Meet Bateau Bay (AKA Belle)

When Corrie passed over rainbow bridge back in January, a huge hole was left in me, Corrie had been one of my horses of a lifetime, and the thought of "replacing" her was a none starter. 

I continued to ride clients horses and had a great time doing so, but there was something missing, I wanted to ride for "me" and my goals, not just clients goals, so one evening I randomly sent a message to Pippa Kirby at Kirby Racing, asking if they were looking to home any racehorses, now, I admit I may have been "influenced by wine" at the time of sending, however it turned out to be a good influence!! 

Pippa replied saying they had a lovely gelding who had been out on loan but had returned, she sent me the pics etc and I had contact with the previous loan person, I agreed to go and meet him. Now I had already told myself to "behave" and be sensible, but when I saw him he was divine. A strapping big 17hh lad who was a gentle as a kitten, but when he was ridden for me he was lame. He had recently had his shoes off so thought he might be foot sore, so agreed to come back a week later, which I did, but no change. I was gutted, but hey ho, it wasn't meant to be. 

On the back of this I asked Pippa if she had or knew of anything else coming available, to which she said there was a bay mare who had just been turned away after not really enjoying her racing, but Pippa said she wasn't "dressage" material. Well I though let me be the judge of that, and immediately agreed to meet her. 

The first view of her was in a herd at the back minding her own business, but wow she was stunning. She had been turned away for about a month, so Pippa agreed that she would be brought in and ridden to access her again. I revisited about 10 days later and rode her, "not dressage material my ***!" this was a raw untrained (for anything other than racing)  young horse who oozed potential. She was special indeed. 

She was stabled for a few weeks and I went to ride her as much as I could in that time, before she came home. Not once in those weeks of being fed a high racing diet, stabled 24/7, did she flinch at anything that was asked of her, a true genuine sweet mare.

Saturday 5th July 2024 Belle was delivered by Pippa's transport lady. 

From day 1 she settled in beautifully. Following on from day 1 we have done lots of things, showjumping, cross country, flat training, hacking, lunging and in hand work. Belle has shown an immense talent for everything and learns rapidly, but even though a horse like this would be out and about at shows by now with someone else, I want to do things properly and gradually, laying firm foundations for the future, she is only 5 and she should have a long career ahead, so her work is varied, kept at a level her body can cope with and brain can process. 

We have however done our very first trip out, we hired a box and went for our first dressage lesson with my friend Vikki Hayton at Holmside Hall on 2nd October, which was, eventful. Belle has one of the kindest and genuine personalities you could wish for, but even though she loaded and travelled perfectly, she came off the box looking for the race course, very upset, very stressed, tacking up was interesting to say the least! I was flying solo so the transport man Michael was doing his best to help and even asked if I was "getting on that?" but I knew Belle would be fine once she understood she wasn't racing, so we walked round the indoor school where she saw mirrors, banners, etc and did stand long enough for me to mount. 

Once going, yes she was "hot" but her kindness shone through and we managed all the work we do at home, walk, trot, canter, halt, leg yields etc, not to the extent we can do at home, but she held it together and tried her heart out. Vikki was very impressed with her and also believes she has an exciting future.

On return home she was exhausted, the 3 hours we had taken out the day had done her in, mentally. It was sad but encouraging at the same time, sad because the stress she had due to thinking she was going racing was awful to see, but encouraging that she still tried for me. 

You never know what you will get from an ex racer, they are such an incredible breed, but without trying things, you do not know. This one event showed me so much, more than you could ever imagine if you knew her at home, but it gives me a foundation to work from. So the current plan is to take her out to local venues for arena hires and just keep everything low key until she realises her racing days are over forever.

I am very excited about the future for Belle, but there is no hurry to "prove" anything with her, a talent like hers needs nurturing, and that we shall do. 

Phillipa and Wiggins last wrote about the upcoming summer months and the goals ahead of them, lets see what happened....

Blog 2 – Buckle up! It’s going to be a bumpy ride…

Last time I wrote, it was the beginning of June. We had just competed at the RoR regional champs. The summer had got off to a good start and we were riding on the crest of a wave…but not for long.

After riding one morning, I turned Wiggins out and gave him his breakfast. I noticed that he couldn’t seem to get his head down to his bucket. I held the bucket up for him and he ate fine. I gave him a good check over but couldn’t see anything so I thought he might have pulled a muscle or something. Anyway, by the afternoon he was able to graze so I didn’t think much of it. A few days later, a lump appeared under his throat. After a week or so, the lump became an abscess and then it was panic stations. I had been taking his temperature, watching for discharge, listening for a cough…nothing. I took the precaution of isolating him just in case, but was pretty sure it wasn’t strangles. That was until the vet came. It’s fair to say she didn’t fill me with hope. The yard went into lockdown and Wiggins was isolated. I was beside myself. Not only to think that Wiggins might be really ill, but if anything happened to anyone else’s horse, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself. After what seemed like an eternity, the tests came back clear and the lump started to heal. No idea what it was, but that was June gone.

We had lost a whole month, but it seemed we were back on an even keel, and as a bonus I found out we had qualified for the RoR National Championships at Aintree. I was so excited to be given the opportunity to ride at the home of the Grand National! We got back out competing and at our first competition after his time off, Wiggins won both his section and his class. I was so proud of him! But again, our elation didn’t last long…

A new horse arrived at the yard at the beginning of August and caused a bit of a stir. Wiggins started pawing at the ground really aggressively. He did it so badly that I brought him in one day and he had worn the front of his shoe away and the clip had gone into his hoof. An emergency visit from the farrier and we seemed to have had a lucky escape. However, a couple of days later he went really lame. Cue more time off. After a couple of weeks, he seemed fine so I decided to have a little ride. It was quickly apparent that he wasn’t fine. I had booked him in for a gastroscopy clinic, so I asked the vet to have a look at him while he was there – he seemed sound (and he didn’t have ulcers!) so they suggested just giving him some more time off. Anyway, things didn’t improve. We missed the BD area festivals. Then we missed the RoR National Champs, so I arranged for nerve blocks and x-rays to be done. THEN! The day before the vet was due, I noticed a splint had popped on his front leg – the one he had been lame on. It was like a lightbulb moment. Sharon and I couldn’t believe we hadn’t thought of that before. So, over the last couple of weeks, he has slowly started coming back into work. Dare I say it, but we seem to be on the up again. Let’s see how long it lasts this time, especially with winter on the horizon!

Poor Phillipa and Wiggins, it has been a rough ride for sure, but on the positive side, Wiggins has returned to work in a positive way and dare we say it, so far so good!