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Breaking the Mould 

In the past few weeks there has been a lot of talk circulating social media pages about horses needing to be a specific type to do a particular job. With a string of unconventional eventers which have made me into the rider I am today, I am totally in favour of horses that break the mould. It is always very frustrating when people tell you that your horse can’t do a job because he/she is ‘too’ something and hopefully this blog will inspire people to never give up on dreams just because your horse isn’t the perfect stamp!! After all what even is the perfect stamp of a horse?! I guess this can mean different things to different people but to me it is a horse that is brave, one whose face lights up when doing its job and is trainable. I am not too bothered about breeding or looks (as after all, what use is a unicorn-esque horse who is scared of its own shadow!) But SO many people are so hung up on the vital statistics and rule horses out of particular jobs because they don’t meet the criteria. Where there are obviously lots of examples of well-bred horses who have climbed the ranks, you never hear about the well bred horses who haven’t and the horses that aren’t well bred that aren’t given that fighting chance to become something special. 

My best ever horse would be a riding club horse if that on paper (he is 15hh, has a scar on his leg, boxy feet, is an Anglo Arab and has parents that no one has ever heard of – even google which is saying something). He is called The Little Frenchman and has a heart like no other animal I have ever known. What makes him special is not his breeding, his looks or his flashiness. It is his bravery and total trust in his own ability (some would say downright cockiness!) His love of his job and of his humans. His clever brain which enables him to jump fences which he can’t see over and his stamina. This little horse has jumped double clear at 3* level and clear at Advanced, he is a total hero! He doesn’t know he isn’t bred like the other horses that he is competing against, or that he is at least a hand smaller and he has never been treated by us as if he is. He is lucky that along the way people have (mostly) believed in him….and believe me if you saw his lack of grace over a cross pole you would laugh. We have had people say that he is ‘too’ everything under the sun to get to the top level of British Eventing, but the best bit of advice I have ever received is to ignore them and prove them wrong. The Little Frenchman jumping clear around his first Advanced last year was the proudest moment of my riding career so far as we proved that we deserved to be there fair and square. He is proof that you should never right off a dream just because you are breaking the mould and has definitely changed my way of thinking about eventing for good! 

My young horse we refer to as our ‘sports cob’. He is 15.1hh, incredibly hairy and odd to look at without a saddle on! Theo is a beautiful dun and has a jump like no other horse I have ever sat on (he is the closest I have ever got to The Little Frenchman in terms of talent). He doesn’t look like an event ‘stamp’, but he isn’t half brave and I am really excited about him! From learning to jump last year he has now gone double clear at 100 and is nearly ready to step up. Another example of a horse who you would walk straight past without a saddle on, but we believe in him and I have every hope that he will go very very far.

I am definitely a firm believer that when you buy or bring on a horse you have to cast breeding and looks aside and ask yourself a few questions. Do they LOVE their job? Are they brave? Do they make you smile? If so, then go for it…….no dream is too big. Surround yourself with people that believe in you and your horse and the world is your oyster!