I've been with Paul for coming up on five years now.

We first came in contact through a man called Paul Barber. Paul kept a few horses with Dad so we knew him going back years but he was also one of Paul Nicholls' owners. He owned See More Business, the horse that won the Gold Cup in 1999. I was lucky enough to ride a few horses for him around the spring of 2001 and that led to me getting a ride on a horse called Fadalko . . . we won the Melling Chase together on a rotten day at Aintree.

Timmy Murphy was Paul Nicholls' stable jockey back then but when Timmy got in trouble, Paul asked me would I be interested in taking the job. People often ask me would I not be better off doing one or the other, working in Britain full time or at home. But to be honest, I never really thought of moving over to Paul's yard full-time as a serious option. It probably sounds crazy to plenty of jockeys in Britain who'd love a job like that under a trainer like that but it wasn't for me.

It basically came down to the fact that I didn't want to leave Ireland and there were a couple of reasons for that.

I just couldn't commit to a life in Britain and leave behind me all the good horses that Willie Mullins had and that Dad had. I had my future wife to think of as well and beyond that, it made sense from a tax-incentive point of view to live in Ireland. So I told Paul that I could by at his disposal on the days there was no racing at home and that I'd ride for him on Saturdays as well.

I was probably being a bit cheeky but he went for it anyway and that's how it started. I don't know if he ever offered it to anyone else but what I do know is that he's never asked me since then if I'd reconsider and do it full-time.

If there's a secret to his success, it's that he puts massive emphasis on getting his horses very fit and getting them to jump very well. He knows how good his horses are, he gets what he can out of them and he's not afraid to replace them if he thinks he's taken them as far as they're going to go. If he gets a horse that has gone way up in its handicap, to the point where it might be a year before it comes back down, he won't be afraid to sell it and get in a young horse that might win three or four novice races in that time. If he thinks a horse has reached its level, he won't hang on to it just in the hope that it will get a bit more.

It's a bit like Alex Ferguson selling Paul Ince or Mark Hughes or whoever.

If he thinks the horse has gone as far as he's going to, he won't be afraid to get fresh blood in instead.

He might get rid of 30 horses over the course of a year and get in 30 more to replace them. Now, some of those will leave because of injury but others will go simply because he wants to freshen things up. If you're standing still, you're going backwards.

For me, I get the best of all worlds. I can basically ride in races almost seven days a week and because I'm riding for Paul, I'm guaranteed a more than decent chance in all those races. There's nothing like having the chance to ride something like Kauto Star on a Saturday and then come home and ride one of Willie's best mounts on the Sunday.

There's plenty of travelling over and back but I'm long used to that by now.

The whole arrangement is a dream come true for me.

Of the four I ride for him today, I like the look of Natal the most. He runs in the first race, the November Novices, and he has to have a chance. We lost Noland for the season during the week just gone but I do think that this horse might just step into his place and have a run at the Arkle.

The one thing that could be a problem for him is that he might possibly be a better horse running right-handed.

Today will let us know more about how he'll handle Cheltenham.

He's most likely the best chance I have today. Armariver is a funny horse who, if he gets his head in front, could take a notion and keep it there but he's only won once in 11 starts. And while Cornish Sett has won around Cheltenham over hurdles, Fundamentalist will take plenty of beating.