Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2017 | Page 83

Equestrian
TRAINING HORSES
with Robert Booth BHSI
Early Spring is the time of year when we
start thinking about starting our young
horses and breeding our next bunch.
There are some lovely stallions that, with the
improvements in AI techniques and veterinary care
means you have the pick of a wide range of stallions
from all over the world. Sometimes though we
forget the importance of the mare.
The mare is half of the equation and should be
considered on equal merit to the stallion. One of our
mares, Bunty Girl, had a small injury a few years ago
and we have used her as a broodmare because of
her great qualities.
We competed Bunty up to 1.20m level
showjumping, she was lovely to work with and was
always enthusiastic and easy to train. It is amazing
how she has taken on most of her mothers good
points and is very like her in her temperament, with
her size, performance and better conformation
coming from the stallion, all things that have to be
taken into consideration when breeding.
She was homebred by the late stallion
Unbelievable Darco, a horse we watched throughout
his showjumping career and were impressed by his
performance. Her dam was the lovely Buttercup,
a mare with the sweetest temperament ever and
so genuine. Our daughter Emma had loads of fun
competing Buttercup.
Bunty has already produced us a lovely foal by Billy
Congo, who is now 3 years old and is again in foal
to our own AES graded stallion SHW CanCan who
was picked for his wonderful qualities as a breeding
horse. The foal is due early May and will be the start
of a new breeding project, all very exciting.
Robert Booth is an Equine trainer for Rodgebrook
Horses. Telephone: [phone] or visit www.
rodgebrookhorses.co.uk.
Useful tips on training
your horse: Stretching
Teaching your horse to stretch is very important for muscle
development and relaxation.
When working your horse he will naturally try to stretch
his head and neck downwards. Allow this by lengthening
your reins, lowering your hands and encouraging forward
movement, it will encourage the horse to lengthen his topline.
Doing this between training movements and exercises, you
can give moments with less pressure, relieving tension and
encouraging muscle suppleness and mind relaxation. Very
good for warming up and down after a work out.
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