Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2007 | Page 74

life

EQUESTRIAN

Hidden
talent
“If you can, you do, if you can’t,
you teach.” Isn’t that what
they say? Not true for Robert
Booth, trainer, teacher and
producer of young horses. He
does it all, and although he
will never admit it, the people
he trains and the horses he
produces, say it all for him.

Robert Booth (48) is dressed in jeans
and chaps. Tall and slim, he stands in
the middle of his impressive arena at
Rodgebrook near Porchfield, with his
head bent permanently to one side. He is
watching every nuance of the horse and
rider he is training. A little tweak here, and
little push there, it is as though he is riding
the horse himself, but from the ground.
His arena is full of showjumps and there
are no dressage markers on the post and
rails separating it from his 11 ½ acres and
his newly built house. It would seem then,
that Robert Booth is a showjumper, but,
when you watch him riding a perfect half
pass on his home produced grade A show
jumper, it is soon obvious that Robert Booth
knows a thing or two about dressage too!
A spell with Jennie Loriston-Clarke, one
of the world’s most respected dressage

74

riders and trainers, at her famous
Catherston Stud, has clearly left its mark
on this quietly spoken perfectionist.
“When I trained at Catherston,” Robert
explains, “they jumped their dressage
horses (almost unheard of today), and
they had show horses too. Two years
after I passed my first teaching exam
at 17, I went to Ireland and worked with
showjumpers for two years. But it was at
Catherston where I trained and passed
my BHSI (British Horse Society Instructor’s
exam),” he adds as an afterthought. “I
worked there too for a couple of years.”
Although not originally from the Island
(he was born in Portsmouth), Robert has
been living here for over 25 years and runs
his business of producing young horses,
breaking, schooling and teaching with
his wife of 23 years, Lyn. “We first met

soon after I left school,” he says. “Then
we ran a yard together near Reading,
where we had a few event horses.”
Ah, so he knows a bit about
eventing too? “Well, yes,” he answers
reluctantly, “I competed our horses to
intermediate level.” Fair enough!
He and Lyn moved to the Island to
set up a bu siness of their own, and
the swish set-up at Porchfield has
been 26 years in the making.
“My parents moved to the Island with
us,” Robert continues. “They bought a
house just outside Newport with a couple
of acres and a small yard. It was quite a
big house and they split it and Lyn and
I bought half, plus the yard. We were
there for nearly 20 years. We bought the
land here about six years ago. There
was nothing here really, just a tin shed.

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