A dressage rider and coach, Richard Davison has represented Great Britain at four Olympic Games, including at London 2012 riding Hiscox Artemis. He is also a European medallist, former World Class performance manager and British Dressage team captain.

Training the stars

My horse, Hiscox Artemis, was short-coupled and, in the early days, he would tend to contract and tighten the wrong muscle groups, so I would do exercises to improve his flexibility and range of movement.

He was quick to understand that he needed to multi-task with his neck and hindquarters. Soon, he was flexing with me only using the lightest of leg and rein aids.

Tackling the issue

Instead of suppleness, I focus on flexibility. If you flex and mobilise joints effectively, your horse’s muscle tone improves. Here is my four-point plan…

1. Learn about horse anatomy, especially which parts of the horse have the most and the least flexibility. There is no point trying to flex a part that won’t.

2. Responsiveness is best achieved through the pressure-release system. Start by checking your horse’s forward response to your leg. The important thing here is to remove your leg pressure when the horse responds.

3. Work on the sideways response to your leg by leg-yielding your horse towards and away from the side of the arena. Then ride down the long side and apply your outside leg slightly further back until he moves his hindquarters on to the inside track, while remaining on the outside track with his front legs (see diagram, above). Avoid flexing your horse’s neck too much at this stage — you are not trying to ride travers. After approximately 15 metres, use your inside leg to straighten him.

Repeat this exercise two or three times on the same long side, depending on the length of your school. Work on both reins and eventually anywhere in the arena, varying the direction in which you mobilise the hindquarters.

4. Ride in a straight line and use your inside rein to flex your horse’s neck to the inside, ensuring he stays straight with his legs. After 15 metres, straighten up using your outside rein and repeat, then move to the inside track and flex to the outside for 15 metres. Straighten up and repeat in different places around the arena. This will mobilise your horse’s neck joints.

Continued below…

#SundaySchool: perfecting pirouettes with Rebecca Hughes

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Consider this…

• Begin the exercises in walk and progress gradually. It is easier for your horse to mobilise all parts of his body in a slower pace.
• Minimise the pressure of your leg or hand as soon as your horse responds to the aids.
• This isn’t about ‘holding the bend’, but about getting your horse to respond to the pressure-release system. The more you hold your leg around him, the less he will respond, making him appear inflexible because he can’t find a way of relieving the pressure.

For all the latest equestrian news and reports, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday

Blessed are the cobs! I gave a presentation at the recent British Horse Society (BHS) convention in Surrey and had some anxiety over which students I would be given. But I was in luck with two riders on wonderful cobs. However, the sad truth is that riders may struggle to find cobs or small horses, as they are under threat from a breeding industry focused on high-value elite performers — usually big horses with big paces.

This is market forces, but it’s not good for the sport or the industry. Ours is a sport in which the vast majority of riders are female and of novice level, both adults and children, and it’s an industry that has huge untapped potential, given the right horses.

When I was young, the values of different types of equines varied less. When I sold my first £1,000 pony out of Cornwall, a good hunter or sound thoroughbred was a similar price. Most competition horses were bought cheaply as youngsters. As a result, all types of horses were bred for all types of activities. Now, however, there is an emphasis on breeding a pan-European type that can jump, but with decreased genetic diversity.

‘Lottery trap’

These breeders are falling into the lottery dream trap. Of the millions of people buying lottery tickets, only a very few win big, and the same is true of breeding horses. Elite horses are rare. This dream results in the production of thousands of horses that are often unsuited to the general market. We need fewer of these horses, and more smaller, sound and sensible horses, which have more performance options; plus a greater likelihood of a fair and regular profit. This can become a reality with a little positive marketing around the following points:

• Saving money: based on a horse consuming 2.5% of its bodyweight per day, a smaller horse cuts feeding costs.
• Improving soundness and longevity: force equals mass multiplied by acceleration, so reducing mass is a major factor in reducing stress on feet and limbs. In addition, as a body grows in size, its volume grows exponentially and bigger horses struggle because of this. Generally, as with dogs, smaller animals live longer.
• Safety: if our horses fit us better, we are more secure in the saddle. Plus the genetic diversity and brain of ponies, and breeds that have developed over millennia, helps with both good health and survival instincts that look after a rider.
• Elite performance: many grand prix showjumping champions are 16hh or under, such as Itot Du Chateau, Hickstead and Stroller. In eventing, small stars include Lenamore and Charisma; in racing there is Grand National hero Tiger Roll at 15.3hh, and super sires Sadler’s Wells and Hyperion at 15.2hh. And in dressage there is Charlotte Dujardin’s recent national inter II champion Gio, who is just 16hh.

Commercial breeding has become a tail that is wagging the sport horse industry, but change is possible.

Ref Horse & Hound; 31 October 2019

Rooster is a very good boy.  He is a 12 year-old gelding with a horrible injury that has not healed in a year – even with daily treatment.  (Rooster went through a fence.  He didn’t hurt the bone, but there isn’t enough tissue to regrow.)

Rooster’s owner had no hope … Rooster was given to Strawberry Mountain Mustangs to take to OSU for a final, analysis.  OSU offered the below scenarios (not much hope):

1 ) Leave the wound as is and bandage for eternity. <—- (this was a no) The changes in bone mean this wound would likely never close on its own.

2 ) Surgery to scrape away excess bone growth (*not to be confused with sequestrum) in the hope that the wound would then close on its own. Possible complications were : destabilizing the leg resulting in a fracture, and risk of stimulating the bone so it grows right back. A long recovery in a cast with a sketchy prognosis didn’t sound appealing.

3 ) Skin grafting. If you’ve followed us for long, you know we’ve done successful skin grafting in the past, but this wound has little to no healthy tissue for a graft to adhere to. It’s almost bare bone. OSU didn’t think it would work.

Luckily, Strawberry Mountain Mustangs scoured the internet and found a new, ground breaking possibility for Rooster.  Enter KERECIS.  And Kerecis (intact fish skin) is willing to help!

All donations are 100% tax deductible!  Thank you in advance for helping SMM help Rooster (and potentially many, many others…) with this new, life-saving protocol!

If you receive this post via email, click here to donate!

The wound seems clean and healthy enough… except it has not healed at all in a year because the bone is exposed and because of the constant growth of proud flesh.

NEXT IMAGE IS GRAPHIC – I’ve made it very small.  This is the constant battle with Rooster’s proud flesh and never ending debridement.

WHAT IS KERECIS AND WHY IS IT BE GROUND BREAKING AND HOW CAN IT HELP?! – Intact fish skin!

.

(from the website) Why Kerecis®?

Kerecis Omega3 is intact fish skin rich in naturally occurring Omega3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. When grafted onto damaged human tissue such as a burn or a diabetic wound, the material recruits the body’s own cells and is ultimately converted into living tissue.

Compared to mammalian-based skin substitutes, Kerecis Omega3 offers improved economics and clinical performance, as well as reduced disease transfer risk and no cultural constraints on usage.

Other tissue-transplant products are based on tissues of human and porcine origin. These are not ideal substitutes because heavy processing is needed to eliminate the risk of disease transmission. This harsh, anti-viral treatment removes most of the material’s natural components, making it dissimilar to human skin.

GROUNDBREAKING KERECIS WAS APPLIED TO ROOSTER’S LEG ON SATURDAY!

This is so exciting!  The people at Kerecis are very willing to help a horse and sent instructions and the first round of product to the veterinarians caring for Rooster.

They stitched in the Kerecis patch and we are now waiting 5 days until the first check.  Rooster is being cared for and watched over by SMM.

CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MANY HORSES/ANIMALS WILL BE SAVED if this works?!  I think this is very, very exciting and brave and fortuitous.

Let’s Please help Strawberry Mountain Mustangs in this groundbreaking endeavor to save Rooster (and others after him)!

Imagine the good this will do for others?!  Please spread the word!  All donations are 100% tax deductible.  Thank you, Thank you!

   If you receive this post via email, click here to donate!

This is sweet Rooster. He’s only 12!

This is what the Kerecis fish patch looks like.

This is the packaging.

This is the Kerecis patch stitched into place over Rooster’s wound.

This is Rooster after being bandaged and the bandage sprayed with an anti-chew remedy.

NOW WE WAIT… Please, let’s help take the stress off of trying a new protocol and help SMM and Rooster – for all of us!  Thank you!

Provided by CoolFundraisingIdeas.net

Good boy, Rooster

The post GROUNDBREAKING Skin/Tissue substitute being tested on our NOVEMBER BUCKET FUND HORSE: MEET ROOSTER with his history-making, life threatening wound! appeared first on Horse and Man.

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The elephant in the room this season was the call for the remeasuring of two prominent 148cm show ponies just before the Royal International (RIHS) in July.

The 2018 RIHS show pony champion, Moluccas Bengal Beauty, measured out nine days before the Hickstead final.Small-Land Dream Maker’s absence was also noted. However, Dream Maker did measure in the following week and went on to stand supreme show pony at the British Show Pony Society (BSPS) summer championships.

This scenario conjures up more questions than answers. Were the objections made by an exhibitor, a judge, a society or a Joint Measurement Board (JMB) steward? It seems unlikely this information will be released, and so the objector will remain anonymous.

I believe there must be a rule to allow objections to take place during the showing season, in extreme circumstances.

On the other hand, should there also be an immunity period, similar to the football transfer window, before RIHS and the Horse of the Year Show (HOYS) to stop a possible tactical move to derail the opposition by a rival competitor?

It would also be healthier to return to the old days when the objector was out in the open. This would eradicate the false accusations and malicious finger pointing which have created a bad atmosphere in the second half of 2019.

Weight watchers

The debate on rider weight in pony ranks continued to make headlines this term. The Great Yorkshire Show has been unkindly dubbed “Weight Watchers week” since introducing a regulation in 2016 that anyone of an inappropriate size for their equine would be asked to dismount.

This season Royal Windsor Horse Show pioneered its own rule that only children under 16 years of age could ride-in mini ponies 122cm or under, which was considered easier to monitor. Perhaps a height alternative should be thrown into the mix after I recently read a sign outside an all-day buffet eatery that stated children (5ft 4in and under) were only charged half the full price!

On a lighter note, it always amuses me to see horse competitors at HOYS wearing their full regalia at silly o’clock, resembling a Hollywood film set. That said, was I the only person to instantly recognise Oli Hood, sporting top hat and tails, in last winter’s BBC costume drama Vanity Fair?

And although an official of this year’s National Pony Society (NPS) Area 4 show assured me this had not been done intentionally, the Olympia judging duo of Mesdames Ann Bigley and Claire Smalley caused some merriment at the ring side, when guessing which type they would prefer!

A bright future?

The future of pony showing bodes well based on two of my 2019 judging experiences alone. At Royal Windsor, Lizzie Briant’s son Freddie, Robert Walker’s daughter Izzy and Simon Charlesworth’s son Jac all fared well in the leading-rein show hunter class.

And the legendary Holly Of Spring’s great-granddaughter Rowden Holly Go Lightly was novice champion at the BSPS Championships, trumping her stablemate Stretcholt New Dimension, who went on to claim the riding pony championship at HOYS.

Ref Horse & Hound; 31 October 2019

Brian Hughes

The rider is hot on the heels of champion jockey Richard Johnson, who is hoping to claim his fifth title. Brian’s partnership with Donald McCain is paying off as the trainer continues to show his resilience, having rebuilt his string after owners Paul and Clare Rooney removed their horses from his yard. If Donald has 100 winners this season and both Richard and Brian stay injury free, it might be a close fight.

Jonjo O’Neill Jnr

The young jockey looked a chip off the old block in his breakthrough season last winter. Rides from his father — trainer Jonjo O’Neill — look like being supplemented with a few from Colin Tizzard, so he should keep progressing.

Paul Nicholls

The champion trainer looks to be in a strong position to hold onto his title. Among his stars, he has Cyrname and Clan Des Obeaux. The latter has started off in the JW Wine Chase at Down Royal before defending his King George title. With Altior vacating the two-mile ranks, Politologue — runner-up in the Champion Chase — should pick up a good prize this season.

Nicky Henderson

The Lambourn handler’s top horses include Altior and Buveur D’Air. The latter may benefit from a small back surgery, which he underwent in the summer, and a third Champion Hurdle may not be beyond him after all.

Emma Lavelle… and Colin Tizzard

The trainer made a strong start to the season. She can rule the staying hurdle scene once again with Paisley Park, while the pick of Colin Tizzard’s novice hurdlers could be Master Debonair, who was a smart bumper horse last season.

Jamie Snowden

Over the summer, the trainer has enjoyed a 28% strike rate with 20 summer horses. With double that number due to be in the yard over the winter, and if he can maintain that great form over the next few months, he is well on the way to his best season ever. Thebannerkingrebel, runner-up to McFabulous at Aintree, took to hurdles like a duck to water in the spring and should be Jamie’s flagship horse.

Article continues below…

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Races not to miss this season…

The Christy 1965 Chase at Ascot (23 November): Nicky Henderson has decided to step Altior up in trip to see what he is capable of. This race is the starting point that could lead to the King George and who knows what else.

The Randox Health Grand National at Aintree (4 April): can Tiger Roll win a third National to match the legendary Red Rum? The horse standing between him and victory could be One For Arthur — given how he ran last year when the ground was too quick and he kept unseating in his races, before finishing an outstanding sixth in the National. Lucinda Russell had him back earlier this year and is very happy with him.

Don’t miss our National Hunt special (31 October) in Horse & Hound magazine — on sale now.

Eventer Mary King will be chasing a new adrenaline rush this month when she takes part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

The 58-year-old rider will be sailing on the race’s third leg, which crosses 4,750 nautical miles of the Southern Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to Fremantle, near Perth.

The 70’ clipper Seattle will leave South Africa on 17 November with 20 crew and arrive in Australia around 23 days later.

It will not be the first time Mary has crossed an ocean — two years ago, she sailed across the Atlantic on an 18-day voyage to help deliver a friend’s boat.

“I have always wanted to sail round the world, it’s always been on my bucket list, but it’s not possible to take that much time away from the horses, my husband and family,” she told H&H.

“I thought if I can do it ocean by ocean, then that might be a way of ticking it off. I’ve done the Atlantic, I’m doing the Southern and hopefully over the next few years I’ll fulfill my aim.”

Although Mary’s father was a naval officer, he was invalided out before she was born, but she said that may be where her love of the water comes from.

“I always said if it hadn’t worked out with horses then I would have done something with boats,” she said.

“Growing up we didn’t sail as a family but I went on tall ships as a trainee when I was 19 with the Sail Training Association. That was sailing great big square riggers rather than yachts but apart from that, my experience has really only been sailing with friends.”

This summer, Mary managed to fit in a month of compulsory training for the crossing around her eventing commitments and said she is very excited about the upcoming adventure.

“I really enjoyed the training,” she said. “The Southern Ocean is one of the most arduous legs famous for the Roaring Forties — really big seas with strong westerly winds. There are waves breaking over deck constantly — you have to be clipped on all the time in dry suits, it’s all very exciting.”

Continues below…

Mary King takes on ‘new ride’ Hovis at Belton Horse Trials

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The trip will be raising money for Devon Air Ambulance and UNICEF, and donations can be made through Mary’s JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mary-king7

Mary will be mixing work with pleasure, also teaching in South Africa before she leaves as well as riding on a safari in Stellenbosch.

“My family are all coming out to greet me in Australia — David, Emily and Freddie,” she said. “We should leave the boat by 17 December and then we’ll do some travelling before spending Christmas with my cousin near Sydney.”

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Things have changed a lot in the horse world in the past 30 years or so. Technical rugs, complete feeds and internet shopping were among the things that didn’t exist back then — hard to imagine now, isn’t it? Want to feel really old?

Do you remember when…

1. Lucinda Green (pictured above) became the pin-up of the eventing world after winning Badminton for the sixth time in 1984 on SR Direct Mail Ltd’s Beagle Bay.

2. Virginia Leng (now Ginny Elliot) took over as every pony-mad teenage girl’s heroine after becoming the first woman to win Burghley five times in 1989 on Master Craftsman, when she was also crowned European champion.

3. All turnout rugs were made of heavy green canvas. No exceptions. And it felt like a lifetime waiting for them to dry.

4. Jute rugs had a place in your tackroom — itchy-looking things made in sack-like fabric, held on by surcingles.

5. The only 4x4s you ever saw were Land Rovers, driven by actual farmers.

6. Only top professional riders owned (or had access to) a lorry.

7. You could ride down country lanes without ever seeing a car.

8. There was no such thing as air jackets. Or body protectors. Or safety standards…

9. The only colour you could buy jodhpurs in was beige. Black was viewed as dangerously exotic.

10. You bought your riding gear by sending off a form cut out of the back of a horse magazine/catalogue, with a postal order.

11. String girths were the norm. (People actually wore string vests too, although not to ride in. What was with the 80s string obsession?)

12. Farriers were always called blacksmiths.

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13. Showjumping seemed as big as football or rugby, regularly shown on TV (back when it only had three channels) and drew huge crowds – David Broome and Harvey Smith were national heroes.

14. Puffa jackets were the height of equestrian fashion. Teamed with a velvet hairband.

For all the latest equestrian news and reports, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday

The birthplace of the Clydesdale is hoping to honour its relationship with the breed by erecting a “magnificent” horse sculpture.

The Lanark Community Development Trust is trying to raise funds for the project, which will celebrate the town’s long history with the heavy horse, which was first bred at a farm just across the river Clyde.

The sculpture will be placed near Lanark Auction Market which hosted Clydesdale horse sales for more than 140 years; although the horses were also sold at Lanark Fair from the mid-1700s.

The breed was developed from Flemish stallions, who were imported to Scotland and crossed with local mares, with the first known use of the name Clydesdale being recorded in 1826.

“The project will advance education by sparking local interest in the Clydesdale horse and Lanark’s agricultural heritage by providing a catalyst for the local community, local schools and visitors the chance to learn more about their heritage and the history of Lanark,” said trust chairman Sylvia Russell.

She added that this would be achieved through an “engaging schools programme, creation of an information leaflet and photographic exhibition” alongside the sculpture.

The trust is seeking financial contributions for the scheme, which is expected to cost £40,000.

“Any contribution or support, financial or otherwise, would be greatly appreciated to secure the success of this project,” Ms Russell added.

Continues below…

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The promotion of Lanark’s relationship with the Clydesdale is one of a number of community projects launched by the trust, which aim to “use the arts to promote and enhance Lanark’s heritage and tourism offering as well as boosting civic pride”.

These include the development of the William Wallace Trail, the Lanark welcome signs, creation of the William Wallace Close and most recently the creation of the Cameronian Memorial Sculpture at the former Winston Barracks.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

Charlotte Dujardin has successfully kicked off her first World Cup campaign since her back-to-back titles with Valegro in 2014 and 2015, by finishing second in the World Cup qualifier in Lyon, France.

At her first ever indoor show, the 10-year-old Mount St John Freestyle posted 83.93% in the kür to slot into second place behind reigning World Cup champion, Germany’s Isabell Werth.

It always looked like Lyon would be a battle between these two riders. Having finished second behind Charlotte in the previous day’s grand prix, Isabell rode the 13-year-old Ehrenpreis gelding to freestyle victory with over 87%, making it the third year in a row this combination have won the Lyon leg of the World Cup tour.

“Welcome back Charlotte!” said Isabell. “It’s good to have the best in the field, and that is also what the public like to see.”

Charlotte and Freestyle were the last combination to go, but some nerves crept into their new “Snow Queen” routine.

“For the first time Freestyle was actually quite nervous,” Charlotte told H&H. “The crowds just in the warm-up arena were about six rows deep. She was very on edge in there and wouldn’t walk.

“In the test I just had to hold her hand a bit, and her nerves came out in a few parts, like the pirouettes, but she tried so hard.

“She’s actually done very little, which is something we all forget sometimes.”

Although she came second, Charlotte picked up the maximum number of points as defending champion Isabell receives a guaranteed place in the World Cup final. Charlotte now plans to compete Freestyle at Olympia, followed by the Amsterdam qualifier in January. The 2020 final takes place in Las Vegas in April.

Continues below…

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British riders also enjoyed success at this weekend’s Oldenburg CDI4* in Germany, with Lara Butler and Laura Tomlinson both finishing in the top five in the grand prix.

Lara rode the 14-year-old Polarion gelding Kristjan to second in the grand prix with plus-72%, followed by third place in the grand prix freestyle, while Laura Tomlinson and Rose Of Bavaria took fifth in the grand prix and third in the special, at the nine-year-old Bordeaux mare’s first ever international.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.

French event rider Thibault Fournier has taken his first steps after waking from a coma following a cross-country fall.

The 24-year-old, who became the youngest winner of Pau CCI4* (now five-star) in 2018, was airlifted to hospital on 13 October after a fall while riding Chactas Chalonges at Pompadour Horse Trials.

The seven-year-old gelding was uninjured.

An update on the French rider’s Facebook page on Saturday (2 November) said he had started walking.

“He can take a few steps and rehabilitation started on Tuesday [29 October],” said a statement.

“All this is very tiring for him but all the caregivers agree that he has an iron will.”

French competitors at this year’s Pau wore orange armbands for the final showjumping phase in honour of their countryman.

“For those of you who ask when can you go and see him, understand that you have to wait,” added the statement.

“After his coma and now with all these exercises, he must rest and sleep a lot — sleep to recover!

“Thanks again for all your kind regards, your words, and all these orange armbands that made him whisper ‘c’est trop gentil’ (it’s too nice).”

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A previous update from Thibault’s mother, Isabelle Fournier-Jouve, on 19 October stated there was a “little glow of hope” as her son had opened his eyes. Four days later, she shared the news that he was no longer on breathing support nor sedated.

The Frenchman has had success across the international circuit, representing France at the 2015 young rider Europeans and taking the runner-up spots at both Chatsworth 2016 and Bramham under-25s in 2018 respectively.

These results and his 2018 Pau victory came aboard the 13-year-old Selle Français gelding Siniani De Lathus.

For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday