EQUESTRIAN - LOCAL RIDER
- life
Andy Blanch the
NAGSMAN
Andy Blanch has grown up with horses and certainly has a natural
way with them. This skill has been developed over many years and
now Andy is respected as one of the best nagsmen on the island.
Andy Blanch, 40, started riding horses at
the age of nine when his mother took him
to his local riding school at Luccombe at
weekends. “I suppose it got me out from
under her feet, and anyway I liked it because
it was primarily a girl’s sport, so I had lots of
girlfriends and I wasn’t complaining,” he says.
Andy left school with nine CSE’s and knew
straight away he wanted a career in horses.
His first year after leaving school was spent at
Luccombe Farm earning only £15 per week,
helping out in the yard and doing odd jobs.
“When I was on £15 a week it was really
hard. Even though I lived at home and paid
no rent, I still could not go out anywhere,
my life was horses,” he explains.
During this time Andy’s aunt bought a
horse for his cousin and within no time at
all his cousin lost interest in riding. This
resulted in Andy being given the four-year
old New Forest cross Thoroughbred.
Andy left Luccombe Farm at the age of 17 and
by 18 had started work with Phil Legge, the
owner of Brickfields Horse Country, earning £25
per week. “I remember one day at Phil’s he had
some youngsters in the yard which he threw
me onto and that’s how it all started I suppose.
I was in at the deep end as I had no training
or anything like that, it was nerve-racking at
the time and I truly learnt the hard way.
“The first young sharp horse I ever backed was
at Luccombe, I even remember coming home
from school on the bus thinking I got to ride
that horse tonight. I got her in the end though
simply because I don’t like being beaten.”
Whilst at Brickfields, Andy’s job ranged from
digging holes, repairing stables, putting up
barns, and, of course, backing young horses.
“The best thing I learnt at Brickfields was
horsemanship. I suppose really most of my trade I
learnt from Phil, as he is one of the best horsemen
on the island. The funniest thing I’ve seen Phil
do was to ride a Shire horse in a dressage show.”
After a long spell at Brickfields, Andy
thought it would be a good idea to do some
travelling, so he decided to take a job in
New Zealand working in a racing yard.
“This was probably the worst job I had ever done,
it was awful. My main job was what they call a
‘work-rider’, which was working the racehorses.
I was up at 5am riding horses in the dark and
we were expected to be on duty 24 hours a day.
Most of the time I was backing the youngsters
and it was hard to even find time to sleep. The
yard was in the middle of nowhere and it was
like being in an open air prison. I hated it! I had
a 10-month visa and I came home after only five
months. In the whole of the time I was away,
my only claim to fame was that I rode one of
the best mares in New Zealand, Clear Rose.”
Upon his return to the Island, nine years
ago, Andy decided it was time to give self
employment a go. “I placed a few adverts in
the County Press offering a service to people
with problem horses. This proved to be a
good move as I am still, to this day, sorting
out problem horses for island owners.
“One of the biggest problems today is lack of
knowledge. Now that people have more money,
and because horses are more accessible, people
think that they can just go and buy a horse and
ride it after a few lessons. People also feed their
horses too much. They seem to think that in
the winter, when the horse is rugged up nice
and warm, they need more feed. They don’t! If
the hors R