Through the stable door – Jenny Tett

Jenny Tett and Windpower Pioneer

Statistics: 8yo 17.lhh bay gelding

Breeding: Cornish-bred by Shaab, a full TB, out of a Clydesdale mare

Competition record: 9th Blarney 1999 and an individual at Young Rider Europeans, 4th Bramham 2000, longlisted for British Young Rider team

Character: Jenny bought Pioneer (Pie) at the beginning of last season.

“He’s a gentle giant even though he can be a bit of a bugger – he chases Marcus (Speakeasy III) around the field.

“And he’s a total mud hog. The other day he was lying down in the pond with his whole body in the water and his head on the bank!”

Routine: Based at Wickham in West Berkshire, Jenny takes advantage of nearby racehorse training facilities.

She rides out for point-to-point trainer John Porter in the mornings and takes Pie on his water treadmill twice a week. Pie is also hunted with the Vine and Craven and Cattistock.

When he’s not in his old fashioned stable, Jenny makes Pieadhere to a strict fitness regime.

“We do a lot of fitness work as I couldn’t imagine anything worse than getting half way round a course and not being able to go any further.

“We go on the gallops before or after he’s been on the water treadmill. It’s a polytrack gallop which runs around the base of the hill and is a real stamina test. He does pulling work and fast work and then it’s a 2.5 mile walk home.

“We also have a field at home called the Park where the ground is perfect because it’s got a lot of moss in it. It has a few good slopes and it’s about a mile round the outside, so we go around that twice a week.

Even after a dressage lesson we do four miles canter work. “You’d think that we would have to do a lot of fast work to get Pie revved up, but he’s hot-blooded although, at the same time, relaxed. He can be strong and wild, but as soon as you let go of the reins he’s like a seaside donkey.

“People assume that most advanced horses are psychos, but Pie’s like a pony, which makes him perfect for a beginner like me.”

Feed: When Pie is in full work he has three meals a day. In the morning it’s just hard feed, 2lbs of Badminton Horse Feeds conditioning cubes, 1lb of Saracen oats and a slice of home-grown hay. Then it’s 2lbs of cubes for lunch and in the evening Pie has 2lbs of oats and some Spillers Readigrass.

Cortaflex is the only supplement Pie has every day, but he is given Propell at three-day events and electrolytes made by Thoroughbred Remedies called Isolyte Gold.

“For quite a cobby horse he doesnt hold his weight well and he does run up light if he’s not fed enough,” concludes Jenny.