Equestrian

The BV magazine, January ‘23

EQUESTRIAN

Mud, foals, coats and dreams

Honeysuckle’s yearling niece sired by Nathaniel, foaled 8th April 2022, off to the the foal sales end of January. It’s a tough life! Image: Hollie Rhodes

It’s been a slog through the worst of the winter at The Glanvilles Stud, but Lucy Procter is excited to see the results of all the hard work starting to shine

August disappeared in a swelter of dust, heat and flies. The following months disappeared in a steadily spirit-sapping mixture of storm and freeze, punctuated by the occasional dry hours or days which afforded some blessed relief from the drudgery of constantly being very wet or very cold. Or both. Back in the summer the horses were having to cope with the extreme heat but come the autumn and it has been the endless rain and consequent mud that has been the challenge. The majority of the broodmares have been stabled at night since November, going out into the allweather sand turnout during the day. A few are going out singly or in pairs into the dryer fields for a couple of hours and some of the youngsters are now in a barn; they won’t go out again until the ground dries up in the spring. Having grown thick, woolly, grease-filled coats, all the horses have their own natural protection from the elements. However, some of the broodmares are more susceptible to rainscald (constantly wet coats can lead to a skin infection which causes scabs to form in places along the horse’s neck and back), so we do rug any mares we’re concerned about when it’s wet during the day. Others cope just fine and are left unrugged.

However, youngstock are left without rugs all the time. Young horses are just like children: they play, they investigate, they chew. Put rugs on them and they might get tangled in each other’s rugs whilst playing. Or they might pull them off each other and, again, get tangled. Or they might just chew them and rip them to shreds! When there’s a storm, it’s actually the wind that makes them feel really cold, so it’s best to let their natural coats protect them from the rain and instead to ensure they are in fields with hedges that can protect them from the worst of the wind.

GTS own-brand racehorses

We are currently prepping three of last year’s foals for the Doncaster National Hunt Foal sale at the end of January. Technically they all turned one and became yearlings on the 1st of January, but for the purposes of the January sales ring, they are still referred to as foals. These three have been stabled at night and walked in-hand for half an hour every day on their way to their day turnout field throughout December. We walk them to make sure they are fit enough to cope with the sales, when they will be brought out of their stables and walked infront of prospective purchasers a number of times during the day. It is important that they are fit enough to walk as well for the last viewing of the day as they did for the first. We are also training four homebred young racehorses here at the stud. Two of these are due to go to trainers very soon to do their last few weeks in a licenced yard before they run. Our son Freddie has been busy schooling our Monmartre four-yearold and he is loving his jumping – see video – so we are excited for his hurdling debut in a month or so. The third is a three year old out of Honeysuckle’s sister, sired by Motivator, that we re-backed in early January and is now happily hacking out. She will shortly go to a trainer for a couple of months work before returning here for a break with a view to running next autumn. The fourth we plan to keep training and run her in point-to-points, but she is There have to be some rewards for a winter of slogging through mud Image: Lucy Procter

just coming back into work after an injury and is unlikely to be fit enough to race before April.

Happy mares

Foaling is just around the corner, with the first three mares due in early February. Two of these are ‘bagging up’ already (udders beginning to fill with milk), and we will once again be sitting up watching them on the cameras overnight very soon. The rest of the mares are happy with glistening coats and fat with foal. We are looking forward to seeing the foals that last year’s mating plans have produced – it’s the time of year when we can all dream. And it’s the dreams that get us through having to be outside all day in this hideous weather. We all need a dream to get us out of bed in the morning!

On a rare sunny day – the happy mares with glistening coats and fat with foal are out in the all-weather sand turnout for a few hours

Toots Bartlett’s head groom Eve reflects on joining an eventing team and enjoying the quiet season to get ahead on much-needed yard work

I’m Eve – I started working for TB Eventing in May 2022. Despite having always worked within the equestrian industry covering different disciplines, I have never been head groom in an eventing yard before, so I am quickly learning the different responsibilities. I am so enjoying discovering the range of skills necessary in both horse and rider to take part competitively across the triathlon of dressage, showjumping and cross-country. It makes for a varied and fascinating skill set and I’ll admit i do love organisation, so I have really enjoyed stepping up to the challenge!

A frosty morning’s work with beautiful Charlie

No-plait season

One of the perks of a seasonal eventing cycle is the lack of plaiting over winter! As much as this is one of my favourite things to do, and still necessary for winter dressage competitions, the chilly weather undoubtedly makes it far more difficult with frozen fingers.

Perfect Charlie

Toots’ horses enjoyed a holiday at her family home where the grazing (much to the horses’ delight) was well rested and plentiful. The useful downtime at the end of the season then gave us a perfect opportunity to get the stables at Fox-Pitt Eventing emptied, power-washed, disinfected and painted. All the much-needed maintenance work is finished, so they are fresh for the new season. While the majority of the horses were on holiday it gave us time to concentrate on one of my favourite horses, Charlie, who sadly is being prepared for sale in the spring. He has been competing in dressage and showjumping, winning almost every time out at Elementary level and he has an incredible technique over a fence. I genuinely wish I could buy him myself – he will make someone the perfect horse. He is utterly beautiful. December saw all the horses coming back into work. A gradual strength and conditioning programme was introduced for each horse to bring it back to full fitness over a period of approximately 12 weeks.

Team TB

Erin, our new member of staff, is getting on really well and fits in brilliantly with the team dynamic. We are also extremely fortunate to have help from Donna Hills, who was Paul Nicholls’ travelling head groom for 25 years. Personally, I am benefiting hugely from her experience of travelling with horses. Extra help on the ground gives us more time for more horses. We have consequently been on the search for a couple of fourlegged projects to join the team. After several failed vettings and other frustrations, we hope to be introducing you to two new faces next month. The season concluded with all of us at TB excitedly watching Kazuma Tomoto compete at the final 5* in Pau, France. Kazuma is stabled next to Toots and it gives the whole team huge inspiration to aim high for the competitive months this year.