Glenrose Stables

29/03/2025

NEIL’S HORSE TRAINING HISTORY
By Christine Davies

I’ve known Neil since he was twenty and shared his love of horses for all those years.

While I rode my nicely trained (by Neil) horse five or six days each week, Neil rode at least eight or nine ‘outside’ horses that came to our stables for training and then he rode four or five of his own campdraft horses.

Day after day, month after month, year in year out.

Horse-wise, what he hasn’t seen and dealt with isn’t worth talking about.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen Neil bitten, kicked, struck, trodden on, knocked down and run over by this horse or that horse.

And don’t start me on some of the terrified, badly-handled horses that he’s had to ride while they leaped, bounded, kicked-up, bucked, reared and bolted.

I’ve watched him start hundreds of over-fed, agitated, beautifully bred thoroughbred youngsters under saddle.

Sometimes there’d be a grass-stained shirt in the laundry, where a young horse had fallen with him.

If I asked Neil what happened, he always said it wasn’t worth mentioning. He’s certainly learned what he knows by years and years of hands-on experience.

During his lifetime of working with horses, I believe the biggest thing that Neil has learned is to blame himself and to keep his temper, in every training situation.

He doesn’t blame any horse when things go wrong. He doesn’t shout or punish any horse or say that they’re mad or bad.

He deals with every horse training situation in the same way –he teaches every horse to be relaxed and confident with humans.

And the weird thing is, after a few lessons, all the horses start to look the same.

The littlest foal through to the oldest, most terrified, beaten-up horse all learn to enjoy having their head rubbed and learn to keep their head with Neil.

It’s always wonderful to watch when each horse comes to understand that they have something consistent and comforting to rely on in every situation.

Cute little foals look even cuter with their head cuddled confidently on Neil but it’s really, really brilliant to watch an older, frightened horse discover the same safe place where he can finally relax and know some kindness.

www.fearfreehorsetraining.com

02/02/2025

29/01/2025

With Rich Hill Stud – I just got recognised as one of their top fans! 🎉

29/01/2025

With Cambridge Stud – I just got recognised as one of their top fans! 🎉

29/01/2025

With New Zealand Bloodstock – I just got recognised as one of their top fans! 🎉

29/01/2025

I have had a lot of interest regarding training. The main question that I have been asked is how have we managed to hold our price for training at a low level. Well thats an easy answer, we produce most of our own horse feed on farm. We usually make 700 bales of meadow hay as you can see in the photo, we pass the savings onto our owners and reduce the daily rate. Oats and other feeds come from a client down the road, cutting out the middle man typically clipping the ticket. A win-win,

25/01/2025

Our farm was purpose built for horses, as you can see we have a truck roundabout for loading and unloading horses with its own access road. So safe and secure and a well fenced farm. For prospective owners inspection is welcome by appointment.

25/01/2025

Here is a training report from a training session at the Riccarton track a few years ago. We have recorded the fast training sessions since 1987 and have mapped most South Island training tracks making training a breeze when you know how fit and fast your horse is, and how well they respond and recover from each session. This horse was not a champion but was still able to win several trials and get Raceday placed, best 1200 metres was 1:07:41 . Compare this with other training reports from your or other trainers and you can see the potential for improvement and success with your horse.
Give us a call (027) 441 6100 any time.

25/01/2025

23/01/2025

220 Pages and more than 300 Colour Photographs. Step-by-step instruction for everything you've ever dreamed of being able to do with your horse. Free Shipping to anywhere in the world.

22/01/2025

For pre-training and full training rates give us a call. The general daily rate is $50 plus gst per day on the days that the horses are working, days off, rest days or Sundays the rates are $35 plus gst per day. So the savings for you the owners can be quite reasonable compared to paying a level set fee of up to $70 to $100 every day to other trainers. We make our own hay and buy our horses feed locally so the savings can be passed on. First weeks training is free so we can get to know your horse and it’s needs. These rates are outlined in our trainers agreement along with shoeing/ plating at $75, trace minerals and electrolytes are free of charge, any extra individual vitamins and supplements required on a horse by horse basis will be charged or you can supply what is required. Remember, we have been training horses for over 30 years so we don’t experiment at your expense, we know what works best for the best outcome.

10/01/2025

Join a progressive stable and benefit from precision training methods and programs designed to improve your horses performance. Don’t accept excuses to why your horses aren’t performing, to hot, too cold, tracks hard, heavy, needs a break, can only run fresh, jockey makes mistakes. The training programs are structured on your horses fitness as an individual. And set by professional world renowned racing industry specialists based on training data from 200 race horses over 20 years. Find out where your horses benchmark is compared to high performance horses, get an educated opinion. Give us a call to talk through the options and the process, (027) 441 6100
Looking for owners that want to see results and get a return on their investment.

02/01/2025

Don't Miss Neil's Discount Offer!

21/11/2024

A great safety bit of tack that could save a lot of injuries of horses and riders.

Helps Prevent Horse Bucking...Guaranteed!

27/03/2024

🐴 HOW SMART IS YOUR HORSE?
Horses are excellent problem solvers.
However, the problems they work on are often very different from the problems that the trainer has in mind.
A worried horse will try and keep as far away from the trainer as possible and will constantly reposition himself to keep away.
Horses are very good at moving away from anything that worries them and they concentrate totally on doing this whenever they’re worried.
Meanwhile, the trainer thinks that they’re teaching the horse to lead or getting him ‘used to’ a flapping flag.
So the ‘intelligent’ human concentrates on one thing, while the horse concentrates on something totally different.
And when the lessons don’t go to plan, the human says that the horse is ‘dumb’ and ‘slow to learn’.

Learn more here:👇
www.fearfreehorsetraining.com/how-smart-is-your-horse/

08/03/2024

THE BUCK STOPS HERE
A couple of friends of mine…
I’ll call them Chris and Macca – because these are their names, looked at a horse to buy the other day.
The mare was eight years old and hadn’t been ridden for two or three months.
Macca saddled the mare, hopped aboard and trotted around.
“Canter her so I can see how she moves”, said Chris.
When Macca gave the mare a kick, she snorted and down went her head.
She bucked hard to the left then propped to the right and Macca landed flat on his back.
The mare raced off down the paddock, bucking and snorting as she went.
Luckily, Macca wasn’t hurt and the mare turned before she hit the fence.
I think it was about this time that Chris decided he wouldn’t be buying her.
Think about this scenario the next time you see your favourite horse guru saddle a young horse for the first time and chase him around as he bucks.
Some of these gurus seem to take great pleasure when a young horse bucks.
Maybe they think it makes an entertaining show for their audience.
‘It don’t matter, he’ll soon get used to it,’ they say,
or ‘He’s got to work it out for himself,’
or, ‘He’ll learn that the saddle is nothing to worry about,’
or ‘Don’t worry, I’m desensitising him to the saddle and girth.’
Funny thing, after being saddled hundreds of times, the mare that Chris and Macca went to look at still hadn’t ‘worked it out for herself.’
At eight years old, she still wasn’t ‘used to the saddle’ and she still wasn’t ‘desensitised.’
Sadly, I’ve seen hundreds of horses like this poor mare.

Read more here:👇
www.fearfreehorsetraining.com/the-buck-stops-here/

14/02/2024

🐴 Too Much Feed and Not Enough Work
Many people don’t realise how much work a horse can do.
And many people don’t even know that they’re overfeeding their horse and not working him enough.
People think it’s kind to feed their horses buckets of grain and all sorts of special mixes, then they ride two or three times a week and wonder why they have problems.
When a horse has been overfed, it can take weeks of work to get the excess energy out of his system.
Some people think that horses can be calmed with drugs and ‘calming pastes’.
I certainly wouldn’t ride any horse that’s been drugged.
And I don’t think it’s fair to drug a horse just because you’re not prepared to put in the time and effort that’s needed to handle and ride him.
Instead of looking for some magic fix, how about feeding your horse appropriately and putting in the hours to train him correctly.
I see many horses that are given far too much feed and not enough work.
If you want to get the most from your horse, you must work with him at least five days a week.
Six days is better still.
Balancing the amount of feed and work that you give a horse plays a large part in every horse’s training.
Many people could save themselves a lot of heartache (and money) by feeding their horse less and working him more.

Learn more here:👇
www.fearfreehorsetraining.com/too-much-feed-and-not-enough-work/