Encyclopedia of the Horse

Előszó

For me, horses have been a lifelong fascination. I gave them up just once, when I was five years old. My father used to train Welsh Mountain ponies and he always needed a light jockey. I just got bucked off once too often. I came back after 18 months and have never stopped since. I have been lucky in that being able to ride has saved me from having to do any other kind of job. I was born the son of a greengrocer, but through horses, I have travelled the world and met so many wonderful people. However, my first press cutting was not encouraging, it was a picture of me aged nine at Henllys Show near Newport; the caption read: 'D. Broome sat back a bit on Ballanlad and caught the rebound, and unfortunately feli off on landing.' My father gave me a useful piece of advice which was 'never get mad with a horse, but if you are having a fight with a horse and you are about to give in, always stick it out for another five minutes and you will have a breakthrough' - the number of times I have had to go for hours in order to get to that last five minutes. It's a question of always remembering that a horse is a lot stronger than you, so you won't ever win with strength. You have got to use your brain to get inside a horse's head. A lot of people forget that the horse has a brain and that it is a question of working with him to build the kind of relationship where you can achieve things together. Being able to do this with an animal as big and as strong as a horse is a wonderful thing. The better trained the horse, the happier he usually is and the better chance you have of establishing a bond and the kind of relationship in which he is always trying to please you. Probably the best bond I ever had with a horse was with Sportsman. He was so intelligent. We just hit it off and he always understood exactly what I wanted. Horses have got so much to give us. It is a tribute to them above all that they are such forgiving, noble beasts. They react to the sound of your voice and can be led with a piece of string, and it is our duty that whatever we ask them to do, it has to be achieved with dignity. Vissza