Claire Owen Horses

09/02/2024

26/01/2024

Israel, a racehorse still in training having his first go over poles today, in a strange arena too. Very professional getting right on with the job & behaved beautifully! Lift those shoulders Israel 🤩

24/12/2023

Happy Christmas everyone 🥰🎄🎅🏻🥳
And may your New Year be filled with well behaved & sound horses. 🤣🤦‍♀️🤞😏

02/12/2023

So this happened. 🤩😮🤩😍😎
This is Speedy’s half brother. Out of Polly by Grafenstolz. Being ridden by someone who seems to know what they’re doing 🤣🙄🥰🤩

30/11/2023

Riding the lovely Paricolor for David Pipe Racehorse Trainer. Shares still available to join the syndicate 😉
Although bitterly cold. I had some lovely horses to ride out

20/11/2023

Re posting something Brittnee Woodward-Whitehead wrote.

Horses need horsemen. It's that simple. I get asked the same questions over and over again and nobody gets it. What level rider is this horse suitable for? I'll tell you, the best one she can get, the best horseman that's willing to buy her. The horse will only ever be as good as the rider. It doesn't matter if it's trained to jump hoops of fire, you're gonna bring it down to your level in no time. Your kid doesn't need a £15,000 horse if they haven't already had £15,000 worth of lessons. You can't buy a violin that will gift you the skill of playing. It's the same for horses. There is no magic horse, only a love for the animal, and a commitment to learning.

Most of you are so unfair and demanding of the horse you miss the forest for the trees. "I want a horse that rides out alone!!" well guess what, you better be ready to spend a year developing that relationship, that bond, that trust, she's not a bike, you can't buy trust.

"I want a horse that can sit and be the same after time off" well friend, this is a commitment to a relationship, not a classic car you take out of the garage twice a year. You can't buy what your looking for.

"I want a horse my kids can ride" you better be ready to teach your kids how to be horseman, because if the horse has to do it, you'll likely see the inside of an ambulance, or a morgue.

You can't buy trust, you cannot buy what comes with building a relationship with an animal over years of dedication.

28/10/2023

28/10/2023

Chenko at Kings Sedgemoor in the BN.

14/10/2023

Super successful day. 🤗 Took Speedy to Chard for the amateur second rounds, top 8 to qualify for Aintree. She jumped a fab double clear for 5th place. Most importantly she was beautifully behaved 100% of the time!!
Also my little Bash ran a blinder in the Cesarewitch to finished 4th 🏇🏻
🥰🥰🥰

10/10/2023

Former SEIB Racehorse to Riding Horse champion Minella Rebellion returned to the HOYS stage two years later to be crowned riding horse supreme

08/10/2023

When you’ve got one that’s going to be difficult to sell, being not only a TB, but an ex-racehorse too (and everyone knows how flighty and unpredictable they are) it’s time to bring in the professionals 😎
Meet Lydia, aged 10 and very useful for proving a point 😜🤣🤩🥰 (bit of a change from her 12.2hh pony).

03/10/2023

Chenko likes his stable

18/09/2023

Riding ‘Lock Out’ at David Pipe Racehorse Trainer during .
Photo thanks to Chris Lawson

17/09/2023

Day 3 sees Chenko in the money again ⭐️⭐️
Big classes every day, double clears every day, and placed every day. Can’t ask for more than that. With a 4th again today. He’s behaved perfectly all weekend.
Speedy made more progress today. We managed to canter to two practice fences today (progress from the walk on Friday and trot on Saturday 🤣🤦‍♀️) producing a pleasing round, all be it with a silly one down.
A successful weekend leaving money in the account for next time! Thank you Chenko 🥰
Journey home back across the bridge fuelled by fresh donuts 🥳
Thank you for all your help Livvy! Couldn’t do it without you!!! 🙏🙏🙏

16/09/2023

Day 2 and Chenko gets the gold star again ⭐️ he also gets his first mounted prize giving for coming 4th (of 45 starting the class). He’s such a sweet easy boy and he’s thoroughly enjoying this whole experience 🥰
Madam made some kind of progress today. We kept out of the warm-up arena for as long as possible. Had a walk/trot/canter on both reins on a grassy area outside, with only one bronc/spin/bronc moment. With 6 to go we risked a walk over a few cross-poles and the a few small uprights then went straight in. Although today she had a silly one down, the round was a better one. Playing a long slow game with this one.
Just a shame I need to advertise my comfort blanket aka Chenko. 😢

15/09/2023

Day 1 done and it’s Chenko who gets the gold star ⭐️. He only just missed out on his first mounted prize giving, finishing 8th out of a field of 49, prizes went down to 6th 😏 but super pleased with him. He really enjoyed himself. Hopefully that gave him the confidence boost he needed.
The less said about baggage the better. She managed a double clear as well! Which I have to be pleased with 😊. But her antics in the warm-up have kept her out of favour. Broncing, napping and crashing into things due to total loss of steering, so only walking to practice jumps as that’s the safest pace to be in with her, was not my idea of fun.
One day I’ll work her out 🤞🤷‍♀️🙏🙄

15/09/2023

Stay-away show time again 🤗. Speedy and Chenko all packed up and settled into their stables at Wales & West for the end of season derby show.

Fingers crossed the weather stays kind 🤞🙏🥂

12/09/2023

Leading up a slightly fresh Paricolour for National Racehorse Week. Sadly the photographer didn’t get him at his full height as he was too busy retreating to a safe distance 🤣

29/07/2023

Cooling myths are harming our dogs and we HAVE to counter them

In a recent Vet Compass study less than a quarter of dogs with heat stroke were given any sort of cooling treatment before they were taken to the vet and only 24% of those were cooled with the recommended methods of cold water immersion or soaking and a fan.

And of them only 10% needed any further cooling by the vet by the time they got there, which shows just how effective it is.

But for more than half of the dogs whose owners did try to cool them, outdated methods like water soaked towels were used.

And there has been NO increase in the use of the recommended methods in the last three years, despite this advice being in the public domain since at least 2016.

The insidious messaging that cold or ice water is dangerous and cooling must be slow and steady is seriously harming dogs

The advice is very clear;

🥵 Cool before transport - getting your dog to the vet is important but starting the cooling process before you travel will bring their temperature down as soon and as fast as possible, which is what will make the biggest difference to their survival.

🥵 Cold water immersion is safe for young healthy dogs and the recommended method for cooling them down. For older or ill dogs, use evaporative cooling (get them wet and in a breeze).

🥵 Ice and cold water are safe. Any water is better than non but don't be afraid of using really cold temperatures

🥵 And thick coats do NOT keep them cool!

Read the summary of these findings from the Hot Dogs - canine heatstroke education for dog owners team here;
https://heatstroke.dog/2023/07/20/myth-busting-cooling-hot-dogs/

The summary from the Vet Compass team;
https://www.rvc.ac.uk/vetcompass/news/the-rvc-urges-owners-of-hot-dogs-to-cool-first-transport-second

The published study;
https://www.mdpi.com/2306-7381/10/7/465

26/07/2023

Hi everyone 👋 Meet Chenko. He’s 16hh, 9yrs old chestnut gelding. He’s looking for someone who likes a slower pace of life, because although ge can boast being ROR eligible (he was in training with none other than Nicky Henderson) he’d really rather take life on the laid back side. He’d love someone interested in prelim dressage or showing (he loves a bit of posh trotting) and if you give him some extra oats he might drum up enough energy to propel himself round a small ODE. He’s been XC schooling. Jumped up to BN level BS, and also been placed at his one and only dressage competition. He’d also be very happy being a happy hacker. Currently barefoot (as I’m SJing on a budget). Near Tiverton Devon (10mins from J27 of the M5, very easy to get to) 6 🥕

18/06/2023

Day 3 of the at the and I’m calling it a huge success after the loss of confidence from yesterday. She tried really hard and jumped a fab clear round putting in a supreme amount of effort, because of this I decided to withdraw from the jump-off and from our last class. Ending on a good positive note. She’s learnt so much! Holliday time for her now 🥰🏖️

18/06/2023

Day 2 of the at the and we had two classes today. On paper a successful one with a steady placing us 15th out of 55 starters. However it wasn’t a confident round and when we went back into the same ring for our second class things had gone further down hill. Run as A7, but still with 12 fences to jump in the first round, she only had 1 down, but I pulled up after fence 9, as the last line of 10, 11, 12 was really tricky and things weren’t going to magically improve by jumping them. So we went back into the warm-up for a play over a tiny fence. 🤞🤞🤞 we’ve managed to put things right for day 3.. pasta salad and pimms for super followed by live music 👌🤩😎🥂👍

17/06/2023

Speedy at her first stay-away show. Few pics from yesterday (day 1), 1 down due to steering issues. But really pleased with with how she’s taking in all the atmosphere! Grown up pony!! Onwards to day 2.

04/06/2023

Speedy in the BN at Kingsedgemoor Equestrian. I think she’s finally turned a corner (literally, we can now turn woohoo 🤣). Still very green, but that’s aloud! One down which was my fault for seeing a duff stride, but in my defence I was too busy wondering what someone was doing stood in front of the fence I was about to jump, rather than riding the turn properly. Need to keep my mind on the job rather than let it wander 🤦‍♀️😏
So pleased with her though! Onwards and upwards.

13/05/2023

Today was a huge success. Even though we had in every round. They’re both only very green and came on leaps and bounds today. Both of them starting to work out what this SJing game is all about! Really pleased with them. And a little bit pleased with myself too. I’ve been riding like a middle aged sack of spuds (with good reason I know) but today I felt a tiny bit of the old me. So lots to take as positives for the next time! 😎🤩🥳
Useless pictures as mum was too far away. But you get the idea…
also

12/05/2023

Having a little jump at home before show on Saturday. They’re like chalk and cheese these two. One so quiet, easy and sensible. The other very sharp, unpredictable and opinionated!



For those who don’t know, the racehorse is the quiet, easy one. The WB is the sharp, unpredictable one 😏