What makes a successful training yard?
You need good horses, good owners and good staff. Owners deserve an awful lot of credit – they’re the backbone of everything. You do need very happy horses as, if they’re not happy, they won’t perform on the track.
You need very happy staff as the horses have to be in an environment that they enjoy. There’s no doubt happy staff make happy horses ‐ it rubs off on everything and everyone.
Do any of your horses have interesting quirks or habits? And how do you tailor your training to accommodate the different traits and personalities of your horses?
You can have every different type or personality that you would find in a schoolroom. We’re very similar to teachers. The horses develop at different times, they have different traits and different mannerisms. None of them are the same and none of them act the same.
Horses all come from different backgrounds and different parents so it’s exactly like being a headmaster. It’s nature or nurture. They all respond different to training and you’ve just got to work it out as you go along.
There’s no easy answer, it’s about learning about each horse to get the best out of them.