Grand National. What will its fate be?

Following my most recent blog post on the Grand National on Saturday I have had many responses; some good and some bad.

I am very much aware that whatever an individuals opinion might be, the next person might not agree. We are all individuals that will always have different opinions.

The feedback I received for my blog post was some what fascinating. In just 3 hours I had just over 260 views on that particular post. It is evident that so many are interested in the Grand National and finding out what its fate will be for years to come.

I do not agree that the National should be "banned". Society and the general public who know nothing about farming and the equine industry have already managed to get fox-hunting banned. I wondered how long it would be before they took an interest in another sport that could be classed as dangerous and attempt to get that banned too.

Some messaged me following my recent blog post and asked why I compared horse-racing to football, rugby or any other sport of that type. Yes, football players can make up their own mind whether or not they want to play in a game but I also believe so can horses.

I don't know how many times I have to say to any individuals that do not understand horses, but in all honesty if a horse doesn't want to do something he wont! I remember last summer I had decided to take my horse cross-country schooling, before loading him in to the lorry he was full of beans and really on his toes. Upon arriving at the cross-country course he point blank refused to jump more than a few jumps. Usually he loves jumping into water and down ditches; that particular day he was having non of it and after an hour I gave up, boxed him back up and put it all down to having an off day.

If those race horses didn't want to race or jump I don't believe they would. We need to pay attention to those jockeys that pulled their horses up due to "not feeling right". Those decisions are one of the most hardest and disappointing to make, but if your horse isn't feeling like doing something, no one will be able to make it.

It all goes back to the saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink!".

Anyway, moving away from the fact that horses are one of the most stubborn animals alive, I have also been questioned by a young girl about the use of whips on race horses. This is a good point that I wanted to cover within my blog and hope that by covering it I can answer some of her questions.

No jockey is allowed to be seen overusing the whip anymore and will not use it to "make the horse go faster and faster".

Jockeys can only use the whip a maximum of five times in the final furlong or after the last obstacle. Failure to comply to this rule will see them receiving both a financial penalty and ban from racing for so many days or races.

The controversial new regulations were brought in by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).

Jockeys already use air-cushioned whips to minimise the impact on horses, but an extensive review of their use began last November.

Many riders are opposed to the automatic forfeiture of their riding fee and percentage of any winnings when incurring a whip ban of three days or more.

The general public can rest assured that jockeys wont be over-using their whip when racing but if they do so then there are penalties in place that makes sure they don't get away with it lightly.

The other point I wanted to address was broken legs in horses. Following Saturdays race I was forced to see many statuses on peoples facebook profiles about broken legs in horses and how it came down to money from race horses owners about whether or not the racehorse would be kept alive.

Sadly, horses aren't as fixable as ourselves. Although a broken leg doesn't sound too dramatic and if it happened to you or me we would be put in plaster for just over a month and then we'd be on our way. Unfortunately in horses this isn't the case and no amount of money could save a horses from a broken leg.

Horses do not just sustain injuries while racing. It can happen when they take part in any kind of sport or leisure activity, or even while they are messing around on their own in a field. However much they are loved and however much money their owner is happy to spend on them, there is no way back from the wrong kind of break.

Cynics assume that money is the issue, but regular followers of the sport know this cannot be true. Neither Barbaro, the hugely popular Kentucky Derby winner, nor Rewilding, who pipped So You Think in a thriller at Royal Ascot this summer, survived their broken legs. Both would have been worth millions if they could have been preserved for a quiet life at stud, but it could not be done

Horses bones are very strong to carry their weight, but at the same time very light for them able to go fast. Unfortunately this means that when a break does occur it usually results in the bone shattering rather than clean breaking.

There is very little tissue covering horses bones so sometimes when a break does occur the bone will penetrate the skin, causing an open fracture.

I'm not at all saying that in a rare case a horse couldn't come through a break and carry on to lead a normal life, but through the eyes of a horse, what is a normal life? Following a break or fracture the horse may not be able to go out in the paddock, it may have to be on box rest for the rest of its life. What kind of life is this for any animal?

I can be honest here because I have broken both my wrists twice each. In the winter I get a harsh stabbing pain in both wrists due to the cold air following my breaks. Would a horse be able to tell its owner of the pain its experiencing in the cold weather? No. Although it seems a horrible thought to put a horse to sleep just because of a break, we need to look at its quality of life after and sometimes the kindest thing to do is let the horse be pain free.

I am a big believer in making the Grand National jumps lower. I know the feedback from this will be that the jockeys and horses will only go faster as a result, but if you take in to account the speed they are going around the course and then having to jump, do they really have time to sort their legs out before landing after a jump? I may sound a little naive here, but surely the faster the horse is going the less time it has to think about the positioning of its legs and how to land? By making the jumps a bit smaller the horse it could prevent the horse from tripping upon landing.

Following this I do feel the field needs to also be made smaller. By making the field smaller it will lessen the chance of one horse falling and bringing down another with it due to the field being less crowded. In stead of 40 runners, why not only have 20? It would be interesting to see how many of the 20 came home safe and sound as appose to the few that came back out of 40 on Saturday.

At the end of the day as I said at the beginning, different people are going to have different opinions on each individual sport. Nothing will be right and nothing will be wrong. All we can hope for now is the racing officials get it right when making the decisions about next years national.

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All work no play?

This week has been full of work and only a tiny bit of play. I have become 'used' (and I use that word very lightly in this context) to the idea that for the next 8 weeks of my life I will not see a horse from Monday to Friday.

Let me explain a little further.

I am in my 3rd year at university where I am studying Journalism. My dream as a child was always to become an interpreter. Not many know this but I can speak German, Spanish, a little Japanese and English (of course). I used to be very fluent in them all but sadly as time has moved on I have lost my ability to speak in a range of different languages and now just usually stick to English. 

So, during Secondary School I was adament I would be an interpreter. I wanted to have an interesting job, work for the Police force as one and travel around. Sadly, when I moved to Lincolnshire my plans became a distant memory and here I am following my second dream: to become a Journalist.

3rd year is hell. I'm not going to lie, its the most awful time of my life. I have spent the past three days pulling my hair out, crying, screaming, shouting, moaning and ranting. Whilst being at university I have had to just deal with the fact that Monday to Friday is study time and weekends only are for equine adventures. That was until the beginning of 3rd year begun. Suddenly I found myself with more freedom than I've had in two years and I began to not leave Lincolnshire to go to university until a Monday night and then would go home again on a Thursday. Looking back now I was an idiot and could have got so much more work done if I hadn't have been in a rush to go home.

Anyway, you can imagine my excitement when an old friend, Sam, from my previous yard in Nottingham asked me go and see her and her new horse this week. When I say friend I do mean so much more. I remember throughout my teenage years she was like a second mum to me. We would often joke she was my adoptive Mum and through the years when I lost all my confidence she would be the one standing in the wind and rain with me in the menage willing me to just jump the tiny cross pole.

She keeps her horse not too far away from university so it didn't take long to get there and the whole way there I was really excited. When I arrived I was equally as excited to learn that the girl, Sarah, who used to loan Ceaser - in his naughty days - was there too! It was like a Bowleys Farm reunion and now all we needed was the ample water and poo fights we used to have.

Sam now owns a gorgeous 17.2h ex racehorse called "Chester" and I was lucky enough to be able to have a go.

All week Sam has been messaging me telling me not to expect too much when visiting her but when I arrived at the yard I instantly fell in love. The horses are all turned out in three or four big fields, the stables are big, the menage is nestled in woodland and at a short few steps away from the stables you walk into a adventure. The woodland there is fantastic, it goes on for miles and the liveries have all built some natural fences in there. I truly believe you could hack out all day and not hit one road. Everyone that arrived on the yard greeted me and stood speaking to me like we'd been friends for life. The atmosphere was lovely and I just couldn't get the riding opportunities there out of my mind.

I was lucky enough that Sam let me borrow Chester for a ride and took me down into the woods so I could have a jump on him. He truly is brilliant and if Sam ever sells him I would snap him up instantly. He doesn't at all ride like a 17.2hh and if you remember one of my previous posts I declared I hated riding big horses. Chester though didn't ride like he was so big and I felt comfortable; which doesn't usually happen on something bigger than 15.2hh. He has an amazing jump and his lateral work is brilliant. I have thoroughly had my faith in ex racehorses restored.

Apart from riding, myself, Sam and Sarah spent the day reliving our "youth" at Bowleys Farm and the fun we used to have. It was lovely to hear some of the stories about Ceaser's previous naughty behavior and the things he used to get up to. It seems escaping into the village (which was a good 2 miles away from the old yard) and destroying lots of Garden plants used to be his habit. How did I ever forget all that?

If I ever am competing Nottingham way for a couple of days I will certainly be taking Ceaser to this yard. I am pretty confident we would have so much fun exploring the woodland and jumping those brilliant fences!


Overall I had a fantastic day and it was lovely to be in the company of some equine friends during the week and I certainly have missed days like I had yesterday.

Thank you to Sam and Sarah for taking my mind of the ever growing list of university work I have had this week and for a lovely day.

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Have a little patience...

This weekend I was reminded just how rewarding time, patience, fun and love is for our equine friends.

Lately I have found my self being so wrapped up in my competing I forget to take time out and have a bit of fun time with Ceaser. I try to hack him out at least once a week and jump every other week to keep his mind fresh from schooling and going through dressage moves several times.

Although, just lately I have let it slip and just focused on perfecting Ceasers leg-yield, shoulder in or collected canter. When I was younger on our old livery yard I remember watching the yard owners daughter flying over a jump that got bigger and bigger every time she cleared it. She used to be my idol and one day I told myself I would be like her. Everyone asked her ride their naughty ponies and everyone loved her. She was brave and had a huge dedication for getting to the very top of her sport.

Sadly, a few years after we left I went back to the yard to find work had gotten in the way and left her unable to compete. Its such a shame as she was a fantastic rider. I remember being at that yard and just riding all day having fun with my friends. We didn't care we had a local riding club competition coming up the following weekend and our ponies weren't the neatest on the yard but that didn't bother us.

It seems such a million years ago I was once a rider that rode just for "fun" and my pony rarely saw the end of a hose ready for bath time. Now I'm usually found wanting to perfect my collected canter or shoulder in dressage move and my horses are all pristine. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first at the yard to be up for a hack to the pub for fun or join in with the pony games the children on the yard are playing but I also want to get to the top in my sport and I believe I have the drive and dedication to get there.

As I said though, lately I feel I've forgotten how to have fun and I shouldn't.

My reminder of time, patience, fun and love came in the form of Frosty. If you saw my blog post last week I introduced Frosty as our latest addition. He's a 14.1hh 5 year old New Forest cross Cob. He was described as backed but never done anything further. Frosty came to me a nervous little soul. You can tell he's friendly, means well and doesn't have a vicious bone in his body but for some reason he's nervous and every time I have gone to lean over his back he has tensed up and I've lost several hours of sleep wondering why.

I've spent the past two weeks working with Frosty on the ground. I've left him tied up for an hour with a haynet in the barn so he has had to watch people coming and going past him. Weekends are relatively busy at the yard and a lot goes on so I thought it would be good for Frosty just to stand and take it in.

So far he has been nothing but a perfect gentleman on the ground and his manners are excellent. Somewhere down the line he has been started off well and it is evident someone has spent a lot of time with him.

When we got Frosty I had a summer project in mind and Dad told me he wanted him for the riding school. I thought it would be my perfect opportunity to prove to Dad I was capable and bring this pony on myself but as with everything I began to have my doubts after last weekend we seemed to be going backwards rather than forwards. A lot of the liveries were watching me work Frosty in the arena and he became very tense. Eventually I had to ask them to leave as he suddenly developed a problem of trotting past the gate where every body was lined up. I wondered then if I was even capable of doing this and whether or not just to tell Dad I didn't have time.

This weekend I thought about taking a completely different approach with both Ceaser and Frosty. I have been told I am a busy rider and make life difficult for myself so when I rode Ceaser this weekend I stayed quiet, didn't rush myself and didn't get wound up if Ceaser wouldn't work correctly. After 10 minutes it all came together and both rides I had over Saturday and Sunday I believe are the best I have had in a long time. Ceaser worked perfectly and produced some fantastic moves.

With Frosty I reminded myself I had been given six weeks to re-break and school him ready for the riding school so I didn't need to rush like I had initially wanted to. Saturday I took him in the arena, popped some trotting poles up and eventually made them in to a cross pole which he jumped like he had been a show jumper all his life. I noticed he has became very attached to me and everywhere I move his head follows. He is constantly looking for me and when I am lunging him he almost seeks acceptance from me to go forward and then he will. My Partner, Mark commented that he seems too watch my every move.

Conscious of the fact Frosty is not mine to keep but in fact for the riding school I asked Mark to take him for his first walk up the road. I walked next to him on the other side but didn't hold him so he had to seek reassurance from someone else. As soon as I stopped, Frosty stopped and when I walked slower to hold back a little he looked round for me. I have only spent a total of 6 days with this pony so far due to being at university but it is already evident he is attached to me and each day I find myself growing more attached to him.

Sunday I decided to test his trust and asked a girl at the yard to place some cones in the arena dotted around and a banner on the floor with a cone either side that he could walk over. Frosty also has a fear of mounting blocks so we put a plastic mounting block in the arena with a cone either side. After just ten minutes I had him trotting over every obstacle in there and trotting past a group of people at the gate.

Frosty's trust in an individual person is so evident. It is clear he is a one-to-one pony that seeks reassurance from his leader before accepting he has to do it.

Monday the yard was quiet as every one was either at work or school so I tacked Ceaser up and decided we would hack out. Usually I cannot hack Ceaser out alone as he is scared or gets so far up our lane then refuses to move forward. I just went for it, trotted him up the lane and repetitively told him what a "good boy" he was and patting him. The reassurance from me seemed to work as we got as far as the bridle path and managed to go for a good gallop. The feeling of just being there, you and your horse is amazing. I had honestly forgotten what it was like and promise myself I will do it more often. Ceaser was brilliant and had his ears pricked the whole way after our gallop.

With the yard still being quiet when I got back I decided to put a saddle on Frosty and just see what happened. I lunged him as usual but with the stirrups down so they flapped around on him. This was a fantastic achievement as he has never even been lunged in a saddle and eventually dropped his head in to a lovely outline almost as if he was finally accepting what was happening. I then took the lunge line off, let him go and stood staring at him. As I walked forward, he did. As I turned, he did. Just then I saw a livery coming down the hill towards us so I asked her to hold him for me.

The day before when I had tried just to lean over him he had tensed and suddenly moved away from me, however quiet I was. Today I slowly put my foot in the stirrup and just pulled my self up to sit on him. I honestly couldn't believe it and could have cried as he turned his head to look at me.

That's when it hit me. I spent too much time worrying about looking perfect for other people, worrying about what others were whispering about me when I was riding and worrying how long I have before my next competition that I stress too much. Here I was just a week later after telling myself I couldn't do it, sat on a pony that was just last week too nervous to let me lean over him.

Frosty had put all his patience and trust in me to look after him that when it came to wanting something back he just gave it me. From what I have heard about Frosty's past, the last time someone got on him he had them off so I feel so happy that he allowed me to get on.

For non-horse owners the feeling of achieving something like this is something they cannot even begin to think about experiencing but I am sure every equine owner reading this is reliving that moment they sat upon their horse for the first time.

I am sure so many of us spend too much time worrying what we look like or what we have to prove to others.

From now on I will be taking a step back after realising that time, patience, love and trust are things that really make a good equine relationship. How many trophies or rosettes you've won doesn't account to anything once you've gained the trust from a horse once wary of you.

Just have a little patience......

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