‘If I were a horse, I’d like to live at this yard’: Harry Meade rides out at Christian Williams’ seaside training base

Harry Meade rides out for Christian Williams, and goes behind the scenes to learn about their routines, management and philosophy

I am always intrigued visiting yards to see how other riders and trainers do things. When I go to a yard to try a young horse, I’ll often get side-tracked in the corner of a stable asking niche questions about their work routine or some other detail.

Christian Williams’ base at Ogmore-by-Sea is a state-of-the-art training
centre, but not in the conventional sense. I was fascinated to discover how his programme has been shaped by the extraordinary south Wales coastline, where the landscape itself provides facilities that many purpose-built yards would struggle to match.

The backdrop is stunning. Overlooked by the 12th-century ruin of Ogmore Castle, the yard is set at the mouth of the River Ewenny as it flows into the Bristol Channel. The beach and sand dunes are dramatic – immortalised in the filming of the desert scenes in Lawrence of Arabia. But as I arrive at the yard, with herds of thoroughbreds grazing in the sandy paddocks, the smell of salt and sea on the warm air of the summer heatwave, the atmosphere is low-key and peaceful.

Inside the indoor barn – which houses about 25 boxes as most of the 45-strong string live out 24/7 – eight horses for the first lot are tied up outside the stables being tacked up. My first impression is how very relaxed they are.

Riding out on the beach – “It’s idyllic”

I’m introduced to my ride, Fever Dream, a chestnut eight-year-old by Sholokhov who has won four races, and legged up.

We walk straight into the River Ewenny, a fast-flowing river reaching nearly up to the horses’ bellies and they stand patiently as we wait for Christian to join us. He often rides out to keep a close eye on his string. Watching him ride, his background as a top National Hunt jockey is obvious. Whatever the pace, his horse works softly into the bridle, relaxed and balanced throughout.

We hack down to the vast expanse of Ogmore beach along a couple of miles of sandy tracks, at one point climbing up a dune and then very steeply down in super-deep dry sand.

While horses tend to prop walking down firm or wet grass, on this deep sand they tilt their pelvises and tuck their quarters under, striding down like a panther. It’s only a short stretch, but it strikes me what a terrific natural feature it is from an athletic perspective – more beneficial for the horses’ backs than any physio session.

The beach was idyllic – you can see why Christian has little problem finding staff. We canter slowly in three huge circles. The sand rides in an identical fashion to the deep Wexford sand that has served the likes of Willie Mullins and countless Irish trainers so well. It’s wet, so it’s not loose, but deep so the horses work hard at a steady pace. Even better, it’s groomed daily by the tide.

The horses work hard, and recover by wading into the sea, walking and trotting along the shallow surf. Like a natural water treadmill, it’s beneficial for building up their strength and topline without concussion but with constant resistance.

They call the route back to the yard the “rollercoaster”. It winds around narrow, snaking tracks, almost like goat paths, which we canter along.

Christian’s father ran a trekking centre from his yard, so he grew up spending seven hours a day taking English tourists for beach rides. He knows these paths so well and it does feel like some sort of extreme trekking experience riding top-class racehorses.

You can’t go fast because of the complexity of the paths: 18-inch wide sand gullies carved into the long grass with banks keeping you in. You’re constantly weaving, going up and down, so both the horse and rider have to be incredibly well balanced, switching leads and adjusting to the rapidly changing inclines, which are at times extreme, almost a white-knuckle ride – it’s brilliant.

It impresses me how, when we get to the twistier bits, the horses stay in this relaxed, collected canter – it’s working every muscle in their body with terrific engagement and relaxation. It’s a constant challenge on the horse’s ability to find first gear and not let the engine drop out. I feel like I’m riding a high-class polo pony – never strong, and able to manoeuvre, open up and close down.

I love how this kind of work gives the horses something to think about without any kind of mental stress. Besides being supple, balanced and relaxed, it requires tremendous mental concentration as the horses think where to put their feet. It’s far from demoralising – it’s a decent workout and it’s fun. I’d imagine strong horses settle quickly here.

Next, we come to a fascinating sporting landmark – the Big Dipper. This is like a ski piste of deep soft sand, which levels out at the bottom. Here, what looks like a group of professional athletes are limbering up to run up the slope. There’s a tyre on a harness ready for action. It looks gruelling. Christian tells me that this is a well-known natural training area, where Olympic sprinters Linford Christie and Colin Jackson, and other track athletes, boxers and rugby teams used to do conditioning work.

Before sport became institutionalised with the likes of Loughborough and Bisham Abbey created as centres of excellence, many athletes used to come here on training camps and take advantage of the sand and steep inclines – just as Christian is doing for his equine athletes.

Christian doesn’t have all-weather gallops, horse walkers, covered rides or indoor schools. Yet his outfit is like a bespoke training centre with a wonderful variety of natural facilities, with both fitness and therapeutic benefits.

If I imagine a blank canvas to create a state-of-the art yard where everything could be sculpted to provide the changing gradients and surfaces that are best for horses’ fitness and welfare, you’d base a lot of that on what Christian has. He has the rollercoaster undulations of the dunes, the long straights and Wexford sand circles on the beach; the sea and rivers work as swimming pools, cold water spas and water treadmills.

They have all that on their doorstep and can incorporate it incidentally into their programme with little effort.

Turnout, feed and rugging

Back at the yard, the horses are hosed off before being turned out naked, in groups of seven.

My horses also spend most of their time out in the field, but in individual paddocks. Ours have horses all around them, but they each have a corridor between them and the horse next door as I worry about kicks and preventable injuries. Christian says that they rarely get kicks, but any that do would be stabled more and go out in smaller, separate paddocks on their own.

The horses are fed outside from individual tubs. Christian’s brother and assistant trainer Nicky explains that they know their hierarchy and all line up in a queue at feeding time according to their order, without fighting. They’re on sand – apparently you can walk in the fields in your slippers in the middle of winter – so the horses can go out in all weathers, well rugged as necessary.

There’s a negligible amount of grass, just enough to pick at but without the worry of them blowing up on lush grass in the spring. I’d imagine they get most of their nutrition from their bucket feed and haylage (which is made locally and smells delicious).

It’s a nice connection that Christian and I both feed D&H, and we chat about the benefits. His horses look outstanding – they are fit, but well conditioned with unsurprisingly good toplines in keeping with the kind of work they are doing.

Finally, we head up to a huge field on a hill overlooking the sea that Christian rents off a local farmer for his summering horses. This is on limestone soil, which not only has great drainage and grass cover, but has natural mineral benefits too.

There must be about 30 horses here – shoes off, sun-bleached coats – enjoying their last few days of holiday before it’s time to move back to the yard and start their fitness work ready for the National Hunt season.

Christian walks around the herd, picking out a few superstars such as Kitty’s Light – winner of the Scottish National and nearly half a million in prize money. Another is six-year-old House Of Habsburg – a big, strapping type who’s won his last three races and is tipped for the top.

I think that I’d like to live at Christian’s yard if I were a horse. My overall impression is that they’re both mentally and physically relaxed and enjoy their work – no doubt due to living out the whole time and being in full, varied and mentally stimulating work. It seems inconceivable that a horse could be unhappy in its work here.

It’s not brass knobs and marble troughs, but if you were going to design a training centre from scratch with nothing but the horses’ welfare and athletic development in mind, you’d wish for something remarkably similar.

But this outlier on the Welsh coast is a one-off that, sure as anything, money cannot buy.

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