for that winning feeling to grow and become a challenge every time I got in the saddle on raceday."

Mark, a natural lightweight due to the small stature that he had refused to recognize back in his less orderly Northland days, soon found himself in ready demand and the wins flowed. He won a special apprentice series, the prize for which was a trip to an international apprentice jockey series in Macau. He duly won that, while back home he added the country's most prestigious race, the Auckland Cup, and was presented to Queen Elizabeth II after winning the Ellerslie race named in her honour during the royal tour of 1995.

Even though he is now well established as one of New Zealand's most capable jockeys, Mark needs little prodding to reflect on the carefree days of his youth when such milestones would have been laughable. "I feel so fortunate to have been steered in the right direction," he says. "Life as a jockey can be a hard game, but it has really made me as a person and given me the confidence to make a success of any challenges that come along."