Wendy’s horses
Wendy spent 15 years training regularly with German Bereiter Edgar Lichtwark. ‘Training with Edgar meant the Training Scale was “in your bones” at a time when the six commandments of the Training Scale weren’t mentioned all that often by most people’.
‘We’re not in a position to import elite Dressage horses from Europe. Training young horses ourselves has worked out better for us than buying horses someone else has trained. We are happy that Wendy’s WA-bred horses have won and placed consistently at WA Dressage Festivals and Indoor and State Championships for the past twenty-five years,’ said John Barker.
Not every horse has the physical and mental ability to train to FEI, particularly Grand Prix. Fiorucci (Flex) and Karri Park Huntsman (Tris) were the first horses Wendy trained to FEI level. Both were very successful eventers, and Tris had fantastic trainability. We realised quite late in his career just how much Dressage talent Tris had – he loved doing two time and one time changes, and he even found piaffe and passage quite easy.
Aadagio (Abel) and Doric (Dan) went to Advanced, but found the step to FEI challenging. When we found Lorenzo, he was more complicated to train, but we have been very patient, and with Harry Boldt’s help, he now manages most of the really hard questions for FEI levels in training, and we hope he will become secure enough in his work to compete at Big Tour level.
‘I jump occasionally at home, but haven’t jumped competitively for a while now. Karri Park Huntsman was my best Eventer, he always gave me a brilliant ride, and unless I got lost out on course, he was consistently ‘in the money,’ as a Pre-Novice Eventer, and as a Graded Showjumper.
‘We get very attached to our horses, so it is not easy to make the decision to part with one. If we do sell a horse, the most important thing is that he goes to a place where he is safe and well cared for, of course it is wonderful if he can go to a rider who will continue to win rugs and rosettes, but that is never the first priority, it has to be to the right home,’ said Wendy.
‘We’re not in a position to import elite Dressage horses from Europe. Training young horses ourselves has worked out better for us than buying horses someone else has trained. We are happy that Wendy’s WA-bred horses have won and placed consistently at WA Dressage Festivals and Indoor and State Championships for the past twenty-five years,’ said John Barker.
Not every horse has the physical and mental ability to train to FEI, particularly Grand Prix. Fiorucci (Flex) and Karri Park Huntsman (Tris) were the first horses Wendy trained to FEI level. Both were very successful eventers, and Tris had fantastic trainability. We realised quite late in his career just how much Dressage talent Tris had – he loved doing two time and one time changes, and he even found piaffe and passage quite easy.
Aadagio (Abel) and Doric (Dan) went to Advanced, but found the step to FEI challenging. When we found Lorenzo, he was more complicated to train, but we have been very patient, and with Harry Boldt’s help, he now manages most of the really hard questions for FEI levels in training, and we hope he will become secure enough in his work to compete at Big Tour level.
‘I jump occasionally at home, but haven’t jumped competitively for a while now. Karri Park Huntsman was my best Eventer, he always gave me a brilliant ride, and unless I got lost out on course, he was consistently ‘in the money,’ as a Pre-Novice Eventer, and as a Graded Showjumper.
‘We get very attached to our horses, so it is not easy to make the decision to part with one. If we do sell a horse, the most important thing is that he goes to a place where he is safe and well cared for, of course it is wonderful if he can go to a rider who will continue to win rugs and rosettes, but that is never the first priority, it has to be to the right home,’ said Wendy.