Latest from Horse & Hound in Training-young-horses

Championship changes to prepare youngsters in more ‘age-appropriate and horse-friendly way’

Becky Murray — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:40:06 +0000

The German equestrian federation is sending a “clear signal” on young horse training – as changes to the prestigious Al Shira’aa Bundeschampionate are announced to prepare horses “in a more age-appropriate and horse-friendly way”.

Last month the federation held a young horse summit, attended by breeders, riders, trainers, vets and judges. The aim was to assess current young horse competition pathways and discuss: “How should the demands placed on young horses be structured so that training takes centre stage and over-exertion is more effectively avoided?”

Federation chairman Dennis Peiler said: “We have already taken important steps in recent years and have continuously developed further. However, our ambition must be to improve even more. This requires a high degree of willingness to change at all levels.”

Some of the first changes to take effect will be at the German national championships for young horses – the Bundeschampionate (25–30 August).

Among these, three-year-olds will only complete one ridden test instead of two, and the in-hand conformation test for both three- and four-year-olds has been eliminated and replaced by a single mark for overall impression and physical quality. Marking will have a particular focus on “age-appropriate fulfilment of the training scale criteria” and the youngest horses will have a training session at the venue the day before the competition.

Four-year-olds will still qualify through a riding horse test as previously, but for the first time the final will include a dressage test at A level (novice), and the horses will not be ridden by a different person.

“Our goal is to place greater emphasis on the requirements for a riding horse. It’s about the young horse’s relaxation, rhythm, contact, and responsiveness, but also the quality of its movement,” said Klaus Miesner, the federation’s managing director of breeding.

“Judges can assess all of these aspects very well in an individually ridden dressage horse test. The test with an external rider has been completely eliminated, also to reduce the time the young horses and ponies spend in the arena.”

Other changes include adjustments to the venue layout that will allow horses to have visual contact with each other – and a federation spokesperson told H&H “further steps are under discussion”.

“The aim is to introduce young horses to competition in an even more careful and horse-friendly way. Our goal is to keep improving – for the horses,” she said.

“We aim to reduce the time horses spend at the venue and in the competition arenas for the young horses. Further adjustments are also planned in prize-giving ceremonies.”

The federation has established an interdisciplinary working group to “thoroughly examine the entire training and presentation of young horses” in Germany.

“The young horse summit sends a clear signal; horse welfare is not a static state, but an ongoing requirement,” said a federation spokesperson. “Where we identify a need for reform, we intend to discuss and implement further improvements.

“The German equestrian federation sees itself as a platform for open, professional dialogue – with the aim of further developing equestrian sport, improving its quality, and ensuring its long-term social acceptance.

Katy Holder-Vale, a British Breeding Futurity senior evaluator and World Breeding Federation of Sports Horses (WBFSH) committee member, told H&H the changes are positive.

“It’s a big change for the Germans, where they have been very traditionalist for a long time. Worldwide horse sport has the social licence burden to bear, and [the equestrian world] needs to be publicly showing that they are doing something proactive to promote welfare,” she said, adding that the WBFSH is also looking at changes to its young horse championships.

“At the last showjumping WBFSH final, a lot of people felt that the five-year-old horses were under a pressure to go fast against the clock, which isn’t ideal and doesn’t look good. We are in the process of discussing a rule change to have a higher qualification to get through to the championships, so you don’t end up with so many horses going against the clock.”

Discussing young horse preparation more broadly, Ms Holder-Vale believes people are becoming “very conscious of welfare”.

“Everybody is much more aware of how their horses are feeling, if you’ve got a happy horse then they’re going to have a much better competition experience. In the UK, I think we’ve got a very strong young horse competition system,” she said.

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Are young horses being ‘ruined’ by doing too much too soon? Experts debate

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Are young horses being ‘ruined’ by doing too much too soon? Experts debate

Becky Murray — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 16:30:08 +0000

Are quality young horses being “ruined” by doing too much too soon?

This was a major talking point among a panel of showjumping stakeholders at the FEI Sports Forum (31 March–1 April). The session was used to discuss key topics ahead of a full jumping rules revision this year.

FEI athlete committee chair Jessica Kürten, who was moderating the session, said there has been a trend over recent years that some “five-year-olds are having seasons like top 12-year-old international horses”; aiming for finals at “numerous international events with a championship, and another championship, and then perhaps another championship”.

“And then we ask ourselves why do we not have enough horses at the top of the sport, why is it difficult to find the superstar horse? Because they’re not making it,” she said.

“Are they not making it because they’re not good enough? No, our breeding is wonderful. Are we losing these horses on the way to the top because their careers are quite simply being ruined by being used too early?”

The panel discussed whether education should be prioritised over competition and how to achieve this. Suggestions included reducing the number of competitions young horses are allowed to compete in, improving national offerings to reduce travel and using optimum time instead of jump-offs.

Swedish chef d’equipe Henrik Ankarcrona said although many riders produce horses correctly “there are a few getting caught in the business and competition side”.

“Today there is a market for driving your young horse across the continent and competing for money and I’m not sure that’s the best way,” he said.

“I don’t have a problem with a good rider making a short turn [in a jump-off] when they know what they’re doing, but a lot of times I think the emotions of winning take over and we should never have emotions guiding us in producing horses, it should be knowledge.”

International Jumping Riders Club president François Mathy Jr said the purpose of young horse competition is to “prepare the horse for the future” and that events such as the Sunshine Tour offer good education and experience, providing horses are then allowed to rest rather than go straight to the next competition – and this is about “self-management”.

“I don’t think anyone could say that running legs off a five-year-old is constructive so I think I would be in favour of taking away speed classes for those horses,” he said.

FEI jumping director Todd Hinde said the FEI will look into the statistics on young horses competing and how often.

“We know at higher levels riders have education behind them and are trying to produce horses for the longevity of the sport, I think it’s more the next tier down we need to look at and educate,” he said, adding that these discussions will continue.

FEI veterinary director Göran Åkerström said a project with the University of Bristol has been agreed in which a PhD student will look into career longevity in jumping horses; the first set paper is expected by early 2026.

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Horse and rider training

Horse & Hound — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 21:11:59 +0000

Horse and rider training

Welcome to Horse & Hound’s training hub. Whether you are looking for techniques to improve your riding skills, insight from top trainers and riders on how to prepare your horse for a specific sport, or tips to help solve specific problems, you will find useful advice from experts to help.

Horse & Hound’s training exercise of the week

If your horse thinks ditches are full of monsters, this expert advice will help build their confidence

Andrew Nicholson and Avebury jumping the large open ditch the Cottesmore Leap at Burghley: How to solve your horse’s fear of ditches

Choose a topic:

Dressage
Eventing
Showjumping
Showing
Cross-country
Hacking
Polework
Gridwork
Lateral work
Groundwork
How horses learn
Young horses
Riding techniques
Rider fitness
Rider mindset
Problem solving
Learning to ride

Daily training inspiration

Execute smarter square halts with just four poles

Improve horse’s straightness
Help with accurate placement of the halt
Create a square halt

(Image credit: creditUnknown)

Try today’s exercise or find more daily inspiration.

‘There’s pressure to produce young horses a certain way to get the big bucks’ says rider, who is going against the grain

Jennifer Donald — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 18:28:49 +0000

Producing successful young sport horses can be big business as well as hugely gratifying for those involved. But plenty of debate surrounds how to train a young horse in the most beneficial way.

Young horse producer and showjumper Jennifer Thompson imports largely unbroken three- and four-year-olds from the Continent to produce and sell on through her Vecthom Sporthorses business. There’s not much she doesn’t know about producing young horses for the commercial market as well as for the top of the sport. One of the most successful graduates to have passed through her stables is Tim Gredley’s current championship horse Medoc De Toxandria.

Here’s what Staffordshire-based Jennifer had to say about the education process she used with Medoc De Toxandria and the business of producing young showjumping horses when we caught up with her recently. You can read the full article and story behind Medoc De Toxandria, with insight from current rider Tim Gredley and groom Paul Drew, in the 24 October issue of Horse & Hound magazine.

Jennifer looks back fondly on her time with Medoc De Toxandria, AKA “Eddie”, who arrived as an unbroken youngster and was “so easy” to back and bring on.

“Everything you did with Eddie was like he’d been there and done that all before,” says Jennifer. “Right from the get go, everything you asked of him he was ready to move on to the next stage. As a producer you had to put the brakes on because every time you asked him a question, he’d come back with ‘I can do that, now give me something more’. It was so tempting and he could have been a horse that was rushed and ruined in his early days.”

How to train a young horse: “The psychological training was so important”

Jennifer did a “bit of everything” in the early days with the son of Der Senaat III, who was bred in Belgium by Werner Dierckx.

“I worked very hard on his flatwork, making sure he rode in a snaffle, and we worked him with the dressage boards. I took him arena eventing, too, just to give him good foundations,” she says.

“It was the psychological training as well as the physical training that was so important for Eddie,” she explains. “With a horse like him who wanted to achieve more than his years, it was so important that I trained him to believe he could jump whatever was in front of him. It was only ever over bounces or trotting poles – he hardly jumped a single fence or courses, it was just fun activities and gymnastics. I knew that would stand him in good stead for jumping big tracks in the future because he would then have the belief he could go in and conquer, rather than doubt himself. You can see now how much confidence he has. Producing Eddie was all about keeping things fun and making the jumps achievable.

“He’d only been to one training show at home before we took him to Spain because I knew it wouldn’t bother him – he was so unflappable.”

Young horse producer Jennifer Thompson with Medoc De Toxandria as a five-year-old. (Image credit: creditUnknown)

Jennifer was looking for a five-year-old to compete in Spain alongside her older horse and the young Medoc fitted the bill perfectly.

“In Spain he got dubbed the war horse because everyone was falling off their fresh five-year-olds whereas I was hacking ‘Eddie the Eagle’ round happily and he just got this reputation,” says Jennifer. “He’d always be standing there rock steady.”

Unflashy five-year-old is “massively overlooked”

Jennifer says she knew from Medoc’s first fence that he had all the scope and talent to be a top horse, but she “knew her limitations” and she wasn’t the person to get him there.

“I would have been selfish to keep him. My job was done with the producing side of things, he needed to be taken to the top,” she says.

However “he was massively overlooked” by potential buyers, she reveals.

“He wasn’t a flashy five-year-old,” she says. “He wasn’t jumping loop the loops and throwing his back end away. He never felt the need to overjump, he was never exuberant, he just jumped double clear after double clear.

Medoc De Toxandria jumping in his younger days. (Image credit: creditUnknown)

“He’s a plain horse and he rode a bit the way I produced him – I didn’t force him into an outline, so we always cantered on a loose rein and if he wanted to have his head a bit lower, he was careful enough to get himself out of the way of the jumps and careful enough to do his job.“

“I wasn’t prepared to do certain training methods with him as a four-year-old”

Jennifer believed there was “plenty of time for him to sit up and engage his back end later, he was only five. My thinking was he needed to get strong behind first. But people have this perception of five-year-olds and the pressure is on to produce them a certain way to get the big bucks. I wasn’t prepared to do certain training methods with him as a four-year-old to make him aesthetically pleasing as a five year old.

“I said that one day he’ll go into the big ring and it won’t matter how many crowds or how much atmosphere is about him, he’ll only focus on his job and that’s exactly what he’s done,” Jennifer continues.

“He was always so consistent and he had the heart to get you out of trouble. He was never looking for a get out – he wanted to get to the fence, jump it, and get to the other side, then look for the next one. He went above and beyond to do his best – he was naturally careful and that doesn’t come from any methods, it was just natural talent.

“I was Eddie’s biggest fan, waving the flag for him, he was so special to me,” she adds. “I said to my friend Guy Williams this is without doubt a top horse and I hounded him to buy him, but he didn’t want him. A lot of professionals had the opportunity to buy him very cheaply, but we kept being told ‘he isn’t good enough’. Nobody was interested in him. All I wanted was for Eddie to end up in the right hands because I knew how special he was.

“At the end of the tour in Spain, I did a straight swap for a horse of Guy’s I’d bonded with. The plan was that his daughter Maisy would ride Eddie for a bit as a rock-steady five-year-old because he feels more like a 30-year-old. I said if you sell him, you’ll forever regret it, but he just couldn’t see the potential.

“Guy said last year ‘I can’t believe I let that horse go!’”

Tim Gredley and Medoc De Toxandria competing at the European Showjumping Championships 2023 in Milan, Italy. (Image credit: Ben Clark Photography)

Medoc De Toxandria finds his perfect rider

Medoc De Toxandria competed with Belgian rider Caroline De Laet then US rider Noel Fauntleroy, before Irish showjumper Trevor Breen took the reins for a spell in 2019 and that’s when “people started to notice him,” says Jennifer.

“It was only when he was in the big ring jumping clear in the grands prix that people started to look at him properly,” she says.

A couple of years later, Medoc ended up in the yard of David Simpson, with whom he jumped double clear in a CSIO3* Nations Cup, helping Ireland to victory.

British showjumper Tim Gredley bought Medoc from David in 2022, immediately striking up a superb partnership and they’ve gone from strength to strength, representing Great Britain in Nations Cups, the 2023 European Championships and they’ve been placed in some of the world’s biggest grands prix – clearly fulfilling all the early promise Jennifer saw in the young Medoc.

Jennifer says she finds it very hard not to compare all her young horses to Eddie now.

“He set the bar way too high for anything else!” she says. “Nothing compares. We had such a bond and I trusted him implicitly. He had this grit, he concentrated so hard and he had this determined attitude. I always knew he was good enough to be one of the world’s best showjumpers. I’ve never sat on another horse like him and I’m so proud of all he’s achieved.”

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‘To have a best friend you need to be a best friend’: Pippa Funnell and other experts on giving young horses the best start

Eleanor Jones — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:41:39 +0000

Weaning, training and environment are among the most important things to get right to ensure horses have a good life – as is a positive mental attitude from the start.

These were among the messages at the second Better Beginnings for a Better Life conference organised by the British Horse Foundation (BHF) on 14 October.

Experts in equine training and research, and top riders, gathered to cover best practice for horses up to four years old, following on from the 2022 event, which covered to age two.

In her introduction, BHF chair Jane Nixon said: “The BHF is a conduit for collaborative facilitation of research and education to help people make informed decisions that result in the breeding of quality and, importantly, fit-for-purpose youngstock.”

Brad Hill, an assistant professor of equine clinical practice at Nottingham Vet School, spoke of the importance of positive mental attitude from the beginning.

“When Jane spoke to me about this, we had a chat about the young horse and she reminded me of the two most important things to get right; front foot conformation and weaning,” he said. “So I’m going to go back to the start, then take you on a journey.”

Prof Hill said weaning is one of the most stressful events in a horse’s life. But as there are many methods used, and lack of consensus on how stress and impact are measured, “we just don’t know the impact weaning has in terms of the rest of the horse’s life and career”.

He said there is the more traditional abrupt weaning, or more gradual approaches, and “we also see foals just chucked in together, a bit like Lord of the Flies, and expecting to learn from each other without any older friends in the group”.

Prof Hill and his team looked at a range of publications on the subject but found a lack of evidence. He recommended future work to determine the best method but said that in the second part of the study, welfare charity staff described horses rescued who showed weaning-related separation anxiety, even as adults.

“So I put to you, do you know how your horse was weaned?” he said. “Did you meet the dam and sire? Do you know anything about the early, crucial years in your horse’s life?

“There is research with key points about how we should do it. We should put them into a multi-age herd; they need to learn from others of different ages. We also know that if you get it wrong, you will increase the incidence of stereotypic behaviour, such as crib-biting and wind-sucking, eightfold.”

Prof Hill said research has shown that calves who were isolated after weaning are less resilient and able to problem-solve, which could also apply to horses, and which led him to consider equine learning theory.

“We all know that if you put your legs on a horse and the horse moves forward, you take the pressure of your leg away,” he said. “[At Burghley], we all watched Ros Canter achieve an incredible round across country that she made look effortless. Why? Because she was talking the language the horse understood. She was in harmony with her horse, she was using pressure and release or negative reinforcement.”

‘Positive punishment’

Prof Hill covered “positive punishment”, applying an adverse stimulus after unwanted behaviour, such as an electric fence, which is instant and teaches the horse to stay away from the fence.

“But use of a whip like this just simply doesn’t work,” he said. “You see riders have a stop at a fence, turn the horse away, give the horse a smack, and the horse doesn’t understand what for, because the timing is too slow. The horse is then more highly aroused, enters a state of confusion, and often then goes on to have more penalties.”

Top trainer and former British World Class eventing performance manager Yogi Breisner covered holistic equine training, which he said is a “huge subject”, about which everyone will have their own opinion.

“I find the more I know, the more I realise how little I know,” he said. “Every time I meet a new horse, I learn something.”

Yogi pointed out that horses did not ask to be ridden; we choose to ride them so it is our responsibility to ensure they have a good life. He said to him there are four basic aids that horses need throughout their lives to some degree: go forward, slow down, turn left and turn right.

“I’ve always wanted to make horses rideable and fit for purpose,” he said. “If you’re interested in hacking or trail-hunting, the horse doesn’t need to know piaffe and passage. But when you go to a grand prix show, if they can’t do flying changes, you’ll lose out. You need to realise what you need the horse to do then teach him those things so he’d rideable at the level you want.”

Yogi said for a horse to be fit for purpose, his mental wellbeing is as important as anything physical; it is part of holistic training to prepare a horse for what he will meet in life.

“There are four things for me that guide my training,” he said, adding that these are, most importantly, the horse, classical training, rules and trends, such as in judging and course-building.

“The most important ingredients we humans can bring is to study the horse and learn to read the signs,” he said. “When you start young horses, probably after weaning the most traumatic part of life is when they get a rider on their back. In the wild, anything that jumps on its back means danger. I don’t like the word ‘breaking’, it’s better to say ‘starting a horse’; the first step is for the horse to accept a human being on its back.”

Yogi covered the fact horses learn by repetition, sending signals from the brain to the muscles, and that using classical aids means horses can be ridden by others.

“But it’s not just about riding,” he said. “What makes a horse reluctant to do what we want? First if he doesn’t understand or second, he might not be physically incapable.”

The latter may be owing to pain or lack of training, Yogi said. He believes the more time he can spend with a horse, the more he can learn about and feel him; if he physically cannot do the job, this will come through.

Environment

Environment is also key to training, so the horse’s physical and mental wellbeing is optimised; such as his living arrangements and correctly fitted tack, as is getting the horse used to a variety of terrains and experiences.

“It’s our job to do varied training so the horse is fit for purpose and can go out and do his job,” he said, adding that it is up to the rider to realise when is the right time to progress or have a break in a young horse’s development.

“If you look at all the different aspects of a horse’s life, not just the right training, so he feels good about life, then he’s ready to perform well for you and you can enjoy hopefully a long and successful career with your horse, whether you want to go hacking or compete at the Olympics,” he said.

Leading sport horse clinician, researcher, rider and vet Rachel Murray spoke of the importance of developing strength and stability in young horses to prevent injury and build confidence, and how the exercises needed to build this have to be tailored by an expert to each individual.

Jan Birch, of the University of Liverpool, covered sustainable management of “the other 23 hours”, when young horses are not in active training.

She explained how important turnout is, for reasons such as increasing confidence, musculoskeletal development, socialising, respiratory health and nutrition, but that we cannot all turn out in herds on open plains.

She said track systems can be very beneficial for older or overweight horses, but “youngsters flying around” with all the fencing may not be practical, and the poached ground that can result may not be ideal for young horses either.

“We’ve got wetter winters coming,” she added. “We need to think about the best alternatives.”

She said individual stabling has issues with socialisation, movement and trickle feeding, which is not ideal for youngsters, and although group stabling addresses the first concern, it still does not give opportunity for enough movement, which is so important for physical development as well as mental wellbeing.

“Recent research looks at open barns, so group-housed stock with an open area and stations they can go to for food, toys, trickle feeds,” she said. “With a good surface so youngsters can still run around.”

In summing up, eventer Pippa Funnell, who had been on a panel discussing the topics, said: “We have to pull together, the whole equestrian world. I’m thankful to all the speakers as we do never stop learning. We have to get across the companionship. I look at the horses and well up as I’m that passionate about it and to have a best friend you have to be a best friend – that’s built on trust, mutual respect, empathy, compassion.

“That’s the key message I want to get across. It breaks my heart when horses are sold but I want people to feel the pure love of the animals I work with. That’s why I do it.”

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‘I start them at five, they all hack and we jump more in the winter’: Tom McEwen’s training ethos for young horses

Gemma Redrup — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:28:47 +0000

In this exclusive, subscriber-only interview, Tom McEwen shares what he looks for in a young horse, why thoroughbred “blood” isn’t that important to him and how he trains his horses, including favourite exercises and the importance of hacking and turnout for every horse in his yard

Riders, no matter whether they are professional or amateur, have a preference on the type of horse they like to have in their yard and ride. British double eventing Olympic team gold medallist Tom McEwen is no different.

“When sourcing a young horse, I look out for two main things. Like with any athlete – human or horse – and no matter the equestrian discipline, soundness is the most important thing, which comes down to conformation,” explains Tom. “Within that, you can overlook some things but not others and sometimes things that put you off conformationally can then not affect a horse for years.”

Tom McEwen and his brillant partner Toledo De Kerser competing at Badminton in 2018. (Image credit: Sarah Farnsworth)

Toledo De Kerser, the horse with whom Tom picked up team gold and individual silver at the Tokyo Olympics, has been somewhat of a flag bearer for Tom in recent years.

“Until his final event [where Toledo injured himself on the flat across country at Burghley in 2023], Toledo was the soundest horse I’ve ever had – the only time he missed an event was the Europeans in 2019 when he ran loose on the gallops and fell over onto some concrete. His soundness really contributed to him being such a special horse in that, year after year, he could compete,” states Tom.

Trainability is key

The second key component Tom looks for in a young potential top event horse is “trainability”.

“This encompasses their personality; can you work with them? Do they listen? There’s a million things associated with trainability but it basically comes down to whether or not you’re compatible with each other as everyone rides in slightly different ways,” explains 33-year-old Tom. “I’ve always been used to a slightly sharper type that takes a little bit more time and I really enjoy the bond that that creates and then they really trust you.”

Trainability is key for Tom McEwen when selecting young horses with potential to go to the top. (Image credit: Jess Photography)

You often hear event riders talking about the amount of thoroughbred blood a horse may or may not possess and for some, this is a deal-breaker. However this isn’t the case for Tom.

“For me, the one thing that’s changing over time is making sure you have a jumper. Blood isn’t a massive deal for me – I wouldn’t go off the percentage a horse has – if they have got the right stride, the right heart and correct approach in their mind, blood isn’t the biggest problem for me,” he says.

“Toledo De Kerser and CHF Cooliser don’t have high percentages of blood, for example, and those two have both shown that they can eat up big courses and actually find it quite easy. That has been down to me developing their stride and rhythm across country, because neither of them were naturally gifted with a long, easy galloping stride.”

Tom McEwen’s Gatcombe base

Tom credits his base at Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire as being key to being able to develop his horses to become elite eventers.

“We’re really lucky being based at Gatcombe as we have lots of grass and that helps to develop a horse’s stride. We do a lot of longer, slower canter work, which means that over time, horses start to relax into it and stretch their stride out,” he explains. “We do a little bit of fast work every now and again, but we don’t do too much of it. I find that giving them more time and doing the longer, slower work teaches them to relax and breathe.”

Spending time working the horses in canter on grass is important to Tom. (Image credit: Jess Photography)

Although they have been few and far between, Tom has taken on a couple of more experienced horses during his career, such as JL Dublin (“Dubs”), who he rode at the Paris Olympics, and more recently, Isa, who he took on at the start of 2024 and culminated this season by finishing seventh in the CCI4*-L at Blenheim.

“I was very lucky to be given Dubs later on in his career and also Isa,” says Tom. “I find taking on established horses trickier, because you have to try and work out your compatibility with them. You still want to look for the same things as you would with a young horse though, such as a good jump and the right temperament for the job.”

Tom McEwen on starting young horses

In terms of starting young horses’ careers, Tom says he has changed tactics over the years.

“When I was younger, I was very lucky to be able to go and work at The Billy Stud, which was great to learn more about starting a young horse. Back then, we started horses off at a younger age and did a lot of long reining, but now we don’t tend to start them until they are five.”

Tom explains that, as he generally has more time during the winter months to focus on training as he isn’t away competing, he utilises that time accordingly.

Tom McEwen makes the most of the winter months to focus on training. (Image credit: Jess Photography)

“We do more jumping in the winter than in the summer. All of our horses hack as I think it’s a really good way for them to relax – they go off into the woods on a long rein. Flatwork-wise, our six-year-olds are already working on shoulder-in and a bit of half-pass, but that’s as a training aid, rather than focusing on the dressage tests themselves.”

One of Tom’s go-to exercises at home features fillers in the arena.

“I like to put fillers on an S-bend – the younger horses will jump just two of those, while the older, more established horses will jump three – and I repeat that exercise for a couple of weeks before moving onto something else, such as a bounce grid.”

Cross-country schooling-wise, it once again depends on the horse and their character.

Tom McEwen says he spends more time cross-country schooling than he used to, tailored to the individual horse’s needs. (Image credit: Jess Photography)

“If we have a young horse that isn’t quite so confident across country, depending on their nature, we would perhaps take them hunting, but also we’re so lucky at Gatcombe that there’s loads of little logs in the woods that we can go and pop as much as we need to.

“Oxstalls cross-country is also just down the road and I go there quite often to build confidence. The older ones I’ve started cross-country schooling more frequently than I used to and we often go to the Dumas’ facilities at Rosamund Farm to do more technical lines and build up from there. We also use the skinnies and brushes from Jump4Joy at home in the arena. It comes down to making it fun and easy for horses who learn to look for the flags.”

It’s clear from our chat that Tom is a big believer in hacking.

“Every horse’s routine is tailor made to suit their needs, but in the winter, every horse has Sunday off, and in the summer, they are all hacked before and after doing any work in the school. During February, we do a lot of long hacks, which are up to an hour and 40 minutes,” he explains.

“All of my horses hack and every horse gets out in the field every day, even throughout the winter, and I think that’s super-important.”

Hacking plays an important role in Tom’s training, and he credits his team at home for being an essential part of his success. (Image credit: Jess Photography)

There is one key component, though, that Tom really drums home, and that is the importance of having a good team around his horses.

“Having a good, constant team of staff at home, who really love the horses, is also really important to me – the people that spend the most time with them are the most important people. It’s the day in, day out, knowing that everything is in a routine for the horses that really counts.”

‘You’re in the lap of the gods’: home-bred five-year-old wins back-to-back young horse titles

Polly Bryan — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 17:32:07 +0000

Ashley Jenkins landed back-to-back young horse titles when he topped the KBIS five-year-old line-up at the 2024 LeMieux National Dressage Championships with last year’s four-year-old winner Game On I.

The Governer x Sir Donnerhall son, who was bred by owner Nicola Mahoney, dominated the five-year-old contingent here at Somerford Park, scoring 90% to lead the first round of the competition before coming out on top in the final.

The format of the final involves young horses being assessed by a ride judge, this year Alex Harrison-West, and Ashley said the last time he’d seen somebody else ride “G” was at the nationals last year. But, as Nicola pointed out, the fact that he gave Alex such a good ride in the Somerford arena demonstrated his exceptional rideability, alongside his three outstanding paces.

“He’s rideable and happy to do the job because he’s not been over-produced,” she explained. “It’s been all about getting the balance right, and not taking advantage of a good-moving horse. Ashley’s been really fair to him, and has been producing G for the long term, not just for young horse classes.”

She added that they considered campaigning for the World Breeding Championships this year, but opted out in favour of giving G another year of “cross-training” instead, with plenty of hacking and polework and “lots of good experiences”.

Following this win, G will have some time off before Nicola starts riding him herself – and the World Breeding Championships are not off the cards for 2025.

“The plan for him changes every day to be honest. But he does just seem to take everything we throw at him and he loves it – he loves being the centre of attention,” said Nicola.

“You always go into breeding hoping you’ll breed an amazing horse, but you’re in the lap of the gods. But he has been that special horse from the start.”

To stay up-to-date with all the breaking news throughout the National Dressage Championships, Blenheim Horse Trials, Horse of the Year Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

‘Grand prix horse in the making’ crowned national six-year-old champion

Polly Bryan — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 16:06:36 +0000

The young horse finals at the National Dressage Championships are always something of a window into the future of the sport, and one young partnership made quite the splash as they claimed the 2024 KBIS six-year-old title.

Alicia Lee and Della Ballerina squeaked into Sunday’s final after finishing fourth in Saturday’s qualifier, on the same score as Beth Bainbridge and WHD Elton, but with a slightly higher way of going mark that propelled them ahead and into the deciding round. And there they thoroughly impressed judges Spencer Wilton, Christine Prip and ride judge Alex Harrison-West to come out on top.

“I am so excited to do that – I was not expecting to win,” said a quite overcome Alicia. “I always knew she was a quality horse, and I really think she’s a horse for the future, but you never know what the judges are going to think. So to have the judges agree that she’s special and going in the right direction is really satisfying.”

The title is even more rewarding for 25-year-old Alicia, who bought the Destacado x Weltmeyer daughter as a foal and has produced her all the way, saying that she’s a horse “who makes my life easy”.

“When you buy a foal you never really know exactly what you’re getting, but I really did think she was special. She has really good paces and great adjustability in all three of them. She can half halt and collect well and she really offers the collection as well as extension – she feels like a mini grand prix horse in the making.

“I’ve owned a few foals from the same dam as her and loved their characters and how sweet they were, so I liked her too. Unlike most foals, when I bought her she looked exactly as she does now, just a mini version – she already had this lovely neck and strong back. She never went through an ugly duckling phase – she started off looking like the finished article.”

Grand prix is certainly Alicia’s goal for this special mare, but right now, she is just enjoying the journey and the rewards that come with breeding and producing young horses.

“I have quite a few young horses that I’ve either bred myself or bought as foals,” she says. “I find it a really enjoyable process starting them from the very beginning and creating my own horse, effectively. I’m not in a position to buy a horse that’s already trained but I love the process of making them and I love breeding and bloodlines. I’m a big fan of German bloodlines especially, and I always try to breed from chosen lines, and where I’ve looked at the sire or dam and thought, ‘I want to ride that’.”

To stay up-to-date with all the breaking news throughout the National Dressage Championships, Blenheim Horse Trials, Horse of the Year Show and more, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website

Germany’s decision to ban training young horses for sport raises many questions

Lucy Elder — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 19:53:16 +0000

Educating horses to cope with the world around them from a young age is crucial to set them up for a happy life.

That was one of the key take-home messages for the whole equestrian world from a workshop featuring world-leading vets, scientists and horsemen in Newmarket (24 May).

The conference, titled “Equine cognizance and mental maturity – what do we know?”, came about as a result of developments happening in Germany.

German federal animal welfare law means horses under the age of 30 months are no longer eligible to start training or be used for competition. Two-year-old racehorses are currently exempt, providing they undergo two veterinary assessments.

The development has sparked concerns – questions raised at the workshop included how a vet could possibly make a snapshot judgement on an unfamiliar horse in such a short period of time, and the lack of evidence for this move.

Pushback in Germany has prompted the country’s ministry for agriculture to commission a welfare study (Projekt Horsewatch) to determine the age at which horses have achieved the mental and physical maturity that permit training and competition. The report, its conclusions and recommendations must be submitted to federal parliament in 2027 or 2028.

The news prompted organisers to call the conference. Interestingly, the workshop heard that there is not only a lack of evidence to back up the ban – but that there is strong evidence to refute the 30-month hypothesis, and that indicates that appropriate training of young horses is beneficial.

Teaching resilience

Speaking about stress in horses in general, behaviour specialist Dr Gemma Pearson shared how gentle handling from a few days old will help them to cope with stress throughout their lives.

“There are so many things we can do to set horses up for success in life,” she said, giving examples of appropriate living spaces with access to other horses, and of gentle handling as foals.

“We know that horses who are bold, which are more likely to touch a novel object both at five months and also at one year of age, have better learning ability using both positive reinforcement, but also negative reinforcement of pressure-release training, which is what we rely on when we’re riding horses. At the same time, those that are fearful have a lower learning capacity.”

She added that if you teach a horse resilience from the start through gentle, appropriate education, “they cope” even if they are subjected to stress later in life.

“Teaching horses using physical cues to step forward, to step back, to stand still – they learn that they can cope with stress, and that they can resolve the stressor,” she said.

Physical maturity

Speaking on the assessment of the thoroughbred’s physical maturity to train and race, Rossdales clinical director Pete Ramzan said that there is “overwhelming scientific and empirical evidence that commencing training before the onset of maturity” is beneficial for the horse.

“We haven’t done very well as a profession in educating the wider world that the positive thing to do with equine health and racehorse health, is to commence training earlier rather than later,” he said.

“It’s a complete myth that commencing training after horses have reached orthopaedic maturity, skeletal maturity, is better for them. It’s fundamentally worse for them as you’re missing your windows of opportunity for developing muscular skeletal tissues.”

He added that there is “no single objective measurement” that can be used at any one point in the horse’s life to say “this horse is ready and that horse isn’t”.

“In my view, it comes down to assessing how that individual is responding to training,” he said.

“It’s often the case that even the most technically adept trainers still use their eye, and we shouldn’t dismiss that as unscientific. There are good publications in the human world to show an experienced coach is just as good in many cases as using objective measurements of when an athlete is ready to train or not.”

Treating each horse as an individual

John Gosden, multiple-time champion Flat trainer, stressed the importance of treating every horse as an individual.

“With the young horses, I wait for them to present themselves to me,” he said. “If you go looking for them and push them, you do more harm than good.”

“All horses are like people, they’re all individuals, they have their strengths, they have their weaknesses. Your job as a trainer is to protect them from their weaker sides, whatever that may be – it could be physiological, it could be psychological – and to play to their strengths,” he said.

He added that there is a “massive amount” of quantification in managing horses now, giving examples of heart monitors and scoping – adding that “of course” that side is important. But whatever line of work you are in, you “cannot beat looking into the eyes, looking at the horse, watching his expression” and seeing when something is up.

“It’s the same with the people you work with,” he added. “I would always say that training, in a sense, is about 80% instinctive feel.”

He dispelled the idea of “wrapping horses in cotton wool”, explaining that training “doesn’t have to be hard or fast”, but that horses have to develop skeletally – and part of that is building bone density.

He added: “I find the most important button when I’m training horses is the pause button. Knowing when to come back, collect, get something right, and that may be something physical, but quite often something psychological.

“Whether you’re training a two-year-old, a three-year-old, a five-year-old or an eight-year-old, you’re always looking to contain that nervous energy, to channel it into their athleticism and not let the nervous energy undermine their confidence. The confidence of a horse is everything, just as it is with a jockey or a rider.

“I don’t think we should ever underestimate the impact that really good riders have with horses.”

Education or training?

“I think educating horses from an early age is very important – and I use the word education as opposed to training,” he said.

He added the sooner that education starts the better – giving the example of teaching foals to pick up their feet and how useful it is to learn about their characters during that early handing.

“It’s your job to treat each as an individual and respect them, but also they have to conform to a set of boundaries in behaviour – much as you do with your own children,” he said.

Sir Mark also stressed the importance of watching and observing horses, and of getting good feedback from riders, and thinking about the whole picture when it comes to each individual horse’s needs.

“Do they need to move to a different stable? Do they need to spend a bit of time in the field? All the time, you have to be asking yourself questions about how can I make this horse the happy horse that wants to perform,” he said.

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Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

What you can compromise on – and what you can’t: Ingrid Klimke on choosing young horses

Pippa Roome — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 08:30:21 +0000

Ingrid Klimke says “character is the most important thing” when choosing young horses.

“I like to sit on a horse and feel if he has the character to say, ‘What are we doing today?’” said the German dressage and eventing championship medallist in a talk at Wellington Riding earlier this month (1 March).

She continued: “If he’s a bit lazy and needs to think twice about things, you must know training him will take longer.

“I trust my feeling – it doesn’t matter if it’s a mare or gelding or stallion or bred by someone famous or a full brother to a top horse, you must feel the horse. I like to have the horse in my barn, ride him a few times and get to know him. If you just see on video or hop on him once, it’d hard to know what is behind them.

“I always say for a good horse I always have an empty stall and luckily the good ones keep coming.”

Ingrid says she also prioritises physical health and strength these days, having been caught out in her earlier years by hoping for the best with horses with small health issues.

“Things can happen anyway, but now if my trusted vet says there is a problem which in the future could come out earlier than 14 or 16, I don’t compromise,” she said, explaining it takes six years to produce a horse to the top level at 10 and you don’t want that career to be over at 12. “It is heart-breaking to have a superstar who isn’t strong enough, isn’t healthy enough.”

For dressage horses, Ingrid recommends looking closely at the hindlegs and the energy a horse has behind, as horses need a very good hindleg for piaffe, passage and pirouettes.

“I would say three good gaits and you always wish to have everything, but I learnt from my father that we make the horse over many years and we have to make compromises,” she said, giving the example of a horse she had who did not have a giant walk, so would never score more than seven in that pace, but excelled in trot.

Ingrid Klimke’s young horses have an all-round education until the end of their six-year-old year, when they start to specialise in either eventing or dressage. After that point, the dressage horses still hack and do small jumps and cavaletti, but they don’t do dedicated conditioning work on hills or cross-country fences.

“You need them to focus – it takes another three years so you hope that when they are nine, they have all the grand prix movements,” she said.

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Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.

‘Why the rush?’ Equine physio speaks up on young horses doing too much, too soon

Eleanor Jones — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 19:51:07 +0000

A equine physio who says she has had enough of seeing horses started too early, pushed too quickly and breaking down injured too young has spoken out in hopes of educating owners.

Zoe King of Performance Veterinary Physiotherapy posted on social media with the phrase “for crying out loud”, after she had seen this year, by mid-January, “a (rising) two-year-old being long-reined with tack on, a (rising) three-year-old trotting around with a rider on board and its chin on its chest, and a (rising) two-year-old being loose jumped over 5ft+”.

“Why are people in such a rush?” she asked.

Zoe told H&H she was promoted to post by recurring issues.

“I’ve got a rising four-year-old Suffolk stallion and have been put under pressure to get him licensed,” she said. “But part of that process is about 40 minutes of lunging to get the heart rate up – they’re expected to do that aged two – and I refuse to do that till he’s physically ready. I know of someone else put under the same pressure and at the end of the lunging, the horse was horrifically lame. He’d torn a ligament in a hock and pulled bone chips off, and he then couldn’t be licensed, so we’ve lost those genetics.”

Zoe is also concerned about some foreign studbooks’ licensing procedures.

“Twenty years ago, a stallion had to prove himself in competition before he was taken seriously; why are we pushing through this conveyor belt of two- and three-year-olds, and ending up with broken young horses?” she said. “Why are we pushing young horses so much, why has no one got patience, why is no one waiting?”

Zoe believes that with horse prices as high as they are, more people are buying quality young horses rather than their older, more expensive counterparts.

Zoe said two “heartbreaking” cases that stand out are both showjumping horses.

“One was a novice rider put under pressure by her trainer; by the time the horse finished its fifth year, it was broken,” she said. “They’ve been trying to rehab the horse for two years and every time, it breaks down again. The other was a young horse bought for six figures, which had broken down within a few months, after it had been jumped and jumped to get it to that marketable value.”

Zoe explained that the issues are to do with with the skeleton; young, growing bones calcify and harden at different rates. She stressed that horses can look strong and mature, but this does not necessarily mean they are ready for work, as “growth plates take time to close and bone takes time to reach the right density”.

She added that she also sees pressure on those backing horses to do it quickly, so instead of months of walk and ground work to build strength gradually, clients often want horses ready to ride away weeks after they have been brought in from the field.

“The average ligament or tendon takes six months to lay down collagen and strengthen,” she said. “Doing it that quickly doesn’t give them time to strengthen and support the joints.”

Zoe said one argument she often hears, from trainers in particular, is that some big and bolshy three-year-olds should be backed early as they will be stronger, so more difficult to work with, when they are older.

“What planet are they on, in what century?” she said. “Do the groundwork, teach them manners, – it’s about communicating and working with your horse, not overpowering them when they’re weaker.

“I think it comes down to education, people aren’t educating themselves before they buy young horses, and some trainers aren’t helping. Just think ‘Am I doing this for me, or in the horse’s best interests?’”

Teaching a young horse to jump with Tina Fletcher

Carol Phillips — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 08:30:16 +0000

Tina Fletcher, who has produced numerous horses up through the showjumping grades to international level, shares the first part of her tried and tested system for how to teach a horse to jump.

Here is the process Tina follows with her young horses while they are learning their jumping basics.

How to teach a horse to jump

1. Start with coloured poles on the floor, building up from one to a row of five approx 1m apart to suit the horse’s natural stride.

2. If the horse lacks straightness use tramlines (a pair of parallel poles) as a guide on the approach and after the poles.

3. Tina’s young horses do their early training in a snaffle bridle with a running martingale.

4. The rider must keep the contact soft and should slip a couple of fingers in the neckstrap rather than catch the horse in the mouth.

5. Once the horse is negotiating the trotting poles confidently, introduce a cross pole with a take off and landing rail so the horse learns where to put his feet.

6. Cross poles help channel the horse and encourage him to lift through his shoulder.

7. While early jumping should be done from a trot, the horse also needs to learn to canter to a fence.

8. Tina likes to introduce fillers once the horse is jumping coloured poles confidently, but always starts with an upright and pulls them out to the side initially so there is a gap to jump through.

9. If the horse is spooky keep fences small so he can still jump them easily even if he backs off and loses impulsion.

(Image credit: creditUnknown)

10. Repetition is key but don’t over do it. Tina jumps her youngsters on consecutive days but keeps sessions short and focused.

Trainability and talent – meet Britain’s best young dressage horses of 2023

Polly Bryan — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 17:30:27 +0000

Britain’s best young dressage horses have been strutting their stuff at qualifiers across the country this season, and with semi-finals now underway, the cream of the crop are starting to emerge.

The very best young horses aged four to seven are vying for a place in their age group’s national finals, to be held at the National Dressage Championships in September.

So, which horses should you be keeping a close eye on this summer, and who can you expect to see in action at the nationals?

Young dressage horses: four-year-olds

DBM Secre-C

This gorgeous gelding by Secret is only four but taking everything in his stride. Ridden by Jenny Martell, he scored 85.4% to win his semi-final at Hartpury Festival of Dressage and book his place at the final in September, with 8.8 for trot, canter and general impression, 8.5 for way of going and 7.8 for his walk.

Jenny says it’s his brain that makes him so special: “He’s so trainable. He goes hacking, jumping, and does everything. He just loves it.”

Jenny Martell and DBM Secre-C at the Hartpury British young horse semi-finals 2023 (Image credit: KEVIN SPARROW)

Times Orwell

Bred and owned by Peter Belshaw, this young gelding is by the Totilas son Toto Jr out of a Negro mare, and is ridden by Sadie Smith. They finished second in their semi-final at Hartpury, with 82%, having earned nine for the canter, 8.5 for general impression, eights for trot and way of going and 7.5 for walk.

Five-year-olds

MSJ Viva Dannebrog

This Vitalis x Don Schufro mare, owned by Emma Blundell, was national four-year-old champion under Holly Woodhead in 2022, and she has returned in the five-year-old section this year ridden by Holly’s sister Amy. The pair scored 86.2% to sneak the win at the Hartpury semi-finals, just their third show as a combination, with nines for the canter and general impression, 8.8 for the trot and way of going and 7.5 for the walk.

“She’s so trainable and willing to please, and she also moves amazingly and gives me such a good feeling in the arena,” says Amy. “Holly did an amazing job with her last year, taking her out cantering round the fields and showing her a good way of life before she had to do anything in an arena. So now she’s well rounded with a really good head.”

Amy Woodhead and MSJ Viva Dannebrog at the Hartpury British young horse semi-finals 2023 (Image credit: KEVIN SPARROW)

WHD Elton

Everyone loves a grey, and this super smart Emilio x Diamond Hit son, owned by Lauren Taylor, is no exception. He and Beth Bainbridge finished just behind Amy at Hartpury, with 86%, including 9.2 for the canter, nine for general impression, 8.7 for trot, 8.5 for way of going and 7.6 for walk.

Six-year-olds

Imperial Magic Dream

Rider Sarah Millis thinks Juliette Lindsay’s Indian Rock son has a seriously bright future, and the judges clearly agree. They awarded him 82.2%, with 8.5 for his trot and way of going, 8.3 for general impression, eight for canter and 7.8 for walk.

“He has a lovely balanced canter with super adjustability, he is nice and supple in the lateral work and he can still relax and walk in the arena,” says Sarah. “He has a very sweet, kind character and he is getting braver in the arena, so that’s lovely to feel.”

Sarah Millis and Imperial Magic Dream at the Hartpury young horse semi-finals 2023 (Image credit: creditUnknown)

Iceland Girl PS

Tom Goode rides this lovely chestnut mare by Ierland, owned by Deborah Cunningham. They posted 82% at the semi-finals for a close second, with nine for canter, 8.5 for general impression, 8.2 for trot, 7.8 for way of going and 7.5 for walk.

Seven-year-olds

St Giles Flamboyant

Nicola Buchanan describes riding her seven-year-old semi final winner St Giles Flamboyant as being “like sitting in a ferrari” to ride, and unsurprisingly, hopes for this Franklin mare’s future prospects are high. She scored 76.27% to win the seven-year-old semi-final.

“I’m really excited about her – she has so much elasticity and she really tries, although she is also a bit of a hothead. She’s a grand prix horse in the making,” said Nicola.

Nicola Buchanan and St Giles Flamboyant (Image credit: KEVIN SPARROW)

Zia Zara

Angie Rutherford’s Blue Hors Zack mare Zia Zara is another young dressage horse to watch this year, and was ridden to second in the seven-year-olds at Hartpury by Kate Cowell. The pair scored 74.22%.

Anna Ross: training young horses to be sound and healthy – in mind and body

Anna Ross — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 10:32:13 +0000

Anna Ross on how we can train our young horses to be healthy, happy athletes who will be mentally and physically able to cope with the demands of sport in later life

Spring is coming! Our first foal has been born already, and we’re excited about backing the new influx of horses as well as the show season getting underway.

As we breed so many young horses, I take great interest in the importance of raising sound, healthy athletes. At this time of year there are always social media posts criticising young horses being started too early by “over-ambitious” riders.

However, there is much misconception out there about what keeps a young horse healthy in body and mind. There are also some super resources available, and peer-reviewed scientific research, to help us do the best for our horses and dispel some myths, too.

There seems to be some misunderstanding about the concept of a horse being “brought on slowly”. This should mean a carefully developed young equine athlete, not an under-muscled, weak and gangly horse that has no residual fitness or manners.

If a horse looks like a llama chewing a wasp at six years old, it’s probably been brought on badly, not slowly. The fundamental principle of dressage is to help the horse rebalance, by taking its weight onto its hindlegs to carry a rider. It is totally appropriate for a four-year-old to be able to do a prelim test with a well-balanced, correctly sized rider.

We encourage our children to play sports and run around to be fit and healthy – so why not our horses? If young horses are ridden in balance, and over different terrain, enjoying a good canter on the fields and tracks, and learning about the outside world, they will be mentally and physically able to cope with the demands of sport in later life.

Future soundness

It’s also the time of year where a lot of horses change hands, and sales are strong despite the economic climate.

Great emphasis is put on X-rays for sales but a horse is made up of so much more than just bones. We breed and see horses through from foals to international grand prix, and there are myriad things that can ensure a horse will have a sound and healthy life that are nothing to do with its X-rays.

Is the rider going to be in balance? Is the horse going to suffer repetitive strain because the rider wants to over-practise? Will it be well shod? Will its nutritional needs be met?

I’d be very interested to know how many top grand prix horses have clean X-rays.

Dressage riders tend to be perfectionists so can often be tempted to over-train, increasing the risk of repetitive strain injuries. Many injuries to tendons and ligaments tend to be chronic, rather than acute, in dressage horses.

There is now some great technology that logs your schooling session, records your work on each rein and gait and counts your transitions, showing it all on an app on your phone. It can be very revealing, and interesting to find out what you are actually doing, as opposed to what you think you are doing. This can help the over-practiser adjust their training to include less repetition.

BD, please ditch the CDs

Finally, a plea: British Dressage, please switch to music files instead of CDs for freestyle tests. Not only is CD technology 40 years out of date, it’s so disappointing for competitors when their CDs are not compatible with the venue’s system and don’t play – as happened at a recent regional championship.

The technology we use must develop at a healthy rate, like our horses.

● Do you agree with Anna? Have you ever used technology to track your riding and training? Tell us about your experience at hhletters@futurenet.com including your name, nearest town and county for the chance to have your views published in Horse & Hound

This exclusive column will also be available to read in Horse & Hound magazine, on sale Thursday 23 February, 2023

Better beginnings: why giving horses the best possible start in life is key

Eleanor Jones — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 14:22:45 +0000

IMPROVED education and teamwork are key to providing young horses with a start that will set them up for happy, healthy and sound lives long into the future.

This was the key message from the first “Better Beginnings” event, organised by the British Horse Foundation (BHF), on 10 October.

The aim of the conference, at which a variety of experts spoke, was to focus on management of youngsters, from before conception to two years old, seen “through the lens” of horse sport’s social licence to operate.

“These are challenging times, with increasing threats to equestrianism, and our social licence to continue to work with, care for and nurture horses,” said BHF chair Jane Nixon.

“We need to earn that licence, and show clearly, unequivocally to all who have never known or interacted with horses, that the horse always comes first, and its health and welfare is always paramount. If we make good breeding decisions, and get the first two vital years right, we have that foundation.

“What we take forward from today should be a springboard for better education, on management of young horses, and should have a positive effect on their happiness and quality of life into the future.”

Dr Nixon, an equine vet with decades of experience, said an aim of the day was to inform sustainable breeding and production, resulting in horses who are fit for purpose, with the least chance of developing physical or mental issues, and “earlier than necessary loss of function”.

“Socrates said the secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new,” she said. “Today we won’t look back, unless it’s to plan for the future. We must produce a happy horse rather than chastise for an unhappy one.”

The focus was to be on motivating people to base their actions on the most up-to-date scientific evidence to help produce sustainable, rideable horses.

Four-time Olympian, and leading breeder and trainer, Jennie Loriston-Clarke spoke about the importance of sustainability in sport horses.

“Probably the most important part is that the horse can be trained for and sustain the level you consider it to be bred for,” she said. “Conformation and soundness are really the be-all and end-all of everything you do with the horse, plus temperament, of course.”

Mrs Loriston-Clarke spoke of the importance of varied work as horses start their training, on a variety of surfaces, up and down hills, with “a bit of jumping for any horse, as it loosens back muscles and gets them flexible”, and pole- and gridwork to build strength.

But before this point, she added, it is vital horses are bred carefully, “paying particular attention to straightness, conformation, then getting the food and the whole package right, so you can go on with a horse that’s good quality and will have a long life. Horses should not be retiring at 10”.

She added: “I could tell you of horses who have been ruined because they weren’t looked after properly as foals. You see an awful lot of ignorance, so it has to be education, in all we do.”

British Dressage international director and chief selector Judy Harvey said temperament and rideability are key for international horses, and that foals have to be raised as “good citizens”.

“They have to grow up as babies; socialising, playing in the field, learning pecking order and their place in society,” she said. “It’s very important they have a natural life.”

Ms Harvey noted the importance of handling foals so they can have the vital early farriery, and “give them the life they deserve”.

Edward Matson, of Twemlows Stud, spoke of the importance of the mare in breeding. Three key issues that need to be taken into account when deciding whether to breed from a mare are her conformation, temperament and any hereditary defects.

“Why are we breeding from that mare?” he asked. “People have high-performance mares they want to breed from, or there are the mares who have retired, so ‘let’s breed from her’, but why is that mare retiring, and should we be breeding from her?”

He stressed that people thinking of breeding one foal need to be aware of the resources needed to give that horse the best start.

“Have people got the time to do this?” he asked. “A theme of today is education, and how to get this across?”

Consultant anaesthetist Michelle Dawson stressed the importance of input from experts in foals’ development, and of listening to their feedback.

“You might have bred the best foal in the country, but how’s it doing at three, at six, and at nine?” she said, adding that this information may help inform future breeding decisions. “Maybe it got injured, and maybe all the foals from that mare break down before they’re 12. I think that ‘audit loop’ is missing in a lot of breeding.”

Two of the key players in foal development are nutrition and farriery.

Good farriery

Ben Benson, lead farrier at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, said he is “passionate” about spreading the message on the vital importance of good farriery, from the start.

“I’ve heard a lot about what we’re trying to achieve with breeding and training, and conformation, but often we need to take that back to the start,” he said. “It’s about looking at the building blocks, and I’m not sure that message is clear enough to our breeders.”

Mr Benson said it is vital the foal is assessed by a vet and a farrier in the first 24 hours, including walked on a hard surface.

“They see hundreds of foals, and will see details often breeders and owners overlook because it’s their foal and it’s perfect,” he said, adding that any issues need to be addressed immediately, to minimise the risk of long-term issues. Foals’ feet should be trimmed within the first weeks, and at short intervals until the horse is 18 months old, to give the best chance of long-term straightness and soundness.

“We have a short window to work on a horse before it’s too late,” he said. “By the time it’s two, it is too late. The best management is trimming, every two to four weeks, to make sure the feet are as close to perfect as possible, so every foal has the best chance.”

Mr Benson agreed on the importance of all professionals working together to give a foal the best outcome, adding: “Who’s the most important in managing a young horse? Everyone. The whole team.”

Sidney Ricketts of Rossdales, who specialises in equine stud medicine and equine clinical pathology, cited the importance of ventilation for young horses, to avoid respiratory problems.

“Keep them out as much as possible,” he said, adding that when horses are housed, they should have fresh air coming in from both sides, at the horses’ level, and high ceilings, and that the air should “smell of fresh forage and clean horses, not manure and ammonia”.

Researcher and equine biomechanics expert Russell MacKechnie-Guire spoke of natural asymmetry in foals, which is likely to become more evident at about three months old. He said handling foals from both sides can be helpful, and early assessment of conformation is “essential”.

“Early intervention will help reduce the effect asymmetry may have on development,” he said.

Jan Birch, whose doctoral studies and specialist research interests are in reproduction, lactation and growth, covered weaning practices, saying the stress of weaning can be the greatest in a horse’s life.

Naturally, she said, weaning will take place at nine to 10 months, but early, abrupt weaning can cause stress. This can be behavioural, physiological and nutritional, which can have long-term effects.

She said although every mare and foal is different, in general gradual weaning, and in groups rather than individually, is the least stressful method.

“If you can reduce the stress of weaning, you have potential to be able to reduce negative impacts on foal growth and development,” she added.

‘The first time I rode her she ditched me, but since then she’s been fantastic’: Scores exceed 90% as future equine stars crowned

Polly Bryan — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 10:04:57 +0000

Becky Moody and Magic Dream absolutely blew away the competition with the highest of the young horse scores at the NAF Five Star Hartpury Festival of Dressage, posting a huge 92.6% to win the five-year-old semi-final.

The Govenor x Swarovski mare’s score included 10s for the trot and way of going, as well as 9.5 for overall impression, and the win crowned a super week for Becky, who achieved a very impressive hat-trick of wins in the CDI3*.

Magic Dream is owned by Jo Cooper, and was bought from a video during lockdown in 2020.

“We found her through Rebecca Dudley, an agent in the Netherlands who we have worked with quite a lot. She rang me and said she’d seen a lovely three-year-old over there. When I saw her video, what I really loved about Magic Dream was her reactions. She wasn’t massively spectacular but she was very elastic,” reveals Becky.

“When she arrived, she was lovely, but the first time I rode her she did spectacularly ditch me on the floor. Something just upset her and I wasn’t staying on. But since then she has been fantastic.”

The mare already has a national title to her name with Becky’s stable jockey Anna Burns winning the national prelim silver title on her at last year’s National Dressage Championships.

Of their mark at Hartpury, Becky said, “You never really know what you’re going to get in a young horse class, but I did think the judging was quite good in the young horse scores she got. You never quite expect 92.6% though!

“Hopefully she is going to be a grand prix horse of the future. She shows real capacity for piaffe already, and she’s got a very good brain and engine.”

Second to Becky Moody and Magic Dream was Holly Bates and Hillgrounds Feinline.

‘He reduced me to tears because he tried so hard’

Blue Hors Zackorado and Beth Bainbridge posted the highest of the young horse scores across the World Breeding Championship selection trials with 89.6% in the six-year-old section.

Zackorado is by Blue Hors Zack out of the Florencio mare Roxanna, and was bred by Paul Rode. The breeding stallion is standing with Elite Stallions in Britain this year, in a lease agreement between Lorna Wilson and owners Blue Hors Stud in Denmark.

“The horse is just absolutely delightful. He is just wonderful,” said Beth. “He reduced me to tears in my test today, because he tried so hard.”

The young stallion scored nines for all three of his paces and perspective, and 8.8 for submission.

Beth Bainbridge and Blue Hors Zackorado at the Hartpury Festival of Dressage 2022 (Image credit: creditUnknown)

Second to Blue Hors Zackorado and Beth in the selection trial were Sarah Rogers and Full Moon II, but the results were reversed in the six-year-old semi-final, with Sarah creeping ahead of Beth to win on 88.6% with the Bechtolsheimers’s home-bred Fürstenball gelding, who took the five-year-old title at the National Dressage Championships in 2021.

Another 2021 young horse champion dominated in her new age group this year: Sadie Smith topped both the seven-year-old semi-final and the selection trial with her own stunning British-bred Dante Weltino x Charatin mare Swanmore Dantina. The pair posted plus-81% in both classes, scoring nines in every section across the two tests.

Sarah Millis squeaked ahead of Charlotte Dicker (Catherston Tuxedo) to win the five-year-old selection trial on her own Franklin son Macklin.

‘It felt like he’d been here before’

Dannie Morgan gave everyone a name to remember in Fever Tree, the Foundation x Dayano son he rode to an 89.4% win in the four-year-old semi-final.

The gelding was bred by Bowlake Equestrian, Dannie’s long-term base, and after backing “Gordon” in November 2021, Dannie said he “had to have him”, and bought him.

“Right from a foal he has always been a beautiful model. He is super talented, with a lovely temperament and brain and it all feels very easy for him – he’s a natural,” said Dannie. “Hartpury was his third show but it felt like he’d been here before. He is very good in the rhythm, very loose and elastic with a scopey canter and so much natural energy.”

The best scoring combination across the young pony age classes was Eilidh Grant and Charming Duke, a Caesar 171 son who took the six-year-old class with 81.8%, including a nine for overall impression from the judges.

Elli Darling and Dawn Pack’s Rembrandt son Renzo Renaissance DP scored a round 80% to head the five-year-olds, while top four-year-old was Elaine Coleridge-Smith’s WfD Champagne Supernova, a son of Champion De Luxe, and ridden by Alice Perry.

Michael Eilberg on regaining his love for competing, and the horse he thinks could be the next big thing

Polly Bryan — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 12:02:57 +0000

When Michael Eilberg scored three top-three small tour placings at Keysoe CDI earlier this year, it was his first international competition in four years. With his last top grand prix horse, Marakov, having taken a step back from competing in 2018, Michael has been absent from the international dressage scene for a while, but he has certainly kept busy, bringing on the next generation – horse and human.

“I’ve had a period of downtime; we’ve started a family [with wife Maya] and rebooted the horsepower,” Michael says on episode 108 of The Horse & Hound Podcast, supported by Amerigo and their UK distributor Zebra.

“We’ve started our own breeding programme and we have quite a depth in horsepower now, with some horses now at the age where they’re starting to do some serious stuff. Maybe by the end of this year we might be getting out at grand prix,” says Michael, who names the nine-year-old Dante Weltino x Quattro B son MSJ Dante VX as “probably my favourite”.

“We’ve had Dante since a foal and he is a real special horse,” he says. “He can be a little insecure and in his younger years he took time to become confident in certain surroundings.

“He did the four-year-old classes, but at the semi-final he ran out of the arena with me. As a five-year-old he qualified for the final, but then came last in it as he wouldn’t walk or halt. As a six-year-old he won the semi-final, and as a seven-year-old he won the final. As he’s gone through the years, he has got more confident and we have developed a really good bond. He trusts me now.”

As well as being crowned 2020 seven-year-old national champion, Dante, who is owned by Michael, his father Ferdi Eilberg and Nicky Hannam, has had success at small tour level, with prix st georges and inter I wins at Keysoe and Somerford Park Premier Leagues this summer.

“I just love riding him, as he’s one of those horses who always tries his best,” says Michael.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have sat on some really good horses, and he gives me one of the best feelings I’ve ever had. Marakov was always a lovely horse to ride, but his problem was spookiness and his conformation. I always said I wished I could have a horse who rode Marakov but wasn’t spooky, and had better conformation and paces. I think Dante could be that one.

“He has a lot of boxes ticked when it comes to the marks available to him, which is why I rate him so much. His walk is unbelievable – he walks for a nine or 10 – and he also has extremely high talent for piaffe-passage and the pirouettes. He has enormous talent, and if he keeps his cool I think he’s going to be one of the best.”

Michael Eilberg: ‘I’ve had a different outlook on competing’

As well as bringing on some exciting younger horses, with other future stars including Figlio and MSJ Distinction, Michael explains that having had a break from top level competition has helped him enjoy the sport again.

“I did a lot of top level competing when I was younger and I had quite a lot of pressure on me with horses like Woodlander Farouche and Half Moon Delphi. So I’ve really appreciated taking a breather. I had a while where I felt a bit ‘off’ competing, but over the past year I’ve had a different outlook. My inspiration comes from training horses, but I’ve got the buzz back and I’m really happy to be riding these horses and enjoying shows.”

Listen to more of Michael’s thoughts on episode 108 of The Horse & Hound Podcast – listen here or search “The Horse & Hound Podcast” in your favourite podcast app.

How to teach a young horse to turn by following your eyes and body position

Coral Keen — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 15:24:30 +0000

Five-star event rider Coral Keen’s shares one of her favourite training exercises for young horses…

Whenever you ride a horse you are always either training them, or untraining them. If you can start them off when they are young with all the right training, it will save you having to untrain those bad habits later down the line.

It’s really important with young horses that you teach them to turn to a fence using different aids, not just your reins. This is something to focus on with any five, or rising five-year-old. You’ll find that if they can learn to follow where you are looking, and react to your body position for direction, it will help you when you are further down the line out competing.

Training your horse to react to your body can help you in every discipline. For example, out on a cross-country course, you may need to jump a drop fence to another obstacle. If you’ve slipped your reins, you may find you don’t have the horse in the contact when you need to turn. For your horse to respond quickly in order to complete the combination, they need to be in tune with your body and able to follow other aids; they should be able to respond before you’ve gathered up your reins.

An exercise that I like to put into action to train reactivity is to find any obstacles that you have available to you: poles, barrels, fences, you can utilise anything. There is no structure to the set-up, you just place four or five elements around the school (or field, dependent on your facilities), with no related distances, and just pop over them on different angles.

If you have poles, start at a walk with poles on the ground. Make sure you have a nice, soft contact so you are letting the horse find their own way, and their balance. You want to be thinking about their footwork and whether they are listening to your body position. See if you can steer your horse over the poles using just your body position, making sure to utilise your focus and the direction you are looking, rather than your reins.

As you start to feel your horse listening to you, you can pick up the pace to a trot, winding round the poles until you feel comfortable to try them in canter. Try some awkward turns, and then increase the poles to little jumps, when you feel your horse is ready.

By the end of this exercise you should feel that your horse has really tuned into you, the way your shoulders turn, where you are looking and the direction your body is facing.

You can have a rein contact, but it should be a soft rein. Try to influence them 95% from your leg and body, and where you are looking. You then have 5% there with your reins if you need to.

Take your time with this, making sure you have good control, whether you are walking, trotting or cantering. Whatever pace you approach the obstacle, you should ride away at the same pace. This will help your horse to learn not to run away from a jump and teaches them balance and discipline.

You can further test your horse by varying the jumps you use. You could try adding in skinny jumps for example, but make sure to keep moving the fences around onto different lines and angles so your horse doesn’t learn where he’s going.

Top tips

Be patient. Patience is key here; this isn’t an exercise to do if you’re in a rush.

Make sure you are being obvious where you are looking, and with the directions you are giving. Turn your hips, your shoulders, and your head – really exaggerate it. Use your peripheral vision to make sure you’re not going to crash into other obstacles or things that may be around the arena. Keep focusing on where you want your horse to go and use your legs and body to direct them.

Listen to your horse, they are going to be asking you where you want them to go, so this is where you’ve got to be really quick with your leg and guide your horse, especially when telling them to go straight again. Think of it as squeezing out a tube of toothpaste in front of you, cuddle the horse with your leg so that your leg is always on. You can increase and decrease the amount of pressure from your leg to encourage them where to go.

Whenever you are training a young horse and they have done something really well, take them in a straight line and halt, giving them lots of praise. It is really important to stop to emphasise this with them, rather than just giving them a pat and carrying on. They don’t always understand what the praise is about. It’s good discipline to halt and make a fuss of them if they have done really well.

If they make a mistake and they don’t understand something, take it back to basics, be very clear with your body language and be patient and precise with what you’re trying to do.

Starting young horses: the secrets to success from some of the industry’s best

Alice Collins — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 09:00:48 +0000

A sound foundation is essential for young horses, regardless of which discipline they follow. Alice Collins finds out how the Billy babies start out

Having backed over 1,000 of horses during the past quarter-century, Will Plunkett (pictured throughout) is well versed in the art of breaking horses in to start their ridden careers. He gives 50 Billy Stud three-year-olds their basic training every year

“I’ve broken horses for everything; eventing, showjumping, dressage, Arabs, for racing – even a Shire horse,” says Will.

His diverse CV is testament to Pippa and William Funnell’s firm belief that an all-round education is crucial, regardless of the horse’s intended use.

Pippa says: “William and I are insistent that the basics are done correctly, no matter which route you’re going down. In our case, we’re breeding them and it’s important to handle them correctly from the beginning. They stay in herds until they’re three.”

“Horses learn so much from the herd environment,” says William. “It’s like kids at primary school learning as much from their classmates as from the teacher. And it’s the same basic education for all the horses regardless of what they’re going on to do.”

Leicestershire-based couple Ginnie and Will Turnbull have been producing a variety of horses for 30 years, with Will breaking horses in before handing them over to Ginnie.

“Our least favourites are horses that have been over-handled,” she says. “Horses who have been part of a herd have learnt about pecking order and patience. They might be a bit feral, but they’re open to learning.”

William in the barn with the young horses (Image credit: Lucy Merrell)

William Funnell agrees: “An untouched horse is a blank canvas. Of course some are more difficult than others, but I haven’t ever had a horse born nasty. Those are created by people.”

So what is the formula for building the correct basics – over and over again – with a range of horses?

1. Breaking horses in: relaxation is key

“Initially, my main emphasis is relaxation,” says Will Turnbull. “That’s the most important thing to me because it means they can go on and be ridden in all three paces on as light a contact as possible.”

When Will introduces side-reins, they’re fitted loosely.

“It’s just so they feel the weight of the rein on the contact and to teach a little inside flexion,” he explains. “I am very against trying to tie the horse into an outline.”

Ginnie and Pippa are both adamant that speed is never the answer when teaching young horses. Success comes via the horse calmly understanding what is being asked.

“A lot of people go wrong by using speed,” explains Pippa. “We’d rather spend longer establishing the basics, and proceed more slowly but with improved understanding. That applies to meeting fillers or the first log; anything new. You have to kill the speed and keep them on line with your leg.”

Ginnie concurs: “If the horse tries to rush, we take all the pace away and let them think about it. If they’re ever in a pickle or not coping well, it’s so important to give them time to think. It’s about trying to minimise their flight instinct and teach them that they have time to do things confidently.”

2. Consistency

William Funnell points to consistency being key from the outset.

“It’s like when you let your dog jump up at you, but then the day he has dirty feet and he gets in trouble,” he says. “That’s a mixed message and not good training. It’s the same with horses; the rules have to be consistent, but it’s even more important because it’s a safety issue.”

Pippa adds: “It’s invaluable to spend time on the ground getting the horse calm while teaching them that they’re not allowed to walk over you. People get in trouble when they miss the moment to react and eliminate issues early on.”

All these experienced producers of young horses agree that calm consistency is absolutely essential.

“Horses get confidence from discipline,” says Will Turnbull. “I don’t mean being hard on them, just them clearly understanding the boundaries. Don’t be inconsistent and leave the horse in no man’s land of half being in charge as it makes them tenser and it’s harder for them to understand what’s required.”

William concludes: “Horses learn to cope with all sorts, but you’re always either training a horse or untraining them. If you let them get away with something, then you’re untraining. If you’re consistent, you don’t need to be tough.”

Will Plunkett getting on young Billy Stud horse Billy Candle. They could barely touch her 2 weeks before! (Image credit: Lucy Merrell)

3. Balance

Pippa stresses Will Plunkett’s superb balance in the saddle as one of his star qualities. A balanced rider can transmit balance to the horse, which is crucial with green horses that have recently been broken-in.

“People need to be very aware that youngsters find it really difficult to keep their balance,” says Pippa. “If on top of that they have an unbalanced rider, that makes life even harder. The horses should be allowed to travel freely forward. If they spook and the rider loses balance, they learn that they get pulled and grabbed. A balanced rider can be more influential; the stiller you can sit, the better.”

Will Turnbull echoes the sentiment.

“When a horse is tense – which a breaker might be – people tend to hang on,” he says. “I am very careful not to. Even if a horse is trotting very forward, I won’t hang on. I’ll maybe ride a transition to walk and then trot again, but I won’t hang on to the reins. Hanging on doesn’t teach them to relax.”

William reiterates the role of the balanced rider in creating a confident horse: “Rider balance is so important. We have riders come to us who can ride a grade A, but I wouldn’t let them jump a metre on a four-year-old because their balance isn’t good enough. A four-year-old can’t differentiate between being pulled to stop or because the rider has lost balance.”

Pippa’s top tip is always to use a neck strap with young horses: if the rider loses balance, the strap takes the strain, not the horse’s mouth.

4. Breaking horses in: why simplicity matters

Everyone agrees that the only items on the menu to begin with should be the absolute basics.

“A lot of horses’ problems stem from the rider doing too much,” counsels Pippa. “Will Plunkett is great; he doesn’t worry where their heads are. In the beginning, it’s all simple. Just stop, go; left, right. It’s key you spend time on the basics and don’t run before you can walk.”

Both Will Turnbull and Will Plunkett use a tried-and-trusted system for breaking-in horses, with the emphasis on step-by-step simplicity. Will Plunkett adds one building block to his routine every few days and drops off the first part, so the vast majority of the day’s work is still familiar to the horse, yet they are also adding new skills.

Will Turnbull uses a lunge pen to transfer the voice and body aids from the person on the ground to the rider. Although he does not use a lunge line, the handler in effect lunges the horse while the rider sits quietly on top. The aids are then gradually transferred from one person to the other, until eventually the rider is in full control.

5. Straightness

Keeping a horse straight sounds so simple, but straightness needs to be carefully nurtured in a wobbly young horse.

“Straightness is always the main thing,” reiterates Will Turnbull. “We use loose side-reins on the lunge so they can’t just fall out of the outside shoulder. We also work on straightness early by turning them from the leg and moving the outside shoulder. We never drag them round from the inside rein.

“Any horse broken with absolutely no contact is often tricky later. There’s no forcing, just a gentle contact. Popping a fence checks the straightness and the confidence.”

Once the horse understands the leg, it’s also a straightness tool.

“We channel the horse with the leg,” says William Funnell. “We use our legs to keep them straight over fences – when you narrow the options down for a horse, he doesn’t look left or right. “They learn not to question what you’re asking because you’re consistent and they understand what’s required.”

Will Plunkett getting on young Billy Stud horse Billy Candle. They could barely touch her 2 weeks before! (Image credit: Lucy Merrell)

6. The role of horsemanship when breaking in horses

Reading a horse’s reactions is paramount to ensuring a successful start. Quick and appropriate reactions nip issues in the bud, ensuring they never blossom into bigger problems.

“So much of the early training is building trust so the horse understands we’re here to form a partnership,” explains Pippa. “I’m their friend while also reading their body language and acting accordingly. It’s about meshing that with telling them what to do that’s the fine line.”

William agrees that the small lessons add up to a positive bigger picture.

“For example,” he says, “the day a horse doesn’t want to walk to the school, you clearly nudge it with the leg rather than being afraid to and waiting until it’s a bigger issue. Otherwise you might have to hit it with a stick, and if that’s done in the wrong way, you’re creating further problems. Before you know it, you’ve got a horse who’s worried and refuses to walk to the school.”

7. Confidence

“Confidence is crucial,” says Pippa. “Without confidence, trust cannot be built; and that magical partnership you want to build between you and your horse has to be formed around trust. Confidence makes it so much easier to go on to the next stage, whether that be a progression in training or the next level in competition.”

Instilling confidence is the driver behind the Turnbulls’ belief that all horses should learn to jump as part of the breaking-in process, regardless of what discipline they are aimed at.

“We break eventers and dressage horses mostly, but the process is the same for all,” says Ginnie. “The dressage horses pop a jump and hack. It doesn’t matter if they aren’t good at the jumping, they just need to be confident enough to answer the question.”

Will Plunkett does all the breakers alone. It began as necessity, but as he developed his system, it became by choice as he finds it easier to build trust and confidence.

“When it’s just me, everything is more predictable,” he says. “Sensitive horses often get more sensitive the more people are there.”

As Will says, confidence and trust go hand in hand, and with this instilled in a young horse, it has every chance of fulfilling its potential.

Will Plunkett’s secret ingredient when backing horses

Will Plunkett getting on young Billy Stud horse Billy Candle. They could barely touch her 2 weeks before! (Image credit: Lucy Merrell)

Will is adamant that there are no magic tricks to starting young horses properly. But he does have one superpower he used when breaking horses in.

“It’s not for everyone, but I vault on every horse,” he explains. “I vault across the saddle from the ground, then from there I swing my leg over. The horse barely notices and it means mounting is a non-issue.

“I see people trying to make young horses stand still to mount, but I let them walk and they learn that I’m going to jump on anyway, so they may as well stand still. Later on they can learn to stand at the block, or whatever the owner needs them to do. I’ve earned more money from vaulting on than anything else,” he laughs.

Ref: 11 February 2021

H&H question of the week: how do I teach my young horse to be a good jumper?

Gemma Redrup — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 17:25:26 +0000

Q: “How do I teach my young horse to be a good jumper? I’ve just had a horse dropped off for me to ride. He’s a five-year-old and I’ve been told he’s a good jumper with potential. On the flat he’s lovely, just what I’m looking for. We’ve had a go over some little (60/70cm) jumps and it’s hit and miss whether he clears or goes through it. What would you suggest I do for training with him? I have a plan I just maybe want some fresh ideas to consider. I really want this to work and for him to be what I want in a jumper. Ideally he’d get round a 90cm/1m course and around 1.25m single fences.”

A: I’d put a lot of time into pole work so that your horse develops his confidence and gets his timing right.

Working over poles will encourage your horse to use his back correctly, and also encourage greater flexibility in the joints. Poles will also help him develop confidence over distances and an awareness of his legs and feet as he will have to figure things out for himself.

As a rider, the ground poles will test your balance and independence of seat. Remain balanced while your horse navigates the poles, keeping a light seat and making sure your knees and ankles are free to absorb the extra bounce and movement. You don’t want to become stiff and rigid.

Continued below…

Related articles:

Don’t be afraid to adjust the poles to your horse’s stride as you are working on building your horse’s confidence. Allowing him to feel comfortable going over the poles is key.

Start with five canter poles on the ground three paces or nine feet apart. Once your horse is cantering down the poles calmly and in a good rhythm on both reins, raise them; alternate ends first and then both ends. We use potties at home which are only a £1 each and really easy to move around!

As he is young, he’s bound to be weak so make sure you get that box ticked first doing plenty of work with poles. You can lunge him over poles too.

When you are ready to progress to jumps, use poles with your jumping. Put a placing pole three yards in front of a fence and a landing pole a good three and a half to four yards on the other side.

You can use this for a cross pole or an oxer. A cross pole is great for teaching your horse to jump and stay in the centre of the fence and encourage him to make a tidy shape.

By using canter poles before and after the fence, it will help your horse to jump in the right spot and will help with his timing, which could be why he is a bit might be a bit hit and miss at times.

Don’t be afraid to ask a trainer for help too as having someone on the ground is invaluable.

I personally wouldn’t be worried about jumping too big too soon. Keep it small so that he develops his confidence and he gets his timing right.

On the flat, make sure you have good gears in your canter. Not only will this help your horse develop strength and balance but it will also help you with your distances when you are jumping courses.

H&H question of the week: How do I teach my young horse to go forwards?

Gemma Redrup — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 16:25:27 +0000

Q: “Giving a young horse ‘oomph’: I have a four year old Irish Sport Horse who has been broken for seven weeks. I can honestly say he is the safest youngster I have ever sat on and wonderful to deal with, but at the moment he is like a donkey to ride and hard to get going, which I don’t mind to a certain extent, but trying to get him to work in the school is hard as I am focusing on his flat work this year. Are there any schooling ideas I can use to get him more interested?”

A: Many youngsters can be this way to start with and I tend to find it comes from a lack of strength.

At the beginning of their education I really like to hack them out as much as I can which naturally gets them to think forwards, rather than going round and round in a school, which isn’t overly interesting for them.

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It can also be quite hard work for them to balance in an arena and this can cause them to switch off.

Hacking will help them to become stronger more naturally so that when you do get back in the school your horse will physically find it much easier.

On the days you do go in the school, keep it very simple, working on the odd transition, and really praise him when he does go forward. Use your voice, making it fun and jolly.

Avoid asking him to do anything too difficult at this stage as you want to keep his attitude positive so that he wants to please you and try. If you ask too many questions he may start to resent it. Lots of praise is essential too.

Going over poles laid out around the arena at random will also help make it more interesting.

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I quite like lungeing mine as well as it gives them a chance to work in a correct way and find their own balance without you on their back.

Hopefully after a few weeks of doing this you will start to find some improvement as this is very much about time and strength.

My youngsters do four days working and then have one day off as it gives their bodies and their brains the chance to absorb what you are asking them. They go in the school no more than twice a week.

H&H question of the week: ‘How do I produce a young horse?’

Gemma Redrup — Sat, 08 Oct 2016 16:25:11 +0000

Q: “Assuming she passes the vetting on Friday, I will soon be the proud (and incredibly broke!) owner of a beautiful just turned five-year-old 15.3hh Oldenburg mare. She was broken last summer and then turned away over winter as the breeder had too many horses and has since been slowly brought back into work this spring. This is the first time I’ve owned anything this young and green and I’m equal parts excited and terrified at having the opportunity to bring her on from the start and planning for her long term future.

“I’ve made the decision to keep her on schooling livery at our yard for at least the next six months to ensure she’s brought on correctly and I have the necessary help and support in place for when we hit the inevitable ups and downs that come with bringing on a youngster, but it would be great to hear from others how much work their five-year-olds are currently in as I don’t want to get it wrong.

“At present the schooling package includes three days of schooling, one hack and one lunge session and on top of this I will be having a short weekly lesson on her, but already I’m worrying that’s quite a lot of work for something that’s only been back in work a few months. Am I being too precious?

“I’m in absolutely no rush with her. My long term goal is to get her up to elementary/medium dressage and make sure she’s just a nice, confident, well-rounded little mare. I have no plans to compete her this year, aside from maybe the odd intro test to get her out and about and seeing the sights and sounds of somewhere unfamiliar but I’m sort of at a loss as to how much work she should be in as I don’t want to push her too hard too soon.”

A: My horses are trained to be eventers, rather than dressage horses, and the approach is quite different, but there are some rules that apply to any horse.

As a general rule of thumb my younger horses work on average five days a week. Their two days off will be interspersed rather than after each other, but if I feel they are too sharp after a second day off, I will drop it back to one.

With any horse you are training the mind as well as the body so I will break up their training with periods of two or three weeks off which is enough time for them to freshen up, and perhaps recover from muscle fatigue, but not enough time for them to loose too much muscle tone. Giving the brain a break, as well as the body, will ensure your horse comes back fresher and stronger each time.

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If you have a really trainable horse that is eager to please, the temptation is to become greedy and keep going but you must be strict with yourself as eventually your horse will become stale if he isn’t allowed time off.

However, nothing is set in stone. Perhaps after a really successful week’s training, you might feel it is a good time to give your horse a break, or you may have built up to a competition and then feel a break afterwards would be good.

It is beneficial to train for two to three days in the school as they will progress much quicker but it is important to get them out hacking too, if that’s a feasible option.

Using hills will strengthen up your horse without putting too much pressure on the brain while getting her to think forward and seeing a bit of the world.

Before each schooling session have a plan of what you want to work on, give yourself ten minutes to warm up, 15 to 20 minutes to work and five minutes to cool down.

Aim for little steps of improvement each time. If your horse is really pleasing you and has achieved what you wanted to achieve within 20 minutes, give them a pat and take them in. There is no reason to keep going and going.

That’s why it is important to plan what you are trying to achieve, rather than to keep going. Give them a reward and let them finish on a good note.

Always stick to the scales of training and if you are ever unsure revert back to the check list. Once you have your transition nailed, everything else will come together. If they move away from the leg sideways and forwards and stay connected in transition, at five years old I am happy with that.

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Olympic eventing gold medallist and racehorse trainer Sir Mark Todd echoed Mr Gosden’s thoughts about treating each horse as an individual and the impact of the rider, also sharing similar remarks to Dr Pearson on the importance of early education for horses.

“I think educating horses from an early age is very important – and I use the word education as opposed to training,” he said.

He added the sooner that education starts the better – giving the example of teaching foals to pick up their feet and how useful it is to learn about their characters during that early handing.

“It’s your job to treat each as an individual and respect them, but also they have to conform to a set of boundaries in behaviour – much as you do with your own children,” he said.

Sir Mark also stressed the importance of watching and observing horses, and of getting good feedback from riders, and thinking about the whole picture when it comes to each individual horse’s needs.

“Do they need to move to a different stable? Do they need to spend a bit of time in the field? All the time, you have to be asking yourself questions about how can I make this horse the happy horse that wants to perform,” he said.

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She continued: “If he’s a bit lazy and needs to think twice about things, you must know training him will take longer.

“I always say for a good horse I always have an empty stall and luckily the good ones keep coming.”

Ingrid says she also prioritises physical health and strength these days, having been caught out in her earlier years by hoping for the best with horses with small health issues.

For dressage horses, Ingrid recommends looking closely at the hindlegs and the energy a horse has behind, as horses need a very good hindleg for piaffe, passage and pirouettes.

“You need them to focus – it takes another three years so you hope that when they are nine, they have all the grand prix movements,” she said.

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“Why are people in such a rush?” she asked.

Zoe told H&H she was promoted to post by recurring issues.

Zoe is also concerned about some foreign studbooks’ licensing procedures.

Zoe believes that with horse prices as high as they are, more people are buying quality young horses rather than their older, more expensive counterparts.

Zoe said two “heartbreaking” cases that stand out are both showjumping horses.

She added that she also sees pressure on those backing horses to do it quickly, so instead of months of walk and ground work to build strength gradually, clients often want horses ready to ride away weeks after they have been brought in from the field.

Zoe said one argument she often hears, from trainers in particular, is that some big and bolshy three-year-olds should be backed early as they will be stronger, so more difficult to work with, when they are older.

“What planet are they on, in what century?” she said. “Do the groundwork, teach them manners, – it’s about communicating and working with your horse, not overpowering them when they’re weaker.

“I think it comes down to education, people aren’t educating themselves before they buy young horses, and some trainers aren’t helping. Just think ‘Am I doing this for me, or in the horse’s best interests?’”

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How to teach a horse to jump

1. Start with coloured poles on the floor, building up from one to a row of five approx 1m apart to suit the horse’s natural stride.

2. If the horse lacks straightness use tramlines (a pair of parallel poles) as a guide on the approach and after the poles.

3. Tina’s young horses do their early training in a snaffle bridle with a running martingale.

4. The rider must keep the contact soft and should slip a couple of fingers in the neckstrap rather than catch the horse in the mouth.

5. Once the horse is negotiating the trotting poles confidently, introduce a cross pole with a take off and landing rail so the horse learns where to put his feet.

6. Cross poles help channel the horse and encourage him to lift through his shoulder.

7. While early jumping should be done from a trot, the horse also needs to learn to canter to a fence.

8. Tina likes to introduce fillers once the horse is jumping coloured poles confidently, but always starts with an upright and pulls them out to the side initially so there is a gap to jump through.

9. If the horse is spooky keep fences small so he can still jump them easily even if he backs off and loses impulsion.

10. Repetition is key but don’t over do it. Tina jumps her youngsters on consecutive days but keeps sessions short and focused.

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