PROMOTING RACEHORSE RETRAINING

Working with horses that have been in training is just a very small part of our work and although we acknowledge that very few of these horses have the capability to reach a high standard of achievement in other spheres, e.g. PSG Dressage, they do have a considerable amount to offer in terms of fun and pleasure to a large percentage of riders in the UK as long as horse and rider are correctly matched.  For example, many Riding Club members have such horses and, indeed, the 2003 Championships saw a large number of these horses in winning places; and of course a significant number of "retired" racehorses find their way onto the hunting, polo and horseball fields.

Our involvement with the thoroughbred industry goes back many years, and one of our own horses [Leosaid - see below]- started life as a hurdler; he was now a wonderful fun little horse, happily tackling coloured fences with as much enthusiasm as he does cross country fences and of course he still loved schooling with horses that are in training. 

Consequently we felt it only appropriate that we help to raise awareness in respect of the adaptability and versatility of horses coming off the track provided, of course, they are injury free and receive appropriate retraining by persons fully experienced to carry out such work.  

Our concerns purely lie in the welfare of the horse and to this end we support any company, organization or individual(s) who run any scheme(s) which promote and educate regarding horses that have been in training as these horses do need a special understanding, not only because of their nature and temperament (by way of their breeding) but due to the way they have been handled and trained from a very early age.  Remember, a flat-raced horse is working out on the gallops at less than 2 years old!

Now read the story of Light the Fuse, a little ex-hurdler we are currently training and competing

LIGHT THE FUSE - or "Bombie" as he is affectionately known to his friends has successfully made the transition from racehorse to riding horse.

During his racing career Bombie incurred several nasty injuries but bounced back from them all.  He has had bone chips removed from both knees, severed a tendon and has fractured a knee. However in December 2002 the decision to retire him was made as it was evident that recurring back problems were causing him far too much discomfort.  What started as an extremely promosing racing career was plaqued by injury but his owners acted responsibily and put the welfare of their horse first.  After several months of rest the rehabiliation process began. By the summer of 2004 Bombie made his first appearance in the dressage arena, albeit at unaffiliated level.

Bombie is incredibly inquisitive and takes a very keen interest in what is happening around him so keeping his attention on what he is doing can be a little difficult!  He also gets tense.  Nonetheless on 1st June 2005 he won his class (Novice 24) on 66.3% and earned himself 4 points.  Unfortunately after that his rider up to that time decided it was time for a change and Bombie was jockey-less.  

That is when he found his way to us; his owners Dee and Tony Lousada (also owners of the very successful Mister Bojangles) asked us to continue his training pending the installation of another rider for Bombie. After a couple of months of deliberation and contemplation I decided to "bite the bullet" and take the ride myself.  It was not a decision taken lightly as I had not ridden a dressage test since my Pony Club days and my riding was honed to backing and working with young horses, horses with behavioural problems and jumping horses.

So off I went for a couple of lessons and I was hooked. Fred then lined up Rhett Bird to take us on - probably the biggest regret of his [Rhett's] life to date! - and in October [2005] off we went to the Sports Horse Training Centre near Stratford for 3 days. What a superb atmosphere for learning for both horse and rider. For us it was very home-from-home in that it was quiet and relaxed - just what Bombie needed.  He didn't get at all stressed and his owner's fears of a touch of colic creeping in proved unfounded.

Our first competition proved extremely nerve-racking as far as I was concerned and I rode like a sack of potatoes! Nonetheless we received some very positive and constructive comments as well as a rosette.  Our next outing was a bit more relaxed and I actually enjoyed myself!  Our warm up went much better but Bombie had a little skip about in the arena!  Nonetheless the judge's comments were extremely positive and we came home with 6th and 5th placings respectively.

January 2006 and off we went for another 3-day stay with Rhett and Jilly and we were very encouraged by the feedback from both of them in the significant improvement in my position; I was now starting to look like a dressage rider and Bombie's lateral work had improved immensely - so we had been doing our homework properly.

January 28th saw us a Fenning Farm. Test 1 was not so good in that after such a long break since his last outing, Bombie was very tense, although he was much less distracted; test 2 was much better and more fluent; we finished a very creditable 4th. Once again we found the judge's comments to be very helpful and fully in line with what we knew ourselves - good paces but lacking the required suppleness through the back because of ... tension!  This will get better the more outings we have as Bombie works so well at home.

Our next competition was not until March. Warm-up was a bit tricky and a rather hit-and-miss affair as the wind was blowing to such a degree that poor little Bombie sometimes actually got blown sideways.  Plus he was so tense that we had to work out on some grass rather than in the arena with the other horses.  I thought both tests would be somewhat of disasters, but the outing would do us good so I had no expectations as to our performance. However once in the competition arena Bombie was as attentive as he had ever been - no gazing around to see what more exciting things were happening elsewhere!

Test 1 went well but unfortunately Bombie disunited during his last few canter strides so we lost marks without even trying but we had accrued enough marks generally to still finish 5th - until the last 4 horses went, we were actually in the lead!   Test 2 (which was a qualifier) was also going well right until the end - but just as we were coming to halt the wind gave an extra strong gust and blew Bombie to the side so of course to the judge, the halt was not even on the centre line, let alone square!  However, once again generally it was a good test and another 5th place was earned.

The comments from the two judges were, once again, very encouraging and proved the potential within Bombie was there if we could continue to address the problem of his inner tension.  This outing had seen such an improvement so next time a Novice class was definitely on the cards.

A further training session ensued (April 2006) which was great fun; we were delighted that Rhett was so happy with Bombie's physical and, more importantly, mental development.  Everything felt like it was now clicking into place - although the little horse does still have his moments, but that is why, of course, we all love him so much!

Well we bit the bullet and at the end of May entered a Novice class at Sissons Farm. And pleased we were too; ok so not a brilliant score, but a creditable performance - 60%! (plus we came 3rd in the Prelim).  We spoke to the judge afterwards and she was very encouraging in that once the little horse could relax just that bit more, we would be well away. So the only thing to do was to keep taking him out and about so that he gradually learnt that it all wasn't quite so bad as he thought - and really actually was fun!!.

We ventured to Sissons Farm again on 6th June and were delighted with a 67.50% 3rd place in the Prelim and 61% in the Novice (5th); with the winner of the Novice class attaining 64.50% once again we were all delighted with the day's events. 

Bombie was working so well at home and in all honesty it  was beginning to get a little frustrating that his  performance could not be reproduced at a competition.  Part of the problem lay in the fact that Bombie was  anxious in the warm up; he was not happy about horses  approaching him - particularly when most of them were  much larger than he was! Consequently Rhett advised on  a change of "warm up" tactics which we tried out for the  first time at Fenning Farm on 30th June. Although not  perfect, there was improvement and a nice collection of  7's on the score sheet.

After another outing in July it was off to Weston Lawns for a "trial" run for the Area Festival.  Bombie coped with an overnight stay in strange surroundings all on his own - no other horses were there - extremely well and indeed with the busier competitive arena than he had encountered to date.  However because of the strangeness so of the tension we had been working so hard to reduce and ultimately eliminate returned so he did not work over his back as well as he could.  Nonetheless he didn't actually do anything wrong and connections thought he was scored a little harshly but that's dressage!

From Weston it was straight to Rhett's for further training, back home for a week and then back to Weston for the Pet Plan Area Festival.

Once again, the little horse didn't put a foot wrong but he was just in a state of sheer awe at the number of horses. Weston has a massive warm up arena and it was heaving!  We were delighted with the way Bombie coped with horses looming at him in all directions; he actually warmed up surprisingly well given his anxiety about horses in such close proximity.  Once again the test results reflected his inner tension but at least they were both rhythmical; comments in the past had been of tests lacking fluency but the judges's comments were positive and encouraging.  In fact I spoke to the Festival Test judge afterwards and he was most helpful spending quite a while running through his tests comments with me.  I learnt something extremely important that day; I had been so busy concentrating on riding into the corners, that I hadn't ridden particularly round circles!! Duh!!

The tension of the past few weeks took its toll a little on Bombie; he lost a little weight and was clearly tired so the next few weeks were spent having lots of fun hacking around the stumble fields and playing.  We quietly brought him back into work proper with the aim of resuming competitions at the end of September.

As we were unable to get to Rhett's we actively sort another person with whom to train - and who was nearer to home.  We elected for Steph Cooper as she held clinics just 40 minutes away and managed to have two training sessions with her prior to our next competition

Off we went to Sissons Farm basically just for an outing.   Well it proved to be a very successful outing - 2nd in the   Prelim and 1st in the Novice Restricted (2nd overall). We were thrilled not just with the result but with the fact  that Bombie, despite not having been out for quite a while, just took it all in his stride. It was if he was saying  that if he could cope with Weston Lawns, this was a  piece of cake.

Had we now really turned the corner? Maybe, just maybe we had!

2 more training sessions with Steph followed and back to Sissons we went.   Steph was actually judging that day, but not us; Inger Bryant was the judge for both our classes. Bombie went well, was attentive and felt wonderfully supple but we could not ever had imagined that Inger would have thought the test to so good - 74% worth of good!!

By the time his Novice test came around Bombie had switched off a little and so was not quite so supple; 1 G&R didn't quite happen nor did 1 medium trot.  Nonetheless we finished a very happy 4th.   3 days later it we headed for Fenning Farm which gained us another 4th place in the Prelim and a 6th in the Novice. However disaster did strike in the Novice as Bombie bolted in the arena.  He began to shake his head violently and then off he went; clearly something was very wrong - he had either been stung or something else was rather amiss.  We did our best to put the experience behind us as we made our way to The College for our first foray there on 8th November.

Something did prove to be amiss as Bombie suffered a nasty nosebleed for no apparent reason.  He was rushed to the vets for investigation as the bleed just would not stop.  A thorough examination and scoping could not find any reason behind what had happened.  So Bombie was on the easy list for a few days and then work resumed, but he had a rather nasty head shake and would stick his ears out sideways + he had another brief bleed!  

Back to the vets he went for further tests, scoping and xrays as there were various possible causes to his behaviour, a couple of which could be serious. However despite every possible thing being. done the vets just could not find a cause; every little bit of Bombie was an absolute picture of health and especially so bearing in mind his age and the length of his racing career.  All we could do was resume his work and see what happened.

LEOSAID

Leosaid, or Georgie at home, came to us as a 4 year old and we had many years of tremendous fun with him. It took a couple of years before he began to settle into general riding let alone allow proper training work to commence but patienece, patience, patience was the key and oh, how we were rewarded. As the years went by Georgie just got better and better. He was a very complex character - sensitive, but tough, temperamental yet so willing to please. That all sounds so contradictory, but we understood his nature so knew exactly what to do and when. We learnt so much from him because of that temperament.

Suddenly and completely unexpectedly August 2007 Georgie was telling us that he had had enough of life and we had no alternative but to have him put to sleep immediately. He remains on this website and will remain the E.M.T. figurehead logo as our "thank you" to a truly wonderful little horse.