Posted on May 3, 2019 in Articles

Anyone Can Whistle – The ex racehorse who has turned his hoof to most things!

In 2012, my husband Martin & I got married & decided to extend our fur family by getting a horse to share together. We went looking for a middle weight hunter type but spotted the exact opposite on a For Sale Website & couldn’t resist having a look. Zippy (aka Anyone Can Whistle) was advertised as a 17hh (actually only 16.1hh at the time) 9 year old Chestnut Ex Racehorse Gelding & he soon became part of our family.

After a short racing career of 10 races, as he wasn’t quick enough, Zippy ended up getting passed through a number of different homes. When Zippy arrived with us we struggled with a number of physical & behavioural issues that we had to address. Once the physical issues were sorted his behaviour changed but still to this day we have to deal with his severe separation anxiety which we believe stems from his many homes. Zippy was also lacking a lot of weight, muscle tone & topline muscle so we gradually began feeding him up on 4 x small feeds a day. He went from around 500kg to just under 6ookg in the first year & put on enough topline muscle that he now stands at 16.3hh.

We quickly found out that Zippy hadn’t had much basic schooling & so we started him from scratch again. We began with some basic lunging & long reining to build up some muscle but also to help start creating a bond. From this we were able to see that he had quite nice paces & so we started some basic schooling with the focus of an Intro Dressage test a few months later. Neither Zippy nor I had ever done any dressage before so I thought we could learn together! At the competition we had no expectations apart from to see how Zips behaved & not only was he a star but we won our first ever Dressage test together! We then spent the rest of the year going to local showing shows & unaffiliated dressage competitions always coming home with ribbons.

Zippy seemed to really enjoy the Showing Shows & was doing rather well in a variety of classes so we spent the next few years concentrating on those. We did some local level Riding Horse, Ex Racehorse & Sports horse classes & he was always in the top few places. At one show they were holding Qualifiers for The Sunshine Tour Showing Finals at Hickstead. Zippy was lucky enough to qualify in both the Inhand & Ridden sections so off to Hickstead we went. This was the biggest event that we’d been to & it was incredibly busy but Zippy was a complete legend. We just went for the experience of competing at such a prestigious venue but somehow managed to claim both the Champion Inhand Thoroughbred & Reserve Champion Ridden Thoroughbred titles!! We’d also been doing a bit of jumping & had tried a few Working Hunter classes too with Zips winning a class on his second attempt.

We then registered Zippy with Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) which now meant we could step it up a gear & have a go at some County shows. Royal Bath & West was our first ever County show & Zippy managed to come 5^th in his RoR class even with the Inter Hunt Relay Teams competing at full pelt in the next ring, fairground rides & a brass band striking up right next to him! Since then we’ve competed at a number of County Shows over the years always coming home in the ribbons. RoR has been a major part of our journey together as we regularly attend clinics that they put on & also go to their annual training camp exclusively for ex racehorses. Once a year RoR hold their National Championships at Aintree Race course & Zippy has been lucky enough to qualify every year that we’ve entered & has come back from the Nationals with rosettes too!

It’s not all been plain sailing as Zippy has had his fair share of injuries & illnesses over the years. In 2016 he had recurrent airway & sinus issues that resulted in surgery to remove two necrotic sections from his nasal & sinus cavities. Then in 2017 Zippy had a freak field accident that left a 10” hole through his chest wall, thankfully now all recovered. He’s also had choke, colic, gastric ulcers, cellulitis, random infections & needs regular physio treatments to keep everything working. At one point we did nickname him sick note!

We like to keep Zippy’s life interesting & are constantly trying different things with him to keep him entertained. We’ve been to the beach, had a go at horse agility, have done a Hunter Trial, ride bareback & bridleless, played with dressage to music, been invited to take part in a race course parade at a race meeting, show jumped, we play with trick training, have taken part in a long distance ride, have done some Concours D’ Elegance classes, enjoy classical groundwork & have had a go at Affiliated Dressage winning our first ever class at Elementary level.

We’re currently concentrating on our Dressage as Zippy has a natural talent for it & seems to really love it. Last year we even went to the Senior Showing & Dressage National Championships (SSADL) for senior horses & came home with the SSADL National Elementary Champions title. At present we’re working on our floorplan & music for our Elementary Freestyle to Music performance which we hope to take out in public very soon!

Zippy’s 16^th Birthday has just passed & I can’t wait to see what other adventures we get up to in his senior years!