The Story Of Last Three Minutes an Ex Racer who has turned his hand to Eventing
‘Last Three Minutes’ (Leo) was aptly named in memory of Manchester United and the 1999 champions league final triumph over Bayern Munich. He was bought in 2006 as a yearling at Tattersalls auctions by ‘Sir Alex Ferguson and Associates’ with an aim to excel in racing. He then made the journey to Ed Dunlop’s racing yard in New Market and then later moved to Sir Michael Stoute’s yard. He won and was placed a few times in the 13 runs of his racing career. Unfortunately due to injury and a suspected fracture in the foot Leo’s racing days came to an end and he found himself in a moment of uncertainty as due to the number of horses leaving the racing industry the charities are inundated. Leo was fortunate enough to find a home at a newly formed charity to which he was took in and given two years of caring along with a relaxed atmosphere allowing rehabilitation. Although they aimed to re-home him, Leo came with some challenges that would not be suited to the everyday rider. Originally I went to assist with the training of Leo but immediately fell in love with him and felt that he had a lot to offer and that Eventing may suit him.
I myself work with horses of a difficult nature as I find it so rewarding. I have been around horses all my life but only started to seriously compete at Eventing 10 years ago. I have been working professionally with horses now for a number of years and compete regularly at British Eventing. Leo is my give back to charity as I felt I had the knowledge and expertise to re-train him. I believe in using ‘natural techniques’ and working at one with the horse’s nature in order to influence their thought processes and ultimately resolve the issues causing the distress.
My job with Leo is to see what his potential is and if he can be taught enough to provide a safe and secure future for him by giving him a new lease of life as a sports horse and a promising career in eventing. In order for Leo to be completely re-trained from an unsocialable racehorse to a sociable eventer is no easy task and requires a lot of time and patience. Re-training a horse from flat racing tends to be more difficult as they have been broken in as yearlings so they have to mature very quickly, which can have tremendous mental impact later in life.
As Leo was extremely unsociable and difficult to handle I started by gaining his trust by using ‘join-up’ and teaching him basic manners on the ground both in and out of the stable. The key here is no to do too much in one go and to use firm but fair clear aids. We then moved on to lunging him and teaching him voice commands – needless to say this was not the easiest thing to do however with a little time and patience we got the desired result, a relaxed horses working obediently. As with most ex-racehorses teaching them to stand whilst being mounted can be a complex task, with Leo this was done using a reward system with treats. The ridden work began with teaching him basic education of walk, trot, canter whilst staying relaxed and forward into the contact, as Leo had mainly raced to the left he didn’t understand right lead canter this again was done using small circles asking for the correct lead strike off. Once his flatwork was consistent we then took Leo for an outing to a quiet local dressage show and entered a very simple test as to not exert too much pressure on to him, this paid off as he won with 72%!. We then started to add in pole work to his training sessions and built up slowly to some basic grid work. After he mastered some jumping we set up a small course and slowly added in different fillers introducing him to as many things as possible i.e. water trays, planks and gates with this we gave him lots of encouragement and rewards as he was originally quite fearful of poles and the ‘scary fillers’ so again we kept the fences as basic as we could so as not to frighten him but to build his trust in me as a rider. We then hired venues to teach him
about going away from home and jumping and to see more types of fences. At this point Leo’s trust in me had grown immensely and he jumped everything we asked with no questions. We then entered him into his first unaffiliated jumping show into the small classes and he again jumped his way to 4th place. We then started to introduce cross country fences both simulated at home and by using a farm ride. We did not use another horses for him to follow as with eventing the trust has to come from the rider to the horse but again we used a reward scheme. We are lucky to have Somerford Park in travelling distance which have amazing facilities and the farm ride I find is perfect for the young or ‘green’ horses as there is plenty of fences and is a pleasant hack so again making it ‘fun’ learning for Leo and by the end of the ride Leo had certainly got the idea!!
When Leo started to make the farm ride feel easy we knew it was time to enter his first event. We made sure he went to his first event alone so as to have my full attention. Leo successfully completed his first Event a BE80T and stayed reasonably calm although the tannoy on the cross country worried him when standing on the lorry. We got Leo off the box and just gave him some time to take in the surroundings again staying very quiet but confident with him and this settled him.
We then gave Leo a well earned rest as it was a lot to take in we also had quite a bit of work to do on Leo’s feet so this took some of the 2015 season away from us however Leo has successfully completed another BE80 this season and has plenty more events planned. So please keep your eye out for him and give him your support!!
I would like to thank all our sponsors: Ashfield Fencing, Green Mile Animal and Equine Bedding, Galloping geldings, Bequestrian, Wolds Exclusive Bling and Elite Equine NZ in the UK for their support in this venture and for keeping us looking tip top at the events. I would also like to thank Top Spec feeds as they have really helped improve Leo with his condition and of course I would like to thank My Mum and all those who have helped in the care and training of this little horse!
On reflection it just shows with a little bit of time and patience horses with the most difficult of issues can turn the corner and this one certainly has, he is so much more social and friendly and is learning to accept affection. Please if you are looking for an eventer do not by pass the ex racers they can make superb little horses they may need more time but they are a joy to work with (most of the time!!) and it will feel so much more rewarding that you have given the horse another shot in life ! They are incredibly intelligent and learn very quickly (the good and the bad!) it may not mean a lot to you but for that one horse that you give the opportunity to I can assure you it means a lot!
Please feel free to follow him on his facebook page or via the link below
wrote by Lisa Smith Eventing
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