James Moffat Racing Yard

Hello, readers!

It's been a long while since I last posted, for which I apologise. I've not been up to much in the past few months. In fact, it wasn't until August that I started riding regularly again. I do, however, have a couple of musical theatre trips that I plan to upload soon so keep an eye out for them! Better late than never, right? I've not yet decided whether I'll change the date of upload so that it better ties in with when the trips actually happened - I'll keep you posted!

Since my last post, I've started my second year of university. Honestly, I have no idea where the time has gone. Sometimes it feels like I could easily slip back into sixth form, and other times it feels like I've been up here at Myerscough for a long while. 

One of the horses (Smart Ruler if memory serves
me right) loving the attention!

One of my modules this semester is Equine Exercise Physiology, affectionately dubbed as Ex Phys to save breath. As part of this module, we went on a trip to Cartmel a couple of weeks ago, a beautiful little village which plays host to a race course as well as a few race yards. One of these is owned by James Moffat, who is one of the top National Hunt trainers in the country. To put it into context, one of his horses had a recent win at the Cheltenham Festival. 

I was a bit hesitant about what to expect. I don't exactly keep my distaste for racing a secret, and I wasn't sure about whether I would feel comfortable in a race yard environment. My fears were for nought, however, because I actually loved the yard. 

The atmosphere was so relaxed and the staff so friendly and close-knit that it was possible to just see how much the horses meant to everyone there. The grooms and riders are one in the same, so any problems with the horses are easily picked up. One anecdote James shared with us was about one of the girls on the yard. She could feel that one of the horse's (I think it was Iddder, but I could be wrong!) she rode wasn't feeling quite right. This carried on for a few weeks, and she was adamant that something was wrong. Three farrier checks later, a corn was found on the horse's hoof. As soon as it was treated, she noticed the improvement straight away. The best part? James was totally on board with what the stable lass was saying. The respect he has for the girls working on the yard is incredible, and it was easy to tell that it went both ways.

Another thing that I really loved about the yard was that the horses aren't hammered all the time. In fact, there's almost no gallop work done on the yard. The 'gallops' are actually only used for canter work, which helps reduce injury rates in the horses. This was an aspect that I really liked because Jimmy was so receptive to research and tweaking his management practices so that the horses welfare always came first. He even gave a couple a second chance at a career. One of the horses has a dropped pelvis, and another had gone down in worth by several thousands of pounds when he bought it because of a previous leg injury, corrected with surgery and the implementation of screws. He takes these horses in, and then gets them placing at races. They really respond to what he does, which is great. It's no wonder he's in the top 20 out of 600 trainers!

The track used at the yard

- it was hard work just

to walk on this so the horses

definitely get a work out!

James and his wife, Nadine, were brilliant hosts and they answered all the questions we threw at them from topics ranging to nutrition to jump training. It was so informative that I wouldn't be surprised if a better industrial relationship formed between Myerscough College and the racing yard. As it is, a former graduate works there and it doing well. If you want to check her out, just search the news for Charlotte Jones! Also keep an eye out for Polly Steele, who is working her way towards being a jockey as well.

Racing will never be my favourite sport, but with trainers like James I can make my peace with it, especially when the horse's welfare always comes first. Not only does he look after these horses during their careers, he keeps up to date with them when they retire from racing. The receptiveness to new research and the consideration for the ways in which to reduce injury was brilliant, and the complete lack of stereotypical behaviours was astounding. 

Many thanks go to James, Nadine and all the staff at the race yard who interacted with us and answered our questions. Best of luck for the future and good luck with the stable expansion!

P. S. For those interested and for a very limited time, there is a clip of Jimmy and his yard on BBC North West Inside Out, aired on the 23/10/2017. 

Until next time~