Retraining Of Racehorses (RoR) – Scotland’s Claire Halliday and her ex racehorse Bunacurry take overall 5th Place in the British Showjumping 2015 National League

Monday 30 November 2015

The attached photos are from: Aintree (own photo); Morris & SNEC (Sinclair Photography); & The Cabin (Juma Photography).

Claire gives us some history of how far she and her trusty steed have come working together to achieve their fantastic result in the 2015 RoR League taking home the £500 5th place prize:

“I have owned Bunacurry (Geordie) since the day after his last race in November 2011. He was in training with Barry Murtagh (Ivegill, Cumbria) and ran 17 times; 6 Flat, 2 National Hunt bumpers, 6 National Hunt Hurdle and 3 National Hunt Chases, without being placed. He was ridden over fences by Lucy Alexander and unseated her in his second last race - he was 'too careful' for racing, but that is his best asset now he is showjumping.

When he was in training, Geordie was called 'Jaws', he bit the girl who looked after him soon after he arrived at the yard from Doncaster Sales, but I thought he was much too nice to be called Jaws, so I changed it to Geordie (and my mum's family is from Newcastle).

I was kicked in the head by a horse in Sept 2005 and had a very severe brain injury, I had to learn to walk, talk etc again, and was pregnant with my first child at the time, so to achieve this with Geordie when I have ongoing 'cognitive' issues - plus sometimes my brain just does not work and I can't get my body to tell him what I want him to do - really is fantastic. He is so genuine and really tries to help me. I have to admit I was quite emotional when we won at Aintree and when I got the call from Isla at British Showjumping to say we had come 5th in the RoR League.

I am married to a Scottish farmer and have lived on a farm near Thornhill, Drumfriesshire since 1999. I am originally from Ivegill and worked for Barry for a short time after leaving university. They had told me about a year earlier that they had a horse who would be perfect for me if he didn't make it as a racehorse. I didn't think much of it at the time, but as I used to borrow their school regularly to ride my other horse (also an ex racehorse), and a few months later they suggested I should try Geordie one day when I was there. He pinged over a 1m upright giving it a good few feet, making me laugh out loud. Barry was bringing a horse in from the field next to the school and heard me laugh, so called out "you like him, then?!" Geordie was pulled up in his last race a month or so later and I got a phone call to ask if I wanted to buy him - yes, please!

I turned him away for 6 months to relax and lose his racing muscle, then gradually brought him back into work: hacking, flatwork and jumping lessons, building up to hunter trials, a couple of British Eventing 90s, unaffiliated showjumping & dressage. Although he is fabulous to ride cross country (so much scope!), he particularly enjoys showjumping; and with two young children, it was easier to fit in around family. Geordie has had to learn a completely new way of going, showjumping being almost the opposite of how he was taught to jump for racing. We have regular lessons with Susie Gibson - a British Showjumping Coach of the Year, at Greenlands EC, near Carlisle, and I have gone back to my old Pony Club dressage instructor, Gaynor Booth, also near Carlisle, for help with his flatwork. It has been a long, slow, process, but he is starting to feel like a 'riding horse' not a 'racehorse' now and is learning that more leg means more power, not 'go faster with a longer stride'!

The RoR League was a real incentive to join Britih Showjumping and get out jumping as much as we can. I was delighted to come 5th last year after only starting jumping with British Showjumping in March, and to come 5th again this year, when the points totals were higher, was incredible! He had time off from mid February to June 2015 - he had changed shape so much, it was really difficult to find a saddle to fit him and I ended up getting a made to measure saddle for him. He is very short coupled, with high withers and huge shoulders, so we have ended up with a 16.5" Ideal Impala jumping saddle with a 17" seat. After so long off, I was delighted he came back into work really well - maybe the break had given time for all our lessons to sink in. At the start of July I went up to The Cabin EC for the British Novice Regional Final and he jumped really well - clear first round; clear 2nd round and then I let him down by not riding correctly into the first fence of the 3rd round...he stopped....but then I got my act together and he jumped his heart out to clear all the fences in the biggest course we had jumped. Superstar!

As our nearest centres are Muirmill and Morris, both 1.5hrs away, we have to do a lot of travelling to get to shows, so I was amazed we had gained enough points to be in the top six for RoR horses registered with British Showjumping. It is great to know that Geordie is doing so well against other ex racehorses - and I do love it when people ask me at shows how he is bred then look blank when I say he's by 'Best of the Bests'! The RoR League has great prize money and it will allow me to enter more shows next year (as well as buying a 'showjumper' hat!).

Geordie has so much scope, but is not very brave - if in doubt he jumps higher, then frightens himself when he can't make the distances in combinations because he has jumped in too big. So we are spending time doing lots of smaller classes and building it up very gradually as his flatwork develops. I was delighted we qualified for the 95cm and 105cm Amateur Second rounds this year and he is jumping 1.05m double clears happily. We moved up to Newcomers this summer and he was jumping well outdoors, where there is more room, but gets a bit spooky indoors, jumping even higher, so we have come back down to smaller classes again for the indoor shows.

In August, we went to Aintree for the RoR Championship Show and won the RoR Challenge a round of jumps judged on style and performance, followed by an individual show, qualifying for the Final at Royal Windsor in May. So the plan for the winter is to concentrate on flatwork and jumping 'style' over the smaller courses, then work up to bigger classes after Windsor.”

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